Stuffed Mushroom Caps
In any attempt to conserve money spent on grocery bills, I often buy bulk sized packages of meat. Most often I use part of the meat and then am left with a small quantity of remnant meat that is too little for a whole meal but then I don’t want to waste it either. Some months ago, I had used this small quantity of leftover meat to stuff some mushrooms to serve as hor d oeuvres at a party and since they proved to be quite popular at the party, they became a regular part of my repertoire. These are easy-to-prepare hor d oeuvres that go really well with any kind of wine or beer.
Ingredients:
1. ½ lb of ground meat
2. 15-16 baby Bella mushrooms or White button mushrooms.
3. One small red onion
4. One green chili pepper
5. 2-3 cloves of garlic
6. 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro leaves
7. ½ teaspoon of salt
8. ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes
9. 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
10. 1-2 oz of raisins
11. Two tablespoon of tomato ketchup
12. 3-4 oz chunk of Jalapeno pepper jack cheese
13. ½ tablespoon of freshly ground dried Corriander seeds.
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Peel and dice the onion in small pieces.
3. Peel and slice the garlic cloves in small pieces.
4. Cut the green chili pepper into small slices.
5. Cut the stems out of the mushrooms to make little cups out of them. Chop the stems into small pieces.
6. Heat a medium sized frying pan and pour a tablespoon of cooking oil in it and add the onions and garlic to it and cook for 2-3 minutes (or until the onions get translucent).
7. Add the chili pepper to the pan and cook for a minute, stirring constantly.
8. Add the ground meat to the pan and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add salt, chopped mushrooms stems, raisins and chili flakes to the pan.
9. When the meat looks browned and cooked, add the tomato ketchup and stir.
10. Add the dried corriander seeds to the pan and cilantro leaves to the pan. Cook for another 1 minute or so and let this cooked meat stuffing cool down a little.
11. Fill the mushroom caps with the cooked meat stuffing and place each of them on a cookie sheet (covering it foil will make the clean-up easy).
12. When all the mushroom caps are stuffed to the brim, cover each of them with a 2inch by 2 inch slice of pepper jack cheese.
13. Place the cookie sheet in the oven for 7-9 minutes (till the cheese looks melted).
14. Take the mushroom caps out of the oven, garnish with a little bit more freshly chopped cilantro leaves and serve while they mushrooms are still hot.
