The autumn feeling is slowly taking over from summer here up north, and that means time for the edible gold of the woods: chanterelles!

I do remember seeing them now and then in the shops in Belgium, but since I absolutely disliked mushrooms, I didn’t try them until a friend taught me how to look for them. Suddenly, it all got more fun and interesting, and of course, I wanted to try what I had spent hours looking for in the woods :-).

The first and probably the easiest recipe that I tried was baking them with butter to put on toast. The trick for me to really enjoy their delicious taste is to bake them real good because my issue with mushrooms has never really been the taste but mostly their funny texture.

With the help of Joeri, it was time to try something new and we chose a traditional Swedish dish – the Västerbottensostpaj ( quiche with cheese from Västerbotten) as a base.

Västerbotten is a Swedish province in the north (Norrland) famous for a local cheese- also called Västerbottensost (ost=cheese) which is only produced in Burträsk. It is a light yellow, and firm cow cheese with a rather strong and salty flavor that has aged at least for 12 months. Joeri wasn’t a big fan on his first try, but I had a bite on toast with a bit of butter and I think that some supporting textures and flavors work better.

Most recipes for the pie are obviously all about the cheese, but we thought it would be a great match with fresh mushrooms and broccoli. Next time, I would even add some tomatoes or roasted bell peppers for a juicy touch.

Ingredient for the pie:

Dough:
125g butter
3dl flour
1 Tbsp water

Filling:
150gr grated Västerbottenost cheese
3 eggs
1dl cream (we used Oatly)
A hand full of Chanterelle mushrooms
1 medium red onion
150gr of broccoli
Black pepper, salt, and nutmeg, curry

Step by step:

Mix the butter and flour until a dough forms. Take your pie plate (20-24cm) and press the dough from the middle out until the inside of the form is fully covered. Use a fork to gently prick holes in the bottom. Let this rest in the fridge for about 2 hours or 10min in the freezer. Preheat your oven to 200 C.

Once the dough has rested, bake the crust blind in the oven for 10-15min. This will avoid a soggy crust when you add the filling.

While baking the crust bake your finely cut onion, broccoli, and chanterelle mushrooms in some butter- and enjoy the delicious scent of baked chanterelles! We baked the mushrooms and the vegetables separately to be sure that the mushrooms were just how we like them. Add pepper, salt, and a touch of curry. Grate the cheese.

Whisk the eggs with cream until smooth, add nutmeg and pepper- since the cheese is rather salt, you might not need to add extra salt here. Combine the veggies, cheese, and eggs and pour onto the crust. Bake the pie for 20-30 mins until the eggs have solidified.

Smaklig måltid!