Cheesy Mushrooms

Cooking is not always following the recipe to its last word. For everyday cooking you can't follow recipes all the time. If you cook on a regular basis you got to be trying and testing with different ingredients. 

Usually I start thinking about dinner when I am on the way back home from office. If I can't decide by the nearest supermarket to my home, I usually sneak in to the shop to see if I can find something I fancy at that very moment.  

During my one such visit to the supermarket I had picked up some big flat mushrooms and was wondering what to do with them. I thought of using them in pasta but then I changed my mind and did something different. I had read about the this starter recipe of mushrooms before. Traditionally it is made with Portobello mushrooms but I had these big flat mushrooms already, so used them instead. I also had some cheese left in my fridge, so I combined these two key ingredients. Here is what I did.

  

Ingredients:

4 Big flat mushrooms

Cheddar cheese, grated (you can use your choice of hard cheese)

2 cloves of garlic

Freshly crushed black pepper

Salt

Olive oil

5-7 roasted cashew nuts, crushed (I didn't have any pine nuts left so I used cashew nuts instead)

Method:

Wash the mushrooms first then wipe them with a tissue. Finely chop the garlic and mix it with the grated cheese and the freshly crushed black pepper. Place each mushroom individually on aluminium foil (enough to wrap the mushroom) and season it. Fill in the flat face with cheese and garlic mixture. Drizzle some olive oil on it and then cover them with the foil. Preheat the oven for 200 degree Celsius and place these mushroom parcel on a baking tray and place it in the oven for 5 minutes. 

Take the parcels out, open them and place them back again in the oven for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Now bring it out and plate them. Sprinkle some crushed nuts on top of it before serving. 


Note: These mushrooms can be served  on a bed of fresh green salad leaves. 

I had it with a wine which I picked it up on the same day from the shop. It was awesome. A very smooth Californian Merlot for a great price.