Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A Riff: Mexican Stuffed Portobellos




The portobello parmesan went over so well at the T house that I decided to experiment. We love all things spicy, so I thought, "Why not Mexican?"

The portobello's at the grocery store were still huge-ass buggers. I don't know what they're putting in the soil, but it's causing mushroom elephantiasis. Three of them cost me**coughcough** over six bucks.

I had a russett potato lying around, so I decided to bake it off and mash it, since I liked the heft potato added to the Roasted Chile Rellenos we made a few weeks ago.

I also had two spicy green chile sausages from Whole Foods in the freezer, so I thawed them, popped them out of their casings and sauteed them up with a shallot.

When I added the mashed potato to the sausage and shallot mixture, it seemed dry. I added 1/3 cup salsa, a minced jalapeno pepper, a good dollop of jalapeno cream cheese and about 2/3 cup shredded pepper jack.

The filling tasted pretty good at this point. I added salt, pepper and an extra shake of chili flakes (did I mention that we like spicy around here?)

I prepped the portobellos: gave them a good rub with a damp paper towel, spooned out the gills and stems, glugged some olive oil over them and sprinkled on salt and pepper.

We grilled them on medium high heat for about 2 minutes per side. Then I filled them, topped them with a little extra shredded cheese and back on the grill they went, lid closed, for about 8 minutes.

We LOVED them! I think we liked them even better than the Italian version! Feel free to tinker with the spices/ingredients in this recipe, since it's a complete riff.

Here's the approximate recipe for ours:

Grilled Stuffed Mexican Portobellos
serves 3-4

3 ginormous or 4 large portobello mushrooms, cleaned, gills and stems removed
1 large russet potato, baked and mashed
2 spicy sausages: you can use Italian, chorizo, andouille, whatever you can find
1/3 cup salsa
1/4 cup low-fat jalapeno flavored cream cheese
1 chopped seeded jalapeno pepper
2/3 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
salt, pepper and chile flakes to taste

Heat grill to medium-high. Brush portobellos with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until mushrooms begin to soften a little, about 2 minutes per side.

Remove sausages from casings and cook over medium heat; drain fat. Combine sausage with remaining ingredients. Stuff into mushrooms. If desired, top with a little extra cheese.

Grill, with lid closed, until cheese is hot and melted, 5-10 minutes.

15 comments:

  1. Yes, please. I think we'd skip the jalapenos since the cheese and the sour cream have a tiny spice. But this sounds lovely.

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  2. If only you could get jalapeno cream cheese over here...sounds v v lush though! However -scrapping out the gills of the mushroom?! Why? extra goodness surely? Or is it a question of making room for the filling?!

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  3. Mushrooms and Mexican together?? Im in LOVE!! This sounds soooo delicious..Ill be making it Sunday..Much thanks!Figtreeapps

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  4. CC- yeppers, that's exactly why they call for scraping out the gills--more yummy stuffing to fit in! You can make your own jalapeno cream cheese just by adding some fresh ones to plain cream cheese, so no worries!

    figtree, thanks for stopping in!

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  5. Hubs loves jalapeno cream cheese...I never thought of making it myself. Duh! The grocery store had it like ONCE and I have been searching for it ever since. Sigh.

    Loved your reaction to my post today, it was priceless! Can't wait for the chicken tutorial, hahahahaha!

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  6. Wow, you are ubercreative, my friend! But I knew that already... ;)

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  7. This is incredible! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. This is a dinner right up my alley (love Portobellos, lovelovelove anything spicy and Mexican)...but I can't get my family on board with mushrooms. I'm coming over...

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  9. Oh my goodness I'm so hungry now. Please, please, PLEASE can I come over for dinner tonight?

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  10. I'll set a couple of extra places for you, ck and unconfidential, next time I make this...which will be SOON. It's so good!

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  11. Hey! I thought today was coq au vin! I was all prepared with some nice, fresh chicken and an approximation of what I thought might be the ingredients. And I already sampled the wine, too. It's good :P

    Lucky for you this looks DELECTABLE!! I am definitely going to try my hand at this one :)

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  12. You really know how to treat a mushroom- YUMMY!

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  13. Kathy B., you never fail to make me laugh.

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  14. Original and amazing recipe! Thanks for sharing!

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  15. That was amazing! It's amazing to watch (or rather read the thoughts of) a real cook. Someone who makes recipes. Wow. Mind if I just stare at you for a while. I'm kind of awe struck.

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