Sunday, June 29, 2008

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Sausage, Spinach, and Cheese


We LOVE grilled Portobello mushrooms so when I saw this recipe on Kayln's Kitchen I knew we had to try them, immediately!!

She adapted the recipe from Bobby Flay's Grill it and I mainly stuck with her version. This recipe makes 4 large mushrooms and could easily feed 4 people if used as a main dish. Jordan did eat two in one sitting - if that tells you how good they are!

Ingredients:
4 large Portobello mushrooms
12 oz. mild or hot Italian sausage (we used hot)
1-2 T olive oil (for brushing on mushrooms before grilling)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tsp. minced fresh garlic (I used chopped garlic from a jar as that is what I had on hand)
1/2 cup tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce I had open in the refrigerator)
Pinch red pepper flakes (this is not needed if you use hot Italian sausage)
8 oz. coarsely chopped spinach leaves (I only used 5 oz)
2 T chopped fresh basil
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup grated mozzarella, plus 1/2 cup for sprinkling on top

The recipe called for olive oil to cook the sausage but I did not use any olive oil. The Italian sausage I used had plenty of its own grease to cook with so I skipped that step. If you are using a different type of sausage you may need to heat some oil to cook with. I had to buy sausage links - if you also have these make sure to take the sausage out of the casings before cooking. Crumble the sausage into the pan and cook for about 5-8 minutes - stirring and breaking the meat as it cooks.


As the sausage cooks, I chopped the spinach, basil and parsley. The basil and parsley were fresh from my herb garden. Let me tell you, it was wonderful to be able to go outside and just get what I needed to use!! I highly recommend that you plant a few herbs if you don’t have some already! Once the sausage is browned and cooked through, remove to a bowl.


You are going to sauté the onions in the same pan so if you need to; add more olive oil (I did not need to, as you can tell from the photo above). Sauté the onions until softened a bit, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking for a few more minutes. Add Italian sausage back into pan along with the spaghetti sauce. Simmer for 3 minutes.

Preheat your grill – I use a low setting but our grill is very hot. The recipe calls for them to be cooked on high – use your best judgment. You know how your grill cooks!

While the sausage/sauce mixture is simmering start cleaning your mushrooms. Wash them, and then remove the stems from the caps. Scrape out the brown gills from inside of the mushrooms so you’ll have more room to stuff. Be very careful doing this as you don’t want to break the edges of the mushrooms. It’s okay if you do - you can tell from the photo below I found out the hard way.


Add chopped spinach and let it wilt and cook down, stirring so it's evenly distributed in the sausage/onion mixture. Turn off heat and stir in 1/2 cup mozzarella, chopped basil and parsley.

Brush the insides of the mushrooms with olive oil. Put mushrooms on the grill, inside facing down, and cook for 3-4 minutes, until mushroom is slightly browned and starting to soften.

Remove mushrooms from the grill. Brush the outsides of the mushrooms with olive oil. (I brushed both sides before putting them face down and the back of the mushrooms were dried out and I had to oil them again before I stuffed them.) Carefully stuff the inside of each mushroom with sausage/spinach/cheese mixture, and then top each mushroom with mozzarella.

Place mushrooms back on grill with the stuffing face up. Cover grill and cook 3-5 minutes depending on how hot your grill is. Check to make sure the bottoms do not burn - remove from grill when the cheese has melted.

We had our mushrooms with a side salad and it was a great meal! I'm already craving them again!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Eggs Chaisson

Here is my first entry into my food blog. I found this recipe several years ago in a Cuisine at Home magazine. This is a wonderful breakfast if you are having company over. I make it Christmas morning and on special occassions (the last time was Father's Day). It's not that time consuming - takes probably an hour from start to finish.



Sauce:
1 cup diced onion
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced bell pepper ( I usually use red or orange for the color)
1 T vegetable oil
¼ cup dry white wine
1 T Creole seasoning
2 tsp minced garlic
1 bay leaf
3 cups heavy cream
¼ tsp hot pepper sauce
24 medium shrimp (I usually get the frozen ready to eat kind that come in a ring)
1 bunch of scallions for garnish

Over medium heat sauté onion, celery, and peppers in oil until soft. Add wine, seasoning, garlice and bay leaf. Stir in cream and hot sauce; reduce until consistency of thin pancake batter. Add shrimp and cook through. Adjust seasoning and sauce consistency adding milk or reducing further.

Biscuits: While the sauce is reducing I make the biscuits. I usually use the store bought kind but you can make your own.

Poached Eggs:
I have an egg poacher – if you do not….

Simmer 1 quart of water. Gently slip eggs into water – only poach 4 eggs at a time. The whites will begin to set almost immediately. Swirl the water to keep eggs from sticking to the pan. Cook 3-5 minutes or until white is set and yolk is filmed over. (I usually cook our eggs for 4 minutes) Remove each egg with a slotted spoon and gently roll in a towel trimming ragged edges and strands with the spoon.

Plating:
Split a biscuit in half and place a poached egg on each biscuit half and cover with 1 cup sauce. Garnish with minced scallions.

This serves 4-6 people.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Stuffed Shells



I made a few changes to this recipe that I'd like to share. I tried the cottage cheese instead of the ricotta and it's soooo much better! It has a very creamy texture - I will only us cottage cheese

I love stuffed shells. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and made a few changes to spice it up a bit. I added spinach and hot sausage and also halved the recipe and it still fed us two nights in a row. I made 10 shells the first night and saved the rest of the cheese mixture & sauce for the next night. I used up the rest of the mixture and froze the shells we had left over.

Ingredients:

1/2 (16 ounce) package jumbo pasta shells (I usually cook 12-14 shells)
2 cups cottage cheese
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 eggs, lightly beaten
pinch of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 jar spaghetti sauce
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
half of small package frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
1 package ground, hot Italian sausage

Cook shells according to package directions. Place in cold water to stop cooking. Drain.

While shells are cooking start cooking the sausage in a skillet until cooked all the way through. Remove as much grease as you can.



Mix together cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, egg, and garlic powder. Rub the dried herbs in the palms of your hands to pulverize them, and stir into the cheese mixture. Spread 1/3 cup of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a baking pan.



Stuff cheese mixture into the shells. Place shells open side up, and close together in pan.



Add the remaining sauce to the sausage mixture. Stir to combine & pour remaining sauce over top of the shells. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese & a handeful of mozzerella cheese for good measure. You can never have too much cheese. :)



Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes, or until bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.



Serve with garlic bread & salad. Enjoy!