Mushroom Stuffed Mushrooms

There are few meals on earth as complicated as the Passover Seder meal, and here's why.

1. It's a meal that must be fancy enough to meet the holiday occasion, and you serve it to probably a dozen to thirty people, depending on the size of your family and how popular you are. Also, depending on how good last year's was.
2. You can't use any leavening, and you can only use meat OR dairy.
3. You must include the ceremonial elements- charoseth, hard boiled eggs, matzo ball soup, etc. Which means that you have a limited amount of time and energy for making the food that actually constitutes the meal.
4. In the food that you're preparing, you must try to stick to the Passover theme, which means there should be plenty of parsley, wine, and the other assorted foods that go on a seder table.
5. You will have to prepare the whole thing in advance, if possible, because there will be one to three hours of seder to sit through before dinner is served, and you will be at the seder table. NOT cooking.
6. You will be drunk when it is time to serve the meal. You will have been too busy cooking all day to remember to eat much, and the seder will dictate that you drink three glasses of wine. Don't even think about wearing high heels.

So, what do you do when you have to provide a bunch of hungry, drunken, celebrating people with a spectacular meal? You make these mushrooms.

The spectacular thing about these mushrooms is they can be made hours, even days, in advance. The only thing you have to do before serving them? Set them under the broiler. And then, like magic, they become hot and juicy and gooey and crunchy. Yes, all of the above.

This means they're also great for when you're not serving them at a Passover Seder. You can make them in parts- the portobellos in the morning, the stuffing in the afternoon while the kids watch TV, and then toss the rest together come dinner time and BAM! Add a salad, and dinner is made.

Two mushrooms make an entree. One is a super impressive side dish. It's pretty spectacular.

For the we had these mushrooms, a slow-cooker recipe for gigantes, a salad, and a matzo spanikopita. You know, with matzo ball soup, charoseth, horseradish, matzo, hard boiled eggs, relish dishes, eight bottles of wine, pecan torte, chocolates, candies, macaroons...

You get the idea.

So here you are: Mushroom Stuffed Mushrooms. Bon apetit!

Ingredients:

3+ tbs olive oil, separated

8 portobello mushroom caps- as big as your hand if you can get them (That's hand WITH fingers, not just your palm), stems reserved and chopped

1/3 c grated parmesan cheese

1/2 c chopped fresh parsley

1/3 c chopped fresh chives

1/4 c matzo meal (if it's not Passover, go ahead and use bread crumbs or crumbled crackers)

4 shallots, finely chopped

12 oz  cremini or baby bella mushrooms, sliced

6 oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1/2 c Pinot Grigio

1/2 c heavy cream

salt and white pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a jelly roll pan with olive oil, and arrange the portobello caps gill side down. Bake for 30-35 minutes, then set aside to cool.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet until very hot, and then add the shallots. After about four minutes, add the portobello stems. Then the shiitake. Give it another few minutes, and add the creminis. Stir vaguely for about ten minutes, and then add the wine. Continue to absently shuffle the mushrooms from one side of the pan to the other while you drink another 1/4 c of wine or so, say ten minutes. Stir in heavy cream and half the herbs, and continue to stir with minimal attention until the liquid is almost entirely evaporated. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the parmesan, the rest of the fresh herbs, the matzo meal/crumbs, and 1 tbs olive oil. Set aside.

When you're ready to combine and serve the mushrooms, start with a fresh baking sheet. Place the portobellos gill side UP on the new, ungreased sheet. Divide the mushroom mixture onto the portobellos. Now divide the crumbly mixture onto the mushroomy mushrooms. 

Set the broiler on high, and broil those suckers for 3 minutes, until the tops start to turn a gorgeous brown.

Serve immediately, and resume your drunken revelry.

Bummed that I didn't post this until a month after Passover? Fear not! Today is Shavuot- and traditional foods for Shavuot include... cheese! So just double the parmesan, and there you have it. And excuse to pop open another bottle of Pinot. Enjoy!

Almond Gouda Salad with Lemon Poppy Vinaigrette

My husband, the meat-and-potatoes guy, lived on a very limited diet before we started dating.  He had a bowl of mini-wheats for breakfast, a turkey sandwich and an apple or a few carrots for lunch, and can of soup for dinner.  He was not exactly a fan of the amazing concoction that is SALAD.  I'm happy to say we've managed to change a lot of his eating habits, perhaps the most dramatic of which is his love of a good salad.  Some seem to think that a salad is nothing more than lettuce and dressing with a few croutons dropped on top.  I say, let your freak salad flag fly!  Why not load up your salad with every delicious thing you can?  And for that matter, your salad dressing too!

This is a recipe that I came up with when confronted with a nearly empty bag of almonds and a small piece of aged Gouda in my cheese drawer.

Almond Gouda Salad

• 1 head red leaf lettuce
• 2 oz aged Gouda, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1 small yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1/2 c almonds
• 1 tomato, cut into thin wedges
• 1 c mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

Place your almonds on a tray in your toaster oven and toast for about two minutes.  Chop them roughly.

Rinse your lettuce thoroughly, and shred it into a bowl.  The goal with your lettuce should be that you can easily fit the pieces into your mouth.  I recommend shredding over chopping because torn edges take longer to wilt and brown, meaning that you'll have better leftovers.

Add all your other ingredients into the salad, and dress with...

Lemon Poppy Vinaigrette

• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 c balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• 1.5 Tbs lemon curd
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix the poppy seeds into the vinegar, and allow to sit for about five minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients, and whisk thoroughly.

Cabbage Soup and Sourdough Parmesan Croutettes

Cabbage soup gets a bad rep.  Most people I talk to about cabbage soup only seem to think of nightmare scenarios where the only organism to survive on the tundra is a cabbage.  "Isn't that what my great-grandma made during the Great Depression?"  Well, yeah, because it's cheap.  but that doesn't change the fact that it's also delicious.

My husband is a picky eater.  He's very much a meat and potatoes kind of guy, who's been patiently learning and only occasionally complaining during our courtship and marriage.  And he LOVES this soup.

• 1 small green cabbage, chopped into bite sized chunks
• 1 large pantry onion, also coarsely chopped
• 3 Tbs butter
• 2 Tbs minced garlic (3 if preserved)
• LOTS of fresh ground black pepper
• 1 Tbs Spike
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4-8 c water, divided

Melt the butter in a soup pot over med high.
Add the onions and cook until just translucent.  Then add the garlic, spike, salt, and ground black pepper and cook another two minutes.
Add the cabbage, and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
Add water until the vegetables are just covered.  Simmer for ten minutes.
Add another cup of water, and continue to simmer for another ten minutes.
Continue adding water every ten minutes or so until your pot is essentially full.

Salt to taste. 

Sourdough Parmesan Croutettes:

• 1 loaf of day old sourdough bread
• 3 Tbs butter
• 1 c grated parmesan cheese

Preheat your broiler to high.
Halve your sourdough, and then slice it into pieces roughly 2.5 inches wide.
Butter one side of each piece generously, then sprinkle sourdough on top.
Place the croutettes on an ungreased baking sheet, and put them under the broiler for 3 or for minutes, until the top is very brown.

Serve hot with cabbage soup!