Courgette pies

 Courgettes are great but when you are starting to drown into them the situation becomes desperate. There is a fine line between having enough of them and having way too much of them. Currently we are dealing with the last option so I needed to dig up my old and trustworthy courgette recipe I came up with several years ago during a really courgette filled summer.

I usually make 12 small ones and one larger one (appr. 20cm / 8 inch)

My children simply love this pie and they are not big fans of courgettes so it's good that there is at least one (real food, chocolate cakes are not counted as real food even though chocolate is almost like real food but don't let my children know what I just said...) recipe that they think is actually delicious. I am happy about that too!

I guess I need to prepare this recipe a few times more this year before we run out of all the courgettes in the vegetable garden. But it is just good that you get food from your own garden. Cheaper and healthier. :)


Filling:
1 kg (2.205 lb) courgettes
500 grams (1.102 lb)  red bell peppers
130 grams (4.586 oz) leeks
appr. 3 tbsp dried dill (fresh goes well too)
3 eggs
black pepper
salt
appr. 200 grams (7.055 oz) feta cheese

Goat cheese (or some other cheese) for grating on the top of the pie.

The crust:
460 grams (1.014 lb) barley flour
200  grams (7.055 oz) water
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil


1. Mix the barley flour, cold water and salt. Mix well. Add the oil. Add as much as you need to get all the still dry flours into the mix. If it gets too wet add a bit more flour. This dough is usually always made by how it feels and looks like. The measurements are not exact - especially the water.

2. Wash, trim and chop the courgettes. Put them on the hot pan with olive oil. Season with salt, peppers and dill. Let them simmer there until they become quite soft and they change color. Don't let them burn though.

3. Wash, trip and chop the bell peppers and leeks.

4. Mix the courgettes, bell peppers and leaks in a bowl. Add black pepper and salt. Add the crumbled feta cheese.

5. Butter the muffin holes/pie pan and spread the dough quite thinly onto the *muffin pan* / pie pan by using your hands. This dough is pretty difficult to roll but if you want to you can put it between two baking sheets and roll. I just find it easier to do with my hands. Once the dough is ready spread the filling on  and grade some goat cheese on the top.

6. Bake in 200 °C (400 °F) for about 25 minutes when using muffin tray and about 45 if making a bigger pie.

I usually use onions and not leeks but I had leeks and needed to use them. If you want you can substitute the leeks with onions - just add a bit more of those and fry them with courgettes until they are transparent. Onions make a filling a bit more sweeter.

Kale Pie with Feta Cheese

Kale is great! Sad thing is that I just recently really discovered it. How many years I have wasted for not eating this treat! Kale is similar to spinach in many ways. The taste is rather similar and so is the use. Kale is very rich in vitamins and iron too so it's also really good for you!

I actually planned that next summer I really need to plant lots of kale. This pie alone is so delicious that I simply cannot let my garden be without this green treat from heaven!

Growing your own food is much fun in many different ways. You get to spent lots of hours in the fresh air, you save money when you don't need to buy so much food and probably the best thing is that once you grow your own veggies you really know what you are eating! My choice is organic.

This pie is similar to the spinach pie I make. And if you don't have access to kale you can easily substitute it with spinach.

This time I made the crust with using all purpose flour only as little as possible and used mostly whole grain spelt flour. It was good but a little heavier crust.


600 grams (1.323 lb) kale
2 large onions
5-6 eggs 
3-4 garlic gloves
400 grams (14.110 oz) milk
150-200 grams (5.291 - 7.055 oz) feta cheese
60 grams (2.116 oz) almonds
salt
black pepper

THE PIE CRUST: (appr. 40cm x 40 cm / 15,7 inch x 15.7 inch pan)

490 grams (1.080 lb) all purpose flour (or a mix of different flours) 
250 grams (8.819 oz)  butter
1 tsp salt
little water if needed

1. Chop the kale and onions. Fry them gently on a pan so that they soften. After they have cooled a little mix them with the milk eggs, finely chopped garlic, salt and spices. If you want you can use hand held food processor to get really fine mix  or if you prefer the bite size pieces of kale don't use it. Either way it's good.

