AUTUMN TREASURES

It's harvest time. Mushrooms, lingonberries, plums, crayfish, apples, beetroots, sunflowers... You name it, nature is just waiting for you to pick them up.

This year has been an amazing "mushroom year". Traditionally July is sunny and dry, but, this year, well, just the opposite. Pity for the holiday season, but good for the mushroom lovers.

THE MATSUTAKE FAMILY TRAVELLED 13 HOURS ACROSS THE WHOLE FINLAND. 

My dear friend was having her holidays in the Northern Finland, village called Inari. And she brought  along a special treat; MATSUTAKE mushrooms! (Männyn tuoksuvalmuska in Finnish). Chanterelles and Trumpet mushrooms are the more common delicacy, but Matsutake is a rare find.

The Matsutake-family travelled 13 hours on road, so, for the starters I took them out for a visit to the near by forest. To catch some fresh air... Then I made a pizza.

MATSUTAKE-PIZZA; FROM FOREST, WITH LOVE.

The unique scent of an Matsutake is at the same time spicy and nutty, pine resin- like. With a hint of a wet wool, but in a good way. It's hard to explain. The texture is more like a root vegetable than a regular mushroom. And the taste does need much salt at all, it's pure umami. Isn't nature just amazing?!

I cooked Japanese style Matsutake rice with combu dashi (seaweed stock), tamarin soya, sake, mirin, and nori powder.

Matsutake onigiri, the triangle shaped rice treat, matches quite well with another delicacy, which is  now on season, too. It's again the time of the year when Finns sing and dance, and celebrate crayfish parties. White nights have turned into dark evenings and candlelight dinners. Mother nature is in charge of planning the MENÙ.

CRAYFISH IS IN SEASON, TOO.