Smoked Sturgeon or Salmon & Blue-Stuffed Shrooms

Scrumptious Hot Stuffed Mushrooms will Disappear from Your Buffet

Dec 17, 2007 Larry Ervin

Three Oregon treats conspire to tempt you to taste just one more: Columbia River sturgeon, hazelnuts and blue cheese from Rogue Creamery combine to stoke mushrooms.

Sturgeon are scary ugly. Upwards of nine feet long, black, bumpy skin: They look like something Spielberg made up for an underwater version of Jurassic Park. You know sturgeon for their eggs: caviar, but the meat is wonderful. Smoked, it is heavenly.

Here’s an easy recipe for smoked Columbia River Sturgeon teamed up with two other Oregon natives: hazelnuts from Yamhill Valley (Think Pinot Noir) and the extraordinary blue cheese from Rogue Creamery in the Rogue River valley of southern Oregon.

The Mushrooms

24 wild (or tamed) mushrooms

Trim off the end of the stem if it’s dry. Cut out the stems, taking care to keep the caps intact. Finely chop the stems.
In a large skillet, working in batches if necessary, lightly sautee the caps in a tablespoon or so of butter. Remove them to a rimmed baking sheet, hollow side up. Pre-heat your broiler.
Add another tablespoon of butter and lightly sautee the stems. Remove from the heat and set aside.

The Stuffing

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces smoked sturgeon or other smoked fish
1/4 cup (2 oz) Rogue blue cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, finely chopped

Allow the cream cheese and butter to come to room temperature. Then mix them in medium bowl until smooth.
Stir in the fish, cheese, nuts and reserved mushroom stem bits until well-mixed.
Spoon or pipe (see Notes) a bit of the cheese mixture into each mushroom cap.
Run the pan under the broiler just long enough for the cheese to bubble and start to color. Serve warm.

Yield: 24 stuffed mushrooms

Notes:

Mushrooms: Choose bite-size mushrooms. Alternatively you may use larger mushrooms or even portabellos, but each one will require more stuffing and you’ll want to serve it on a plate as a starter rather than finger food.

Hazelnuts can be toasted, just until they start to color, in a dry frying pan over low flame, or on a baking sheet in the oven at 325°. Transfer to a cool bowl immediately so they don’t continue to cook. Oregonian old-timers know these better as "filberts."

Blue Cheese: Any blue cheese works in this recipe, but any of the blues from Rogue Creamery are worth looking for. If your cheesemonger doesn’t carry them yet, you can order from iGourmet.com. For some other cheeses that you could substitute, check out Eleven French Blue Cheeses Compared.

Smoked Salmon or other smoked fish will serve, but have a look for smoked sturgeon. Josephson’s in Astoria, Oregon makes a fine alderwood-smoked example that can be ordered online directly from Josephson’s.

Piping Tip: If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can fill any zip-lock bag with the mixture to be piped, and snip off one of the bottom corners. (The size of the hole will depend on the consistency of the mixture you are piping and how much you want to squirt out at once.) Grasp the bag and force the mixture down and out the snipped corner. It’s that easy.

Look here for over thirty taste-tempting appetizer / starter ideas, including:

Cucumber Salmon Canapés
Quick Tuna Tapenade
Hot & Cheesy Artichoke Dip
Deviled Eggs: A Dozen Different ways
Baked Brie with Shallots and Toasted Hazelnuts
Camembert en Boite (Baked it its own Box)
Pates: Brandied Chicken LiverRustic Chicken Liver Pâté with Pistachios

The Perfect Cheese Plate: Irish
Pakora (and variations) with Mint Dipping Sauce or Cilantro Chutney

The copyright of the article Smoked Sturgeon or Salmon & Blue-Stuffed Shrooms in Party Food is owned by Larry Ervin. Permission to republish Smoked Sturgeon or Salmon & Blue-Stuffed Shrooms in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Prehistoric looking sturgeon