After Work Snack

This recipe is actually from awhile ago, but I thought of it today on the train ride home as I was drifting off for a short nap with Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones, and Butter in my clutch. Not because it was boring by any means, she is a great writer and her stories are somehow more outlandish given that they are true. She is a deeply determined chef who builds a great restaurant from nothing, earns an MFA, marries an Italian professor…well, I am vastly oversimplifying this incredible person’s experiences and abilities, but I meant to say that the memoir would never lull me to sleep. I was exhausted and pretty hungry. Perhaps it was my meager lunch of lentil soup that a co-worker described as “cat-food mixed with that gravy stuff”; or it could have been the fact that I was reading a book about food by the owner of Prune, but I longed for something comfy and homemade…that I could eat soon.

Stuffed mushrooms are an indulgence relatively easy to make, customizable, and universally adored. Usually we reserve such appetizers for company, but with this particular recipe found on smittenkitchen I had the key to some delicious finger food. Reluctantly, I cut the recipe to about a quarter of the amount. Forty-eight mushrooms stuffed with cheese and bacon sitting in my fridge would have just been a glorious mistake.

Roasted Mushrooms Stuffed With Feta, Spinach and Bacon

Bon Appetit, October 2001
Makes about 48

8 ounces bacon slices

1 cup chopped onion

1 10-ounce package chopped frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

2 3/4 pounds button mushrooms (about 48; each about 1 1/2 inches in diameter), stemmed

Preheat oven to 375°F. Cook bacon in heavy large skillet until crisp, about 8 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Coarsely crumble bacon. Discard all but 1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons bacon fat (adding olive oil if necessary to equal that amount).
Heat 2 teaspoons reserved bacon fat in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add chopped onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl and cool; mix in bacon, spinach, feta, cream cheese, and crushed red pepper. Season filling to taste with salt and pepper.
Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with foil. Toss mushrooms and reserved 1/4 cup bacon fat in large bowl to coat. Sprinkle mushrooms with salt and pepper. Place mushrooms, rounded side down, in single layer on prepared baking sheets. Bake mushrooms until centers fill with liquid, about 25 minutes. Turn mushrooms over. Bake mushrooms until brown and liquid evaporates, about 20 minutes longer. Turn mushrooms over again. Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon filling into each mushroom cavity. (Filled mushrooms can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Where the Cool Kids Sit

Sometimes I love sitting at the bar of a restaurant rather than the dining room. There you can choose to mingle with the bartender and ask recommendations on drinks and food more candidly. Often there are little perks like purse hooks, the ability to order more quickly and an adult-only environment. Occasionally, conversations are struck up amongst the other patrons and I’ll leave the restaurant, say, absorbing a bit of trivia.  One evening, unwilling to render anything minutely creative from my pulp of a brain and rather melancholy from the thought of a frozen pizza, Ryan and I stopped for dinner at a local Italian place in town. As you might guess where this is going, we opted for the bar area rather than the more formal dining room. Something about the warm chestnut paneling, the shiny granite counter-tops, cushioned seats…and the gleaming bottles of wine drawing us in.

Unable to pin-point exactly what I wanted to drink, the bartender had me describe my countenance, which flavors I leaned towards, stared deep into my eyes and mixed up a dazzling pink-hued Hendricks cocktail with a celery-salt rim. It was divinely ME. (It was also very striking, I should learn to take my camera with me when I dine out). Now- let me  interject here by saying the bar was near empty. Otherwise, I might not have received this VIP treatment. On to food – we decided to split courses and, therefore sample a few dishes; a seasonal vegetable salad with blue cheese, carpaccio dressed up with arugula, reggiano and caper berries, rigatoni with peas and cremini mushrooms in a light cream sauce, and this little gem below which I have recreated at home several times. The creamy blend of the mozzarella and the avocados all on top of a chewy garlicky bite of italian bread is addictive. The rest of the meal was delicious, but I could have been content with just this and a crisp, cold glass of white wine.

 

The first two times I made this the bread was lacking that restaurant- quality ‘chewiness’. I did some scoping around on the internet and came across this eye-opening post. Previously I had been brushing the bread with olive oil then baking the slices for 5 or so minutes at 350 degrees. To develop that ‘uh mah gawd’ flavor and texture, it seems, requires a little bit of pan-frying in olive oil. After all, it is a universal truth that fat tastes really, really good.

Bruschetta with Avocado and Fresh Mozzarella

Ingredients

Serves 4-5

1 loaf ciabatta
Olive Oil
Garlic clove
Salt
Pepper
6 Roma Tomatoes,diced and deseeded
Fresh Mozzarella
Avocado

Slice the ciabatta bread into roughly 8-10 slices, not too thin because you want the pieces to be slightly chewy.

 

 

Heat some olive oil on low heat in a pan (I used a grill pan), enough to coat the bottom of the pan.Place bread slices in pan until golden brown, then flip over and add more olive oil. Again, continue pan-frying on low heat until golden brown.

 

 

 

Remove from heat and let cool, slightly. Slice garlic clove in half. Rub each slice with garlic. In a small bowl,  season the diced tomatoes with some salt and pepper to taste. Spoon approximately 2 tablespoons of the tomato mixture on each slice of bread. Take fresh mozzarella and shred with either your hands or a knife and place into a small dish. There is supposed to be a rustic quality to the dish, so it doesn’t have to look perfect.

 

 

 

Sprinkle the cheese onto each piece of bruschetta as desired, approximately 1 tablespoon. Cut the avocado in half, remove the seed and carefully spoon out the fruit from each half of the shell. using a sharp knife slice thin strips of avocado. Place 2-3 strips of avocado on top of each bruschetta. Drizzle with olive oil, if desired.