In Finland, the weather hasn’t really been that great for the most of the year, but with incredible luck, the best weather so-far happened on our vacation week. So off to the summer cottage we went. And that means fresh ingredients from the nearby lake and forest.
We got super-lucky with chanterelles. There hasn’t really ever been those at the cottage area, but apparently that had changed. Right next to the place we were going to go pick raspberries there was a spot where it was hard to walk around without stepping on a mushroom.
With perch, we were not as blessed. Took us ages to get even a few fish caught, and out of the 8 we caught, only a couple were big enough to be considered food for humans, but that was more than enough for a nice small meal.
(Brainy of course was happy that she got herself a fresh fish meal straight from the lake as well.)
We decided to make something that would be simple, but still highlight the ingredients in a beautiful way.
Simple Chanterelle Stew, Pan-Seared Baby Vegetables, Pan-Fried Perch
Notes
If used as main course, add something like fried potato wedges to the mix
Ingredients
Simple chanterelle stew
- 100g chanterelles
- 1dl light cream (20%ish fat)
- 1-2 tbsp. butter (for the pan)
- salt
- pepper
Pan-seared baby vegetables
- 6-8 baby red onions
- 10-15 baby carrots
- 15-20 baby chanterelles
- 2 tbsp. butter (for the pan)
- 1 tsp. olive oil (for the pan)
- salt
Fried perch
- 8 small filets of perch (from fish no larger than 15cm when alive)
- 6 twigs of fresh thyme
- 2 tbsp. of butter (for the pan)
- salt
- white pepper
Instructions
Simple chanterelle stew
- Clean the chanterelles if they are freshly picked.
- Using a blender, mix cream and chanterelles until it's mostly mixed together. Some bigger bits of chanterelle are ok since it gives the end result some character and texture.
- Heat some butter on a frying pan.
- Add cream/chanterelle mixture to the pan.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Slowly stir the mixture while frying on a medium heat for 7-10 minutes.
- Remove pan from heat, but keep the stew in a warm place while finishing the other pieces. You know, put a lid on it or something like that. You know how these things work 😉
Pan-seared baby vegetables
- Wash and clean the vegetables. Including removing most of the stalk of the baby carrots and peeling the red onions.
- Heat up the butter and some olive oil in the frying pan.
- Add the baby red onions to the pan.
- Fry while gently stirring on medium-high heat for 2 minutes.
- Add baby carrots to the pan.
- Season to taste with salt.
- Sear for 2 more minutes (still on medium-high heat). This time don't touch anything. Put a lid on, let it just sit there for 2 minutes, getting a nice darkness for the carrots (and the red onions)
- Finally add the baby chanterelles to the pan.
- Stir gently on medium-high heat until the chanterelles start showing some colour (shouldn't be more than a minute or so)
- Remove the baby vegetables from the pan (you'll need the pan again in a second, with the flavours still there).
Pan-fried perch
- Lower the heat to medium at this point.
- Add the butter to the pan (there should be some left from frying the vegetables, let that stay there as well).
- While the butter is still melting, add two twigs of thyme and let the butter soak in the flavours.
- When the butter has fully melted, add the perch filets. If they were as small as ours, you shouldn't have problems fitting them all in one pan.
- Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
- Cook on one side until opaque, then flip filets. This shouldn't take long, as you're dealing with very small and deli-cat-e filets.
- Cook on the other side, checking constantly how it looks. When you start seeing some color, remove the fish from the pan.
Plating
- Stew on the bottom, fish on top.
- Chop a twig of thyme per serving, sprinkle on top and around.
- Add baby vegetables, make them look natural. Pose a couple of chanterelles on the stew, let the rest fall where they may.
- If you want, you can go all out and use the carrot tops to make the plate look a bit more green. They're deco, not really for the flavour in this one.
And here is Brainy, enjoying the summer cottage.
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