Mushrooms Stuffed with Chevre and Smoked Trout

I made a batch of chèvre recently.  Have I mentioned how much I love cheeses made with goats' milk?  Something about that tang...yum.  I wish we had more land.  I'd raise goats.

But since that's not possible at the moment, I buy local goats' milk when I can and make cheese with it.  So far I've made chèvre and goats' milk ricotta.  Chèvre is my favorite.

So anyway, I made a batch of that and gave some away to a couple friends who also suffer the same love-of-goat-cheese affliction.  And the rest?  I ate some (well, shared it with Bill, of course), and I still have some in the fridge.  And I used some for this little appetizery item.

Here's the brief ingredient list:

Approx 2-3 oz chèvre

8 oz whole button or baby bella mushrooms, wiped clean with a damp paper towel

1 shallot or about a quarter of a small onion, diced

1 small smoked trout filet (or some other smokey meat item, like bacon or cooked pancetta, etc.), bones removed, chopped or shredded into small pieces

butter or oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives for garnish (optional)

~~~

First, remove the stems from the mushrooms.  Set the caps aside for the moment.  Trim the dried end of the stems and discard, dice the remaining portion of stems and place in a bowl.

Combine the diced shallot or onion with the diced mushroom stems.

 
Saute the stems and shallot in a pan with some butter and a bit of salt until slightly browned and fragrant.

You can add in a splash of white wine or sherry if you'd like.   

If you haven't already done so, now is a good time to remove the pin bones and shred the smoked trout (or dice up whatever other smokey item you're using).

When the mushrooms and onions are finished cooking, scrape them into a bowl and let them cool to room temperature. 

Add a bit more butter or oil to the same pan and place the mushroom caps, cup side down, in the pan.  When the fat in the pan starts to sizzle, cover and reduce the heat to low.  Let them cook about ten minutes, or until the mushroom caps are cooked through, brown, and have shrunk a bit.  Set them on a plate, cup side up, to cool.

Mix the cooled mushrooms and shallots with the shredded trout in a bowl.  Then add in the chèvre and mix together well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spoon about a heaping teaspoon of the filling into each cooled (room temp) mushroom cap.  It might be easier to use your fingers to press the filling into the mushroom and mound it nicely on top.  Whatever works best for you. 

Sprinkle with the chives if you wish, and serve.

(You could also warm these very slightly in the microwave.  I'm thinking you could also put them under the broiler for a minute or so, but I haven't tried that myself.  Yet.)

Comments

[Kat]

Yummy! Did you smoke your own trout?

[Jayne]

Yep! I still havent posted that little episode yet. Im out of order.

[Yvonne Kochanowski]

Souds excellent - we smoke salmon from the PNW or Canada and that would work weel here too! Maybe with some goat's milk feta from our local goat cheese company!!!