One of the many recipes new culinary students learn to prepare is duxelle. It's a delicious mixture of sweated shallots, garlic, minced mushrooms/stems, herbs, seasoning and often cream. It's cooked to almost a paste like consistency.
Duxelle can be used to stuff chicken breasts or veal chops, vegetables and I especially like shiitake duxelle stuffed mushroom caps.

Christmas Eve Stuffed Mushrooms

There are many different types of mushrooms! They come in different shapes, sizes and colors. Mushrooms also are fresh, dried, frozen, pickled, canned and even in salsas!

I like different mushrooms for different applications. For stuffing, cremini and large button can't be beat... usually the stuffing mushrooms are packaged for stuffing and a little larger in size. This recipe is perfect as a vegetarian hors d' oeuvres-you can simply omit the cheese if you don't want dairy.




Making Stuffed Mushrooms

Prep Time: 30 min

Cooking Time: 20 min

Yield: 6 portions


Ingredients                                          

18 ea           Button or Cremini stuffing mushrooms

10 oz           Shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and chopped

3  oz.           Olive oil

2 Tbsp       Shallots, peeled and minced finely

1 Tbsp        Garlic, minced

3 Tbsp        Italian parsley, fresh- cleaned and chopped fine

1 Tbsp        Tarragon leaves, fresh-chopped

1 tsp.           Kosher Salt                                       

1/2 tsp       Black pepper     

4 Tbsp.      Parmesan cheese, shredded (half for filling and half for topping)

8 Tbsp       Italian breadcrumbs (half for filling and half for topping)   


How to Prepare Stuffed Mushrooms

Step 1

Brush all of the dirt/debris off of the mushrooms, using a pastry brush. Gently pop the stems out of the mushrooms and chop by hand or in a food processor. Repeat with the sliced shiitake mushrooms.





Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan, add the shallots & garlic to the oil and sweat until tender & lightly colored (not brown). Add the chopped mushrooms and sweat until all of the moisture has evaporated, seasoning as you cook.



Transfer to a bowl. Add the parsley & tarragon, mix.


Step 2

Place the mushroom caps onto a sheet pan, season and bake at 350   F until tender, about 15 minutes, cool.

Add the mushroom liquid in the mushroom caps to the mushroom mixture.



Step 3

Add the breadcrumbs & parmesan cheese, mix & taste-adjust seasoning & cool.

Note-you can add crabmeat, cooked bacon, cooked sausage etc... at this time if you like.












Place 1 Tbsp of filling into each mushroom cap.

Repeat until all of the ingredients are used.




Sprinkle grated cheese & breadcrumbs on top and bake at 350°F until warmed through and golden brown. You can also decoratively top each mushroom with a slice of bacon or a slice of cheese such as brie or Swiss etc...

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image of traditional paella

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