Stuffed Mushrooms

This recipe was given to me by a very good friend of mine more than 27 years ago. Thank you Sulu :)

I still use this recipe to make this great appetizer with some modifications, it is a fool proof vegetarian recipe and always a great hit.

I had originally posted this recipe on 8/19/10, when I just started blogging and was still learning basic blogging skills. Now that I am getting better hang of things, and I have some nice pictures of this recipes, I thought why not re-post it.

I have also tried this recipe with Portabello mushrooms and it is out of this world, you just need little more filling.



Ingredients:


20 large fresh snow cap Mushrooms (Two 8 oz box)

2 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

4 cloves of garlic (mashed)

1 yellow onion

1 small bunch of Cilantro (or parsley)

2 jalapeno peppers

1" piece of ginger peeled

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup red cooking wine

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of Ketchup

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Salt to taste

1 cup pepper jack cheese or Mozzarella cheese

Jalapeno sauce few drizzle

4 oz of taco sauce (I use mild Ortega)





Method:


* Wash and clean mushrooms

* Preheat the oven at 375 F

* Remove stem leaving the cap intact, save the stems for filling.

* Sprinkle lemon juice on mushroom caps (few drops in each cap)

* In food processor finely chop onion, ginger, jalapenos, garlic, cilantro and the stems that you took off from mushroom caps.

* Heat oil in a sauce pan.

* Add cumin seeds, when these crackle, add ground onions, peppers, ginger, garlic, cilantro and stems.

* Saute these until slightly brown.

* Add salt, black pepper and bread crumb, and ½ cup of the cheddar cheese, mix well.

* Moisten the mixture with cooking wine and Ketchup.

* Keep stirring on med-low heat until paste thickens, make sure it does not stick to the pan. Turn the heat off.

* Stuff the mushroom cap with mixture. Arrange them in a baking dish.

* I usually put a dot or two of Jalapeno sauce on each mushroom and sprinkle pepper jack cheese on them.

* Sprinkle taco sauce on mushrooms (not too much).

* Bake them at 375 F for 20 min.

* Serve hot.





Hint:

If you are not too crazy about taco sauce and if you are using parsley instead of cilantro and mozzarella cheese instead of pepper jack cheese, you can use marinara sauce and this may give an Italian touch to this recipe. However, I prefer the combination of Cilantro Pepper jack cheese and taco sauce.



Recipe adapted and modified by Surekha from a recipe given to her by her good friend Sulu :)

Photographs by Surekha.