2. Spread either ready made dough or home made on a baking pan. Pour the kale mix on the top, sprinkle chopped almonds (with or without the skins)  on top and feta pieces as well.

3. Bake in 200 °C (400 °F) for about 25-30 minutes.

Less salt is good but in this case remember to use enough salt since this much greens won't taste so good if you don't. :) And like always: remember to enjoy! :)

Swede Sourdough Bread

Swedes are terrible to dry. I mean the smell that fills the house is simply ghastly. But I have dried vegetables in every autumn and I guess this year is no exception. Must admit though that I am seriously thinking about quitting swede drying. Beetroots, carrot, onions and numerous wild vegetables are totally different thing.

Most people say that you must dry your wild veggies before midsummer. I think that is sort of short sighted. It can't be that the wild vegetables would be totally useless after that day. Bigger plants don't usually taste that nice but even in late summer there are still small plants too. And you can always cut down the plants and they will grow back in a week or two and you'll get small ones again! That's how I do it anyway and so far I have dried a big jar of nettles so during the winter we will have nettle bread and get all that green in a good use! Nettles are great in dough, soups, pancakes, pies...almost every where! And bigger wild veggies can be easily used once dried and grounded into a green powder, they are nor bad at all once used like that.

Today I made swede sourdough bread - just because I still have dried grated swedes in my pantry and no one wants to use them. But I can't throw them away. I simply hate throwing away food so I needed to use it some where. Breads and buns are usually always a solution for that and  root vegetables are very commonly used in Finnish baking. So here comes my altered sourdough recipe for swedes! And surprisingly enough it tasted well, really well actually! But be aware that the swedes give taste quite easily. The amount I used is not huge but it gave enough taste for the bread. Of course if you are mad about swedes you can put a lot more!

300 grams (10.6 oz) sourdough starter (I have starter with rye flour)

600 g (1.323 lb) lukewarm water

900-1000 grams (1.984 - 2.205 lb) all purpose flour

3 tsp salt

appr. 20 grams  (0.7055 oz) dried, grated swedes 

some olive oil ( I never measure this)

Mix the ingredients except the oil. Knead the dough for a while and then add the oil. Knead some more and let the dough rest about 15-30 minutes and then knead again. Shape into bread and let it leaven about 6 hours under a baking towel. Bake in the 200 °C (400°F) for about an hour or so.

Beetroot Sourdough Bread

I still have dried beetroot in the pantry. Now I really have to use them quite fast since new harvest is on the way. I think I also need to check do I still have dried courgettes and carrots too. Those can be easily used in breads.

Yesterday I decided to use some of it in the bread I was making. It turned out really good. The children said it was the best bread ever. I was supposed to grind it into a powder but the pieces were so hard that my little machine could not handle it so I decided to mix some powdered beetroot and beetroot pieces which got soft after I soaked them for awhile. The end result was really good. I used about 50 grams into the bread in the picture. made the second one with about 100 grams and I think that was better one even though the smaller amount of beetroot was quite nice too. I guess it depends do you want lots of beetroot or little less. The beetroot also creates a little reddish color. It was quite pretty that way.

I like using vegetables in breads since that way you eat more veggies and don't even notice it. They also make a great difference in the dough. I highly recommend using them.

300 grams (10.582 oz) sourdough starter (I have starter with rye flour)
600 g ( 1.323 lb) lukewarm water
900-1000 grams (1.984 - 2.205 lb) all purpose flour
3 tsp salt
50-100 grams ( 1.764 - 3.527 oz) dried beetroot (you can use small pieces or grounded)
some olive oil ( I never measure this)

The Taika mug by Iittala

Mix the sourdough, water, and salt. Mix well and add the flour. Mix and add the oil. Knead for a while, lett the dough rest for about 30 minutes and then knead some more to get that viscosity. Once the dough feels right shape the dough into a bread and tuck it in to sleep on a papered baking tray for about 6-8 hours. Bake in the 200 °C (400°F) for about an hour or so.

