Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Make Room for Mushrooms

Mushrooms. Mush....roooooms. In a food lover's world, the mentioning of such a word can leave much to be desired. For starters - what a funny little word indeed. For ESL learners, the mushroom must be one of those laugh-out-loud kind of words, like the way we as young school children giggled uncontrollably at the mentioning of pamplemousse.

The reason for this post is to confess that I've been eating the same thing three nights in a row for dinner. To all my friends and family who love and value food, and especially the differentiation of meals, yes, I have sinned. A block of goat's cheese, a good hunk of feta, a generous handful of romano, one beautiful orange bell pepper, a few stocks of green onion, and a dash of paprika, salt, and pepper have disappeared from my fridge and pantry. Oh - and yes, two packages of simple button mushrooms.

Don't worry - I'm not turning into a mushroom top (although I might start to resemble the urban dictionary's definition of the word if I keep eating the creamy, cheesy center of these succulent delights for another three nights). Nothing will happen to me if I overdose on this type of shroom, I just might turn down dinner plans out on the town Saturday night, because I know I can cook better chez nous.

It started off with Janet's recipe of stuffed mushroom caps being a great side dish to my soya-ginger tuna steak and spinach leaf salad for dinner two nights ago. I had filling left over Wednesday evening, so in-the-oven went the remainder of the mushrooms to compliment a tandoori chicken breast I bought down the street at La Maison Du Roti. But tonight, I won't lie to you - I just plum ate them for dinner. With a glass of red.

Although there is some prep work involved, these mini delights will truly leave you smacking your lips together for more. I used goat cheese as one of my main cheeses, which was a little tart, but I'll give you the original Jan recipe(credit given where credit is due) for your next dinner party.

1 package of creme cheese (you might get away with low-fat, but the very idea of low-fat cheese in my mind is an oxymoron)
1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese (the age doesn't matter, but it becomes increasingly harder to grate the older it gets, and increasingly tastier as the years go on. Be it as you will)
1/2 cup of fresh parmesan
1/2 cup of green onion
1 brightly coloured bell pepper, chopped finely
paprika, fresh ground pepper and salt, to taste.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare mushrooms by washing them thoroughly and gently twisting out each stem. You can keep the leftover stems for the next time you make a vegetarian stock. Mix cheeses together in a bowl, then add all other ingredients. Arrange mushrooms on a cookie sheet or suitable pan. Stuff each mushroom until it is overflowing with mixture. Place in oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until liquid from mushrooms has oozed out into the bottom of the pan. Cool for 5 minutes and serve.