Breaded Button Mushrooms Stuffed with Sheep’s Cheese

Dear all, Happy New Year and all the best to you. I was busy with work after the New Year's, then our daughter got chickenpox and now I am imprisoned as my husband went to Paris, some of my friends have the flu, and others who did not have chickenpox in their childhood are afraid of the disease, so I am stuck here at home.

Do you have any favorite Carnival food ? When I was younger, meaning when I did not have my own family, I spent a lot of time in January going to Carnival parties or dinners. Bigos (hunters' stew) was a traditional must in this part of year. I am not a bigos master, but my mother makes a very good one and usually I follow her recipe. It will come soon.  Coming back to the parties, nowadays I do not go to them very often not because I do not like them but simply because I have other things to do. 

I discovered those breaded button mushrooms, which I present today, in one of the restaurants in Kraków, serving Polish food. I nearly would always order them as a starter, usually the serving was small, good enough just for one bite. One day I asked the cook for the recipe (it means, whether the button mushrooms are precooked, deep fried – the rest is very simple etc) but  he did not want to tell me. So, I worked out my own version, and I found out that they taste best when deep fried. If you do this in a frying pan, the risk is that the cheese will melt to the frying pan. I used our sheep cheese from Tatra mountains (meaning, bryndza, which I presented to you here. But feel free to use any other cheese. Everybody likes them in particular when served with sauce tartar and if you are tired of posh finger food, try them.

Breaded Stuffed Button Mushrooms

Serves 4

Ingredients:

8 button mushrooms, average size

appx. 100 g bread crumbs

2 eggs

100 g salty sheep’s cheese (for example, bryndza - or other salty cheese, for example feta)

pepper

1 l vegetable oil for deep frying

160 ml home mande sauce tartare (recipe here)

Preepare button mushrooms: wash them and dry with a paper towel. Remove delicately skin from hats.

Cut stems and drill caps deep enough to put the cheese.

Prepare stuffing: in a small bowl or in a mortar, mash cheese and mix it with a bit of freshly ground black pepper. Fill the button mushrooms with the stuffing. Remember that the stuffing cannot overhang the level of the cap. It is better when the filling is more solid than liquid.

Bread your stuffed mushrooms: beat eggs well on a plate. Pour the bread crumbs onto a separate plate.

Roll the each mushroom twice - firstly in the egg, and then bread them carefully, so the stuffing will not fall out.

Fry mushrooms: in a large, not very deep saucepan bring the oil to a boil. Place the mushrooms delicately.

Deep-fry them until gold for around 3-4 minutes. Remove delicately from the saucepan, and put on a paper towel to remove the excess of oil. Serve immediately accompanied by home made tartar sauce.