Mushrooms are great, aren’t they?  They’re good in salads, on sandwiches, in soups, and casseroles.  They’re good hot or cold, raw or cooked, pretty much any way you want to use them.  This recipe, though, is perhaps my favorite way to prepare them.  Its a quick and easy recipe, but it never fails to impress.  Whip a batch of these out as an appetizer next time you have guests for dinner and watch them fly off the plate.

Ingredients:

baby portabella mushrooms
goat cheese, 1/2 T per mushroom
basil, chiffonade
olive oil, 1/2 T per mushroom
garlic, 1 clove per 2 mushrooms, minced
salt, 1/2 t per 4 mushrooms
pepper, 1/2 t per 4 mushrooms

Method:

For this recipe you want to choose small mushrooms to work with.  Try to keep the diameter of the cap right around an inch.  If you go too much larger, they start venturing out of finger food land.  Also, you dont want to end up adding so much goat cheese that it overpowers the mushroom.  Once you choose your mushrooms, gently remove the stem, leaving the cap in tact and looking like a small bowl.  Wash the caps by rubbing them with a damp paper towel.  Don’t put them under running water to clean them.  Soggy mushrooms will result in a mushy mess here.

Set the stemmed and cleaned mushrooms aside and find yourself small mixing bowl.  Add the goat cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper to the bowl and whip together with a fork.  This whipping should both mix the ingredients together and add some air which will make the cheese much easier to manipulate.  Once its all mixed, we’re ready to start stuffing.

The stuffing process is pretty straight forward.  Start by lightly coating each mushroom wit the olive oil.  I find the easiest way to do this is to pour the oil directly into the palm of my hand put a few mushrooms in that same hand and move them around a bit until the are evenly coated.  You just want a light sheen here, not to much oil.   Once that’s done, use a fork to scopp up the cheese mixture from the bowl and fill each mushroom.  Arrange the stuffed caps on a non-stick cookie sheet (I use one of those silicon mats), ad a touch more fresh cracked on top, and place under the broiler for 3-4 minutes, or until the cheese just starts to brown on top.  Remove from the broiler and sprinkle some basil on top of each one.  Its important to let these cool after removing from the broiler as the melted cheese inside is approximately the temperature of the sun.  3 minutes or so and you should be safe.  I like them best when they are warm, but they are still tasty even at room temperature.

Enjoy,
-E

Tags: Appetizers, Goat Cheese, Mushroom, Vegetarian

If you have an addictive personality, avoid this recipe.
Seriously, its the culinary equivalent of crack.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb pork sausage
1/4 lb ham
1/4 lb bacon
5 cans great northern beans
4 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 med. white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T butter
3 1/2 C chicken stock
salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Start by melting the butter in a 4 quart pot over medium heat.  Once it starts to brown a bit, add the garlic, onion, and bacon.  Cook until the onions start to become translucent, then add the carrots, celery and the sausage.  Mix everything up and put the lid on.  Grab your food processor and put 2 cans of the beans, drained and rinsed, in it.  Set on puree and whirl till – you guessed it – pureed.  Add the machined beans to the pot and mix them in with their new friends. Put the lid back on for a few minutes to let everything get hot.  Next, add the rest of the beans, the ham, and the stock to the pot and replace the lid.  Cook for another 20 minutes on med-high heat.  Check it often, stir each time you check.  Taste it as you go, you’ll probably find that it wont need much seasoning.  If you want to add anything, try some cumin, coriander, and sage.  All three add an earthy tone that works well with the pork.  In the pic above, I topped mine off with a bit of Sriracha.  Makes a ton, so be prepared to take some to work the next day (or 5).

ejnoy,
-E

Tags: bacon, beans, Pork, sausage, Soup