Hail to the Mighty Mushroom

Bruce and Connie have developed a true appreciation for mushrooms over the years.  Perhaps much of the reason for our interest in this little puff of fungus comes from our love of all things French...and the French certainly have a way with food, especially truffles.  Here in the States, Connie happily substitutes the giant portabella mushroom in place of a hamburger and Bruce has created a devilishly good mushroom and wine concoction that he serves over french bread and goat cheese (thanks to our good friend Jim S. for the inspiration on this one!)

Now, for this week's history lesson:

The first evidence that mushrooms were used as human food in prehistoric Europe is the recent find of a bowl of field mushrooms in a Bronze Age house near Nola in Italy.  Mushrooms were gathered from the wild.  Classical Greek authors tend to treat them as famine food, on the level with acorns. By Romans, however, they were so highly regarded that the Stroic writer Seneca gave up mushrooms as unnecessary luxuries -- an approach to the vegetarianism and asceticism that he toyed with. Recipes are suggested by Diphilus of Siphnos, in the third century BC, and in Apicius in the fourth century AD.

Mushrooms were also very popul in the civilizations of China, Egypt and Greece.  Egyptian pharoahs and Roman emperors actually went so far as to forbid commoners from eating mushrooms; strictly reserving them for nobility only.
 

Clearly, eating mushrooms is probably the closest we'll ever get to feeling

like nobility, so this week we decided to focus on the ever-popular stuffed

mushroom!

Connie will be cooking Betty Crocker's version:

Betty Crocker's Mushrooms Royale

Each mushroom cap holds a spicy golden stuffing.

1          pound medium mushrooms (about 3 dozen)
3          tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4       cup finely chopped green pepper
1/4       cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2    cups soft bread crumbs
1/2       teaspoon salt
1/2       teaspoon thyme
1/4       teaspoon garlic powder
1/4       teaspoon pepper
1          tablespoon butter or margarine

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Wash, trim and dry mushrooms thoroughly.  Remove stems; finely chop enough stems to measure 1/3 cup.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in skillet.  Cook and stir chopped mushroom stems, green pepper and onion in butter abuot 5 minutes or until tender.  Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients except mushroom caps and 1 tablespoon butter.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in shallow baking dish.  Fill mushroom caps with stuffing mixture; place mushrooms filled side up in baking dish.  Bake 15 minutes.

Set oven control at broil and/or 550 degrees.  Broil mushrooms 3 to 4 inches from heat 2 minutes.

About 3 dozen appetizers.

Bruce is this week's challenger and will be cooking:

Cheesy Stuffed Mushrooms

12 whole fresh mushrooms

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.

When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.

Connie immediately started stressing about the fact that Bruce's recipe features cream cheese, while Betty's focuses on bread crumbs...who do you think will win this week's Mushroom Mania cookoff?