Food & Wine Pairings - Try for Yourself

Early this Winter we offered a food-wine pairing education night at Fireside Winery.  Prior to the event we tasted, tested, critiqued, and eventually found perfect matches for our night of Hors d'oeuvres and Fireside Winery wines.

Over the next few weeks we'll post these wonderful recipes so you can try for yourself.  For this first recipe, the unctuous and earthy deliciousness of the stuffed mushroom paired perfectly with our Hearthstone (a red wine blend of Chambourcin and Chancellor).

Recipe created by Kym Wroble, RD, LD

Roasted Mushrooms with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

(Paired with Hearthstone)

The mushrooms can be roasted and stuffed up to 3 days in advance, but don’t top them with bread crumbs until you are ready to heat and serve the mushrooms.  Store stuffed mushrooms on a paper towel-lined plate in the refrigerator, covered tightly with plastic wrap.  Keep the bread crumb topping separate; refrigerate for up to 3 days.

List of Ingredients:

• 1 ½ slices hearty whole grain sandwich bread slices, torn into quarters
• 3 medium garlic cloves, pressed through garlic press
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
• 36 large mushrooms, stems removed
• ¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• 6 ounces Maytag blue cheese, at room temp
• 3 ounces low-fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese, at room temp
• 1 ½ cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press
• 1 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

1. Pulse bread in food processor to coarse crumbs.  Mix garlic, and oil in a bowl.  Stir crumbs and walnuts into oil mixture to evenly coat.  Set aside.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.  Line rimmed baking sheet with foil and set wire rack inside baking sheet.  Toss mushrooms with oil, vinegar, ¼ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.  Arrange mushrooms gill side up on rack and roast until juices are released, about 15 minutes.  Run caps over and roast until mushrooms are browned, about 5-10 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Flip mushrooms right side up. 
3. Meanwhile, combine cheeses, garlic, herbs and olive oil in a food processor.  Season with ¼ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper; mix until smooth.
4. Fill zip-top bag with cheese mixture and snip off one corner.  Use bag to pipe filling into mushrooms. 
5. When ready to bake, spray 9x13-inch pan with baking spray.
6. Press each cap (stuffing side down) into bread-crumb topping to coat and arrange (topping side up) in pan. 
7. Bake until filling is hot and topping is golden brown, about 10 minutes. 
8. Serve 4 mushrooms for each of 6 tables.  (There will be a  few leftovers.)