Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Stuffed mushrooms


A brand new ingredient find. Smoked Prosciutto. I'd never seen this available commercially before and picked it up at a recent trip to a local supermarket. Smoked ham was always my favourite growing up and was a treat beyond measure when my mum would buy it for my lunch time sandwiches, coupled with cheese and possibly some sort of green leaf like lettuce. The flavour of this Prosciutto was quite subtle but definitely smoked, a sweet back note to an interesting and slightly complex flavour. I used it as an ingredient for my stuffed mushrooms where it was paired with the mushroom caps, cheese and some 'breadcrumbs'.


On a visit to my local low carb shop recently, I noticed these interesting looking crackers for sale. Flax seed is low carb and apparently very good for you. I could see so many possibilities to pile on top of them, such as cheese, cucumber, pickles, small pieces of tomato, anchovies and  olives. I was almost watering at the mouth with the anticipation of re-living one of my favourite night time snacks. They also have the potential to be ground and turned into 'breadcrumbs' to possibly be used as a breading or topping for a crispy, gooey, cheesy gratin.


As you can see, they ground up well and produced a pretty convincing 'breading' which I combined with my favourite local cheese.






Recipe: Stuffed mushrooms
2 large Portabello mushrooms, caps removed
2 pieces smoked Prosciutto, ham or bacon
the mushroom caps, chopped small
1 tbsp breadcrumbs or chopped crackers etc.
2 tbsp grated cheese
oil, butter and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 350oF and bake the mushrooms until starting to soften, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat about 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp butter in a frying pan and fry the pork product you have chosen until cooked and crispy, add the mushroom caps and fry until soft.
Remove the mushrooms from the oven and pile the ham and mushrooms on top, then sprinkle the breadcrumbs and cheese over everything.
Bake for a further 10 - 15 minutes until browned.

No comments:

Post a Comment