Roasted Stuffed Mushrooms with Stilton

What a great success this was, we have done variations on this many times in the past but, this time was significantly different on several counts.

Typically in the past we have had a filling made to thick paste like consistency with breadcrumbs and soft cheese which is packed back on top of a big mushroom, the whole thing is then roasted in a bath of red wine.

This time was a move away from our traditional recipe.

No garlic, hardly any breadcrumbs and no soft cheese.

So what went in and how did it go together.

The big caps have their stalks pulled out
The stalks and some other mushrooms are chopped up, as are some shallots, we used the fancy long ones and a manky old leek from the back of the fridge.

The leek and shallot went in first with a little butter and when they were starting to cook, added the mushrooms. 

A little seasoning, salt, black pepper and some dried Provençal herb mix.

Some hand chopped walnuts, they were chunky but not huge and when they were lightly roasted some red wine went in.

A little bread crumb just to mop up the loose fluid.

A large dish was buttered and the caps placed in and a little salt and pepper ground on, the filling then spooned on and built up on each of the caps.

To finish off a small amount of crumbled Stilton when in the middle
and some wine poured into the dish as a "bain au vin"

Baking was longer than usual, at around 175c probably about an hour.


The result was really good, the shallots had caramelised, the texture mix of the steak like mushroom flesh and the crunch of the walnuts and the flavour of the leeks and shallots was fantastic.

On the downside there were a few bits over caramelised, unlike previous incarnations the "bain au vin" had dried out to nothing and not provided a wet liquor to dunk with.

The wine we used was a light red, a home made merlot left over from a few days before. 

Things, with hindsight, might have been better.

The first thing to do differently next time would be to deglaze the dish and call it a red wine reduction liquor, this has been intense in past cookings and is a lovely tart dip for a mouthful of mushroom, maybe get a bit of shallot into it, the deglazed shallot pan could have gone in to the bain au vin.

Garlic is fantastic with mushrooms, but this time there was none and it was not a bad thing, perhaps we should be less relient on always adding garlic to mushroom "because they go so well together" as sometimes, and this is one of them, mushrooms can be great without garlic.

The Stilton was great, there were bite where we had none and bits where there was quite a lot, where there was quite  lot, there was a bit of drowning going on, maybe we should be brave an leave out the Stilton, like we have with the garlic, simplicity is often the path to great food, we shouldn't be scared of taking things out.

Finally, the accompaniments, we had a great salad, but it is the beginning of Autumn, it has been unseasonally warm.  So what about next time.  Ideas are mashed potato, perhaps croquettes or duchess, maybe a mash and root veg mix, potato and celariac or potato and swede are very good. Or even bubble and squeak. This is big dish with big flavours the mash should balance/extend these.

But what about some veg to go with it?