Stuffed Mushrooms & Phyllo Triangles

Oy...Giz and I have posts coming out of the wazoo here.

Here's the insider scoop into my conversation with Giz last night:

G: Ok - this is getting out of hand. I mean, how do people who don't share their foodblog manage it? They must have no life.

P: Yeah - cause we have such a life.

G: Exactly - there's two of us and all we do is talk about food, make food, eat food and blog about food.

P: Yeah...we have issues.

G: No seriously, this is too much.

P: Ok - then set some boundaries.

G: Ok - I'm only spending a maximum of 8 hours a day blogging.

P: Great mom...that's a great boundary. No more than half of your waking hours sounds reasonable.

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Today I'm posting two recipes. One that I made up myself and one that was the recent winner of No Crouton's Required, a monthly event for vegetarian recipes that feature a particular type of food. I've only participated once, with my Leek and Potato Soup. But Giz has a post in preparation for this month's feature: salad containing cheese.

The winner of last month's theme, mushrooms, was Suganya from Tasty Palattes who submitted a great looking Baked Portobello recipe. I ended up making this recipe the same day that I saw it, it looked so good.

I've had the idea of making phyllo triangles for a while since I had a bunch of phyllo dough and goat's cheese in my fridge and I thought that the stuffed mushroom would go very well with the triangles.



Baked Portobello Mushrooms

2 large Portobello mushroom
1/2 cup Marinara or any tomato sauce
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
oregano and basil (fresh or dried, to taste)
salt and pepper (to taste)

Method

Preheat oven to 400F (mine was at 350ish). Clean mushroom caps with a damp towel. With a small spoon, gently remove the gills and tough stems. Season the cavity with salt and pepper and spoon marinara sauce into it. I used a tomato sauce and seasoned it with dried oregano and basil. Top with mozzarella cheese followed by grated Parmesan. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the cheese is brown and bubbly. Let the mushrooms rest for 2 minutes.



Honestly - this recipe is so easy and sooooo good. It tastes like a little pizza. The portobello has a nice meaty texture that isn't very strong in flavour. But, it was a hit. I'm sure kids would love this too (perhaps they don't need to know that the bottom is portobello).

The second part of my meal was the phyllo triangles. I only have a small amount of experience with phyllo. But, I thought, as long as I stuff it with flavours I like, it's bound to be good.

Mushroom and Goat Cheese Phyllo Triangles

7-8 fair-sized cremini mushroom (I also added one portobello), sliced
2-3 shallots, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
approximately 8-10 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped into small bits
1/4 cup of dry white wine
approx. 3/4 cup of soft goat cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
phyllo dough
olive oil
butter, melted

I started by sauteing my shallots and garlic in a oil. Once those start browning, I added mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes. Once the mushrooms and tomatoes are mixed in, I added the white wine, but wanted to be conservative with the wine to make sure that the mixture was not too moist. I added some salt and pepper, to taste. About 2 minutes before taking it off the stove, I added the parsley.



I then put the mixture into a bowl and added my soft goat cheese. Now, goat cheese has a very strong flavour, so if you don't love the taste, use it more sparingly. Once the goat cheese is mixed in well, I got my phyllo dough ready.

Phyllo dough can be quite difficult to work with. It's a very thin dough and cannot sit out, otherwise it dries out.

So, I only took out the pieces I was working with at that time. I would suggest working with two sheets of phyllo dough at a time. The rest, stay rolled up in the package. Take your two sheets and lay them flat (one on top of the other) on a cutting board. Then cut strips into your dough (top to bottom or side to side, doesn't matter which way - the only difference is the length of the dough and, therefore, size of your triangle). The width of your cuts also determines the size of your triangle. Play with it a bit and see what sizes you like.

Then, cover up the portions of dough you are not using with a damp, but well rung out tea towel.

Place the strip of dough you are working with on a flat surface and add a dollop of the mixture to the bottom of the strip.



Work with the mixture until it's in the right location to make your first triangle fold. Fold the dough over. Add melted butter after each fold.



Continue folding your dough as you would a flag (buttering along the way).



Once you've completed a triangle, place it on a cookie sheet (I sprayed mine beforehand) and cover the finished triangles with a damp, well rung-out cloth.

I placed my triangles in the oven along with the the stuffed mushroom (for approximately 18 minutes at 350). Keep an eye on the triangles, so that they don't burn. I ended up having two sheets of triangles and rotated shelves part way through.

Here's the finished product. Both were great! I might add a dip of some sort for the triangles in the future. Maybe some sort of yogurt dip. But, it was still a hit.



The triangles are a bit finicky and time consuming, but they make a great meal for the weekend when you have a bit of time to put something together. For that reason, I'm submitting this post to Kristen at Dine and Dash's weekend cooking event. For this event, Kristen asks that you create one main dish recipe and one side dish or dessert recipe that you think makes a great weekend dish.