Mushroom with Capers & Sun-Dried Tomatoes
With New Year’s Eve just around the corner, you’re probably looking for easy holiday crowd pleasers that you can assemble ahead of time and serve either cold or just-heated. (Or re-heated.) If they’re finger foods and highly portable, so much the better!
Serve-as-they-are foods like cheese cubes and fresh fruit are ideal, of course, and chip-and-dip combinations such as tortilla strips and guacamole/salsa or pita chips and hummus are simple and tasty crowd solutions. If you want to up the culinary ante a little bit, though, you can’t beat stuffed mushrooms for their nearly-effortless elegance and always-rich flavor … and they’re great served hot or cold. All you have to do is choose a few simple ingredients, mix, stuff, and bake.
Button mushrooms and crimini work for stuffing, though portobellos are better because they’re larger. (Then again, you may want to keep each portion small.) Whichever you choose, rinse or use a damp towel to remove the dirt, then twist and pull on the stem to detach it. You can either toss the stem, keep it to use for the stuffing, or keep it to use for another dish. Aromatics such as onions and garlic are always nice in a stuffing — particularly if you sauté them for a minute or two to mellow their flavor — and rich, deep flavors like sun-dried tomatoes and sharp cheeses are also tasty additions. Creamy cheeses, meanwhile, make mouth-meltingly mild stuffings, and smooth nuts and seeds like cashews and pinenuts pair well with the earthiness of the mushroom. Both fresh and dried herbs also work well. You could even stuff your mushrooms with sauteéd ground meat or leftover chunky chili (or any other kind of stew).
For these mushrooms, I reserved the stems, minced them, and sautéed them in extra-virgin olive oil over low heat with a few cloves of garlic, some sun-dried tomatoes (which I had first softened by pouring boiling water over them and letting them soak for an hour), a tablespoonful of capers, and a teaspoon of honey. I then spooned the stuffing into each mushroom cap, placed them on an aluminum-foil-lined pan, drizzled a bit more olive oil over each cap, and baked them for about 15 minutes at 325 degrees F, just long and hot enough to soften the mushrooms and warm everything through. (If you’re including cheese in your stuffing, you’ll need about 25-30 minutes of baking to get a nice golden glow.) They were equally delicious fresh from the oven and then cold from the fridge the next day.
No matter what ingredients you choose to include in your stuffing, all you’ll need afterwards is enough little serving dishes for everyone to sample your elegantly-stuffed culinary delights!
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Tags: capers, New Year's, party hors d'oeuvres, portabellos, stuffed mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes
That looks awesome Lisa, I’m so crazy about mushrooms. I also really like your little serving dish! Very festive.