Crab Stuffed Mushrooms!

Written By Brad English

I’m in the middle of the beginning of a journey that started quite a while ago.  That’s a mouthful, but believe it or not it’s true!  I just got a Primavera 60 from Forno Bravo and I am beginning to chronicle my tales of learning how to drive this new oven.  I recently posted Part I of my wood fired oven journey (see a few posts below). But….

“Stop the presses!”

I must interrupt this introduction to bring you a new recipe!

 

 

As I’ve been learning to fire up the Primavera and get my pizzas in and out of the oven, I have also been experimenting with other dishes — sides and entrees that use the oven in different ways.  There is hot and there is Pizza HOT!  On the way to pizza hot, I’m finding out that it can be a good time to throw some other things into the fire.  I’ve been roasting lots of vegetables — so easy and so delicious.  At the lower temps they don’t char as much as on a grill, but when you do them at Pizza Hot temps, they char up just fine!  I’ve thrown fish in this baby and then used the fish as a topping on my pizza, and roasted some chicken,  and also flash fired some shrimp!

But, what have we stopped the presses for?

Stuffed Mushrooms!

I find myself stuffing a lot of mushrooms!  I mean, pizza and mushrooms go together right?  You can never go wrong having mushrooms around when you are making pizza.  I love stuffed mushroom caps. In fact, one of my first “foodie” experiences may well have been about stuffed mushrooms.  My first job in high school was as a bus boy in a little family run restaurant.  I remember two things about that job.  The first was the negative!  The sons, who were the waiters never shared their tips with me!  The second is that the chef gave me one of their stuffed mushrooms one day back in the kitchen.  Oh my god!  I was hooked.  I’m almost certain they were crab stuffed.  They were moist and cheesy and crabby — just delicious!  This was the highlight of that job; once the chef knew I liked them, he would slip me an extra here and there.  He probably knew I was getting screwed by the brothers!

I figured that stuffed mushrooms would be perfect to try at various temperatures to help me learn how to work with the oven and understand how it gives off it’s heat.  Man, was I right!  I started with some Artichoke Stuffed Mushrooms and then started playing more with crab versions.  I nailed it the other day and thought I needed to interrupt my intro to the Primavera with my Crab Stuffed Mushroom celebration!

 

What’s in em?

 

Cremini Mushrooms

*Remove stems and chop to add into crab mixture

Lump Crab

Panko Bread Crumbs

Chopped Serrano Chilies from my garden!  Go a little easy on this — per your taste for “the heat”

A little Chopped Garlic

Chopped Red Pepper

Chopped Parsley

Chopped Red Onion

Olive Oil

Grated English White Cheddar!  I can’t say enough about this combination…

Fresh squeezed Lemon

Salt

Pepper

Tab of butter – to place on top of each cap before placing into the fire

 

I am playing with this recipe.  It’s sort of an everything but the kitchen sink celebration of a crab roll in a mushroom cap kind of thing!  It’s pretty versatile as you’ll see. While I had the ingredients, I made a version of a crab pizza that night with some crab, mushrooms, roasted red onions, red Fresno chilis, basil, and, of course, grated English White Cheddar!  You’ll see in the pictures, that I also ended up making plenty extra — to save it in the fridge to use on a sandwich in the form of a delicious “Crab Roll” the next day!  No I was not “over” the crab the next day.  You don’t have to go so crazy though.

I won’t give you amounts on this one.  Just find the balance.  Pick a bowl and just start building it and consider balance as you go.  Start with the crab and work your way down the list.  Taste it when you get it all mixed together and see what you may want to add more of to find that point where it’s still about the crab, but it’s also about the bread crumbs and the white cheddar, and the slight heat from the Serrano’s, and the crisp snap of the red peppers and the depth of the onions, or a hint of the parsley…and definitely allowing room for the butter and garlic!  You get my drift?

Scoop the crab mixture into each mushroom cap and place them in the oiled pan. Add a “pat” of butter on top and drizzle some more olive oil.  I also STRONGLY suggest that you spoon the extra crab mixture into the pan and toss a butter pat or two in there for good measure.  This extra stuff will sit and bubble into a crispy edged bit of perfection that you can scoop onto a bit of bread.

Finally drizzle everything with some lemon and then drop the lemon halves in the pan to cook with the mushrooms.

 

 

Into the fire!  Watch them.  Turn them.  Brown them.  I cooked this batch in a relatively low temperature fire – 550-600 degrees.  I have also done them at pizza temps and they just cook faster and you have to watch them, turn them, and move them a little more.  It’s an interactive thing, so just stick with them.  Sip a beer.  Talk and adjust the pan as it cooks.

Once browned, I pull them out and cover with foil so they can finish up.  This will continue to steam them and make the ‘shrooms very moist when you are ready to eat them.  They are good to go in a couple of minutes, or as they cool down and need only be lukewarm when serving with your main entree.

 

Squeeze a little more of the lemon over the top before you serve.

These are a great appetizer or side dish.  Don’t forget to spoon the extra mixture that you cooked in the pan onto your plate too!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

The Gallery – more pics to enjoy!

{gallery}crabstuffedmushrooms{/gallery}