Chanterelles and Summer Potatoes

A summer day turnes out to be perfect when I track down baby chanterelles to pair with the delicate, thin-skinned potatoes. It does not get simpler than this. Pure, raw love that emanates Finnish summer, decorated with homegrown arugula, lovage, and some onions from the back of the vegetable garden.

Ingredients

• summer potatoes (Arielle)
• chanterelles
• salads
• arugula
• green beans
• lovage
• oregano
• arugula and wild arugula flowers
• onion
• salt & pepper
• vegan butter

The Finnish summer

The relationship with weather is an aspect of being Finnish that is the hardest to explain. It is like playing the lottery where every single person wins, at least a few times a year. When the sun appears, that is. There is a certain irony to that.

This summer started here with a bang, and we were swimming in a lovely heatwave, that most of us knew would end abruptly and be replaced with a different kind of climes. Where this nation of ours is accustomed weather that will strip the most positive person out of ideas to keep the melancholy from sneaking into your pants, we love our summers warm. Picturesque and full of magical light.

But as you can tell from these pictures, occasionally that fair-weather gets to move out of the way, and that is when I like to play.

Summer also equals mosquitoes, skinny dipping, sauna, and barbeque. So many beautiful things that make this season our favorite. For me, summer means pleasure, fresh food, and the contrast of highlights and shadows.

The season shows off with the extraordinary play of the nature unfolding its profusion of edible plants, roots, and vegetables is mind-boggling each and every time. And of course the aftermath of sun-kissed faces; the freckles.

The most incredible, and very traditional Finnish ingredient is, can I get the fanfare, the potato. The baby potatoes with a skin so thin that you can barely see it. The texture is soft and hearty and the flavor; to be honest, it tastes like home to me, and only the soil of motherland can foster something so perfectly decadent and clean. Simplify. Yeah, that’s it! The core of my summer philosophy.

Get your hands dirty

Who wants to go get some potatoes? I am always up for the task! It is fun every single time. Like I didn’t know what to expect yet the ultimate satisfaction is guaranteed, with food like this I’m always winning!

Look at these! I washed most of the soil off before bringing them inside. It is also a habit, in away. To rumble them in a basin so that some of the skin comes off too. My Grandpa used to do that when I was a curious toddler rocking a platinum white bob, and the sound reminds me of good times with the family.

There is such an emotional charge in our food-related memories; the relationship with our eating habits is, therefore, rather complicated; their roots run deep. I am grateful for so many hands-on experiences, and a healthy relationship with the source of food I eat, nature. I am on a journey to dig deeper than remember my connection to Mother Earths’ brilliance and my food philosophy.

It’s uncanny how growing our own food makes us connect with eating and energy in a different way!There sure is truth to the saying you are what you eat, there are no mixed messages, confusion or processing present.

This is how it feels to be alive, soaking wet from the summer rain that made the crop grow! We get to enjoy one more round of potatoes before our departure. Little joys. Big on impact.

Take it all in

Wash the potatoes thoroughly, preferably in the pouring rain because that is the way to get the kicks out of the Finnish summer harvesting when You decide to cook, you cook. There’s no way around it! That’s a rule of thumb.

No weather or other circumstances will stand in the way of real food vision coming together. Luckily my darling Boyfriend, who is the wind in my sails when I am in a calm, supported me with the shoot. An authentic story always belongs.

Now is the perfect time

I sometimes wonder if life can ever get better than this. Spontaneity and thrill, the devotion and love towards cooking and blogging about plant food, what I am doing bring me so much joy. The closer I get to the produce and the source, the better I understand how big of a difference it makes. No additives, just purity. No violence or harming anyone; only the change of getting wet in the rain is present. And a perfect meal. This way of life is close to my heart, and therefore I am sharing it with you.

Proud as one can be. Soon, the water will be bubbling on the wood-burning stove, and we are sharing yet another meal. Togetherness is one aspect of what food is all about; Genuity and the connection—feeling the soil, the same land that you sank your hands in when planting the harvest. Thanks, Mom, for teaching this form of art, working with nature,to me.

The first Chanterelles of the season

Take a look at these astounding fellows. I sometimes wonder how come these orangy-yellowish delicacies are that easy to spot in the green environment. It’s one of those ”too good to be true” situations as many delicious mushrooms are harder to find than the poisonous, bright colored ones, like Fly Agarita mushroom.

I take it that Mother Nature wants us to have some edible gold easy, at least that is how I felt when I laid my eyes on these chanterelles. The first ones I brought home. The long wait for the season ads a spin to a dish, the rarity of the event. Soft and buttery, one of the easiest to like.

Return to simplicity -food

This meal is the definition of simplicity. I sauteed the chanterelles in vegetable oil with some sweated cubed yellow onion. Added a dash of salt to tease the soft yet potent buttery flavor out of the mushrooms to flirt with the perfectly cooked potatoes.

Moms’ amazing green beans compliment the dish. The green beans were prepared with a gentle blanch that will retain the pleasurable crunch, color, and nutritional profile of the legume. 

I chose to serve homegrown herbs and salad with the dish; wild arugula and these beautiful flowers the plating is ready. Use salt boldly as it is the key to the balance in the flavor profile built on soft and delicate produce.

The proof is in the potatoes

I used Arielle potatoes that are firm and delicious. I harvested these traditional favorites early on, so the skin on them was super thin, almost nonexistent.

It is fun to dig up the potatoes, it is like the mushroom “hunt,” you never know how many and what sized potatoes you’ll gather from that round. It’s like a suspense thriller.

We had dogs that used to love digging for the root vegetables on command. Max and Morris, we will never forget your enthusiasm just to let you know, they loved all this stuff as much as we did, they went all in, and the potatoes would fly from between their back legs as the little paws kept on digging tirelessly.

Those two cracked us up. I adore animals, that is why I am vegan. One of the aspects of it, anyhow.

Stay kind stay connected and most importantly, eat well!

 

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