Beetroot gave a nice taste for the bread. It is probably one of the best root vegetables to be used in dough.

Sourdough Carrot Buns

It really is hot in Finland. The heat wave has been upon us for some time now and my family thinks it could already go away. Warm is nice but hot is not.  Makes me wish winter would already be here. But that's how it is. You are never happy with what you have and you always think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Well, since it is so hot baking is pure pain when the oven spreads more warm air around the house. So, now I bake only what we really need and that is the daily bread. And today is time to make some delicious carrot buns by using the sourdough starter - which is probably the only one who loves the warm climate we now have. It's constantly hungry and demanding more food. Seems that our sweet little pet has turned into a monster! :D


300 g (10.582 oz) sourdough starter (I have starter with rye flour)
appr. 300 grams (10.582 oz) grated carrots
600 g ( 1.323 lb) lukewarm water
appr. 1000-1200 grams (2.205 - 2.646 lb) all purpose flour
3 tsp salt
3 tbsp honey
some olive oil ( I never measure this)

1. Peel and grade the carrots.
2. Mix the sourdough starter, lukewarm water, graded carrots and salt.
3. Add the flour. Mix and knead. Add more flour if needed. Add the oil.
4. Let the dough rest about 15-30 minutes.
5. Knead some more and make about 25 buns.
6. Leaven them on the papered baking tray for about 4 hours or so.

7. Bake in the 225°C (450°F) for about 20 minutes.

These were quite nice but I think I want more carrot in them so next time I am going to add more of it. This is similar amount of carrot I have seen in a bread that was sold at the stores a couple of years ago. But now that I think of it, it was nice bread and I liked it but I remember complaining then too that it had too little carrot in it. So maybe tomorrow our buns will have double amount of carrot. But to you all who don't wish to eat bread with that much carrot, this amount I used today will probably be just perfect.

Sourdough Courgette Buns

The last couple of days have been very interesting ones. We had a thunder storm during which we lost one of our pine trees and today another one needed to be cut down since it wouldn't have lasted the next storm. It was a close call that the tree did not fell on our house. Today I managed to somehow bake some buns between the normal chores and the tree disaster.

Today's buns are delicious. I decided to add about 4 cups of courgettes in it since well I have lots of courgettes and I hate throwing food away so if we are not going to eat them in salads or dishes we need to use them on baking! So that's why I ended up making these today.

Buns are usually always a bit more tastier than bread. There is more of that delicious crust and somehow it seems to taste sweeter on buns. And it's also nice to have that nice size little bun in your hand. And it's all yours to enjoy!

After working outside it's nice to have fresh buns straight from the oven. Butter them, let it melt on the bun and eat. After all the wood chopping and carrying these buns disappeared in no time!

300 g (10.582 oz) sourdough starter (I have starter with rye flour)
appr. 1 liter (appr. 4-5 cups) graded courgettes 600 g (1.323 lb) lukewarm water

1000-1200 grams (2.205 - 2.646 lb) all purpose flour2-3 tsp salt
some olive oil ( I never measure this)

1. Grade the courgettes and salt them lightly in a bowl. Wait about 30 minutes and remove the liquid from the courgettes but don't throw it away. Substitute part of the water with it.
2. Mix the sourdough starter, lukewarm water,  graded courgettes and salt.
3. Add the flour. Mix and knead. Add more flour if needed. Add the oil.
4. Let the dough rest about 15-30 minutes.
5. Knead some more and make about 25 buns.
6. Leaven them on the papered baking tray for about 4 hours or so.
7. Bake in the 225°C (450°F) for about 20 minutes.