Chinese Recipes

Oriental Stuffed Mushrooms

Chop the mushroom stems and leave caps whole. In a large saucepan, combine 6 cups water with the lemon juice, add the mushroom caps, and bring the liquid to a boil. Simmer the mushroom caps for 6 mintues, then transfer them to paper towels to drain. (Blanching the mushroom caps will prevent them from wrinkling while they are baking.)

Cook the bacon in a skillet over moderate heat until it is crisp, then transfer it to paper towels to drain. Crumble the bacon when cooled. Pour off all but 1-1/2 tbsp of the bacon grease from the skillet.

In the remaining bacon grease cook the onion, the garlic, and the mushroom stems over medium low heat, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are softened translucent, then and add the soy sauce, the sesame seeds, 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs and the crumbled bacon, along with the salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the mixture, stirring for 1 minutes or until it is slightly dry. Mound it up proportionately on the mushroom caps and transfer the stuffed mushrooms to a jelly-roll pan. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tbsp bread crumbs over the mushrooms and bake the mushrooms in the middle of a preheated 325 degree oven for 7 minutes, or until the filling is heated through. To make the filling crisper, the cooked mushrooms may be put under a preheated broiler about 4 inches from the heat for 1 minute.

Garnish the mushrooms with the scallion. Makes 24 stuffed mushrooms.