Don't abandon me, reader. I'm working on great, exciting projects for this blog. But in the meantime, I'm swamped with more pressing things, like, say, real work.Here's the most exciting meal I made this week: stuffed mushrooms and a nice, stiff cocktail. Buy some big white mushrooms, remove the stems, and saute the caps in olive oil for 8 to 10 minutes until they've started to release liquid. Make the stuffing--do something easy like feta, ricotta or farmer's cheese mixed with some chopped tomatoes and basil.
Preheat the oven to 425. Place the mushroom caps in a foil-lined pan. Salt the mushrooms and fill each one with a tablespoon of stuffing. Bake under the broiler for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is hot and golden brown. Wash down with a sugared-lemon vodka cranberry.
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8 comments:
Hey, sounds yummy, and simple. My favorite combination. :-D
I'm in a little cooking slump as well ... need to work some variety in. You know it's bad when your boyfriend says, "Oh...you're making soup AGAIN?" Especially since he's a Russian guy, it must REALLY be too much soup. We need to think of some other things to eat around here.
Well, we've had over a foot of snow fall today and more on the way. Snowflakes the size of cornflakes are falling! This means plenty of wild mushrooms in summer! This recipe will be good to try with some fresh ones.
Kevan
Rozmin--I miss soup! I haven't had much time to cook it lately.
Kevan-The forecast promises 55+ degrees tomorrow! I actually bought these mushrooms in Chicago. I haven't seen good mushrooms for stuffing around here. We're mushroom deprived.
Yulinka, I seem to recall that your region is actually some prime Morel hunting territory. Problem is, no one shares their favorite spots.
A hint. A food dehydrator is a very good investment. The very best is the Nesco American Harvest. It's only around $40 to $50 and you can buy extra racks for it to increase capacity. Not only is this good for wild mushroom preserving, but allows you to take advantage of sales on mushrooms at the store. A secret is that dehydrating store mushrooms actually deepens their flavor. And the longer they sit in the jar, the more their flavor intesnifies. This isn't true of the white button mushrooms; what can be said of them? They're bland and dehydrating won't fix that. But the portobellos, criminis (which are just young portobellos) and the correctly named Baby Portobellos are the ones you want to dehydrate. Their flavor will richen when dehydrated and the flavor will continue to get richer as they age in a jar. Dehydrating also allows you to take advantage of sales where the price is great. We found Baby Portobellos on sale for .50 cents a package. We bought all they had, took them home, and dehydrated them. The flavor was wonderful after a month in the jar! And they were always there to be ready when needed.
Kevan
New project? Can't wait to see it. :)
I just found your blog. The food looks wonderfully delicious.
Maybe I will actually learn to cook one day and prepare these great food items.
Melissa
Kevan-I've seen morels on sale here, but they're so expensive. I've heard of people going mushroom hunting here, though. Thanks for dehydrating tips.
Adele-Maybe "projects" is too ambitious. Maybe new, more interesting posts is closer.
Melissa-Thanks!
Looks great! Speaking of mushrooms,
I remember you mentioning somewhere in another post that you'd looked far and wide for a really authentic recipe for Russian marinated mushrooms. I can't find the post now, but...
I made the marinated mushrooms in Anne Volokh's book "The Art of Russian Cooking" and they were fabulous. You might check that out.
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