Mushroom parmesan pinwheels and other ways in which mushrooms are awesome

Did you have a good Thanksgiving?