So, last week I bought fresh mushrooms for a dish that I was making, and since they were on sale, I bought an extra package. I ended up not using as much as I had planned on and, although I’ve been working on using them up, I still have quite a bit left over, and I’d like to finish them up before they go bad. So, I had the idea earlier today to make some kind of garlic mushroom appetizer to take to Thanksgiving or Black Friday dinner, since I’ve always got garlic hanging around to use.
But all the recipes I have found online have ingredients that I don’t have in the house (like cream, or olive oil, or red wine vinegar) and I already fought the pre-Thanksgiving grocery crowds yesterday and am hoping to not have to go shopping again this week.
Anyone got any mushroom appetizer-type recipes that can be made using a less-than-gourmet cook’s pantry stock?
Shoot, you can stuff just about anything into a mushroom cap, although olive oil is nice to brush the other side with.
Chop up the stems, and use those and some bread crumbs as a base, and throw in whatever else your heart desires. I’ve had good luck with bits of browned sausage and freshly-grated parmesan cheese. (Of course, you could put freshly-grated parmesan cheese on a rubber band and it would still be good.) Mix your garlic in there with it.
What else do you have lying around? Bacon? A little canned crab or clams? You don’t need a whole lot of those for flavor. More mushrooms?
And since they’re leftovers, if it doesn’t work out or look pretty, no harm done. Especially if they’re ugly but tasty, so you have the excuse of hoarding them. What?? I like stuffed mushrooms!
My own recipe, although it’s unlikely you’re going to have the ingrediants sitting around the house. Boil up some pasta. Open a jar of sun dried tomatoes in oil and pour the oil into a big frying pan. Slice up a couple of cloves of garlic and fry the garlic and a handful of pinenuts in the oil. Slice up the tomatoes and a bunch of mushrooms. Throw them into the frying pan and fry them until they’re hot but not overcooked. Add a cup of red wine and cook for another minute or two. Serve on the pasta.
I made up a mushroom dish once which turned out fabulously, but it’s hard to know what you have in the house. Basically I just chopped up the mushrooms very fine and sauteed them in butter with onions, garlic, black pepper, and sage. Then I threw in a bit of sour cream and a couple glugs of sherry. I thought the combo was fabulous - serve over toasted dark bread, or with pasta. Good with checken, too. I’m sure it would taste fine if you sliced the mushrooms instead of mincing them, too.
Well, some of the stuff I have in the house are: mushrooms (of course), garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, italian seasoning, Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning, nutmeg, cinnamon, one onion, carrots, celery, vanilla extract, almond extract, potatoes, Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix, spaghetti, white rice, brown Minute rice, canned diced tomatoes, canola oil, salsa, flour, sugar, powdered sugar, eggs, canned & frozen peas, canned & frozen corn, canned spaghetti sauce, turkey bacon. Butter. Mayonnaise. Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. I just used up the last of the sour cream making spinach dip (that was required, it was my assignment).
