Housewarmed

This weekend we hosted our friend Derek from Berkeley, kicking off a full fall roster of visitors. We also threw ourselves a little housewarming party. It was really nice, and comforting, to be able to fill our apartment with old and new friends after only a month in DC. (Not that we've been out cultivating friends like social guerrillas, we just got lucky with about a dozen people we already knew who proceeded us in the migration.)

In addition to some classic deviled eggs, I cooked up these stuffed mushrooms. Our California buddy Vanessa first served them to us at her casa, and I've still been thinking about them a year later. They are delicious.

Stuffed Mushrooms
Brian Reid, after Julia Child

Outline:
• Prepare mushroom caps, saving stems.
• Preheat oven to 375.
•Make the filling, spoon it in to the caps on a baking pan.
• Put butter and cheese on top of each filled cap.
• Bake 20 minutes and cool 10 minutes. Remove to a platter for serving.

Ingredients:
• 12 large white mushroom caps
• 1 stick of butter, melted [or less]
• 1/4 cup white onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of white parts of shallots, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup dry white bread crumbs, unseasoned
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup Madeira wine [or replace with a bit more butter]
• 1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese [I doubled the Parm instead]

Making:
• Remove stems from mushroom caps. Put caps on a lightly-buttered baking pan (it needs sidewalls), then season each with salt, pepper, and melted butter.
• Chop the mushroom stems into fine pieces. Wrap them in a dishtowel and use it as a tourniquet to squeeze as much water as you can out of the chopped stems. [I skipped this step and it was fine.] Put the squeeze-dried chopped mushrooms in a bowl with the chopped shallots.
• Sauté the chopped onions in butter over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, making sure they don’t brown. Add the mushrooms and shallots, turn the heat up a bit, and sauté for 6-8 minutes, or until the mushroom pieces separate and start to brown.
•Add the Madeira and boil it down until it’s almost gone. [I just added more butter.]
• Turn off the heat. Add bread crumbs, Parmesan, 1/4 cup of the Gruyere and some tarragon.
• Stir until it’s blended, then add salt and pepper to taste. Let it cool a little bit so you don’t burn yourself spooning it into the caps. The filling wants to be a little salty because you’re making an appetizer.

Baking:
• In an oven preheated to 375 degrees, bake them for 20 minutes.
• Cool 5 minutes, then use tongs to move to a serving platter. They will be too hot to move with your fingers, they will fall off a spatula, and you won’t be able to get them onto a spoon.