Stuffed mushrooms: caps pre-baked on their own, filling from the stalks, cheese and breadcrumbs
Sixteen large caps filled with their own chopped stalks fried with onion, breadcrumbs, parsley and grated cheese. One step separates stuffed mushrooms that work from ones swimming in liquid: the caps are baked empty for ten minutes so they give up their juice, and only then filled. A party starter, or dinner with bread and a green salad.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Cleaning 15 min
- Caps pre-baking 10 min
- Filling 10 min
- Baking 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 done
Clean the caps
Heat the oven to 200 °C. Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth; rinse very dirty ones briefly and dry them at once, but never soak them. Twist the stalks out and set them aside; if a hard stub is left in the cap, scrape it out with a teaspoon.
Ingredients: 600 g button mushrooms, large caps · 2 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp salt
TipCaps that are wet on the outside steam before they start to brown, and the water collects on the tray. A damp cloth removes the soil without adding moisture.
A cloth instead of water, stalks twisted out
Pre-bake the caps empty
Brush the caps with oil, salt them and lay them on a lined tray rounded side up. Bake 10 minutes: dark juice collects underneath. Lift them off, pour the liquid away and replace the paper with a dry sheet.
TipA mushroom is 90 % water. Stuffed raw, it releases that water under the filling, which softens and slides off, and the tray ends up with a puddle. Ten minutes rounded side up sends the juice outwards instead of inwards.
Rounded side up, the juice runs onto the tray
Fry the stalk filling
Chop the stalks, onion and garlic finely. Melt the butter in a pan and fry everything over medium-high heat for 8 minutes, until the water has gone and the mixture starts to colour and sizzle rather than bubble. Take off the heat.
Ingredients: 1 pcs onion · 2 cloves garlic · 40 g butter · 4 tbsp breadcrumbs · 100 g hard yellow cheese · ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipYou can hear the moment: while it bubbles, the mushrooms are still giving up water and stewing. When it turns to a sizzle they have started to fry, and that is when the flavour appears.
Eight minutes, until bubbling turns to sizzling
Mix and fill
Add the breadcrumbs, two-thirds of the cheese, the parsley, salt and pepper to the cooled mixture and stir. Set the caps on the tray hollow side up and fill with a teaspoon, slightly mounded, pressing down. Scatter the rest of the cheese over.
Mounded, pressed down, the rest of the cheese on top
Bake until golden
Bake 15 minutes at 200 °C, until the filling browns and the cheese bubbles at the edges. If you like a darker top, give them 2 minutes under the grill at the end without taking your eyes off them.
Fifteen minutes, filling golden, cheese bubblingServe
Wait 5 minutes before serving: straight from the oven the filling scalds and the cap is still floppy and tears as you lift it. Serve warm, with bread and salad or as a starter on a platter.
Five minutes' rest, then onto the platter
Before you start
With bacon or ham
80 g finely diced bacon rendered before the onion, replacing some of the butter. The filling turns savoury and substantial; halve the salt if you do.
With spinach and feta
A handful of spinach wilted in the pan and 80 g crumbled feta instead of the yellow cheese. Lighter and moister, good warm or cold.
The filling slid off and the caps swim
The caps were not pre-baked, or the juice was not poured away and the paper replaced with a dry sheet. Both steps take little work and decide the whole dish.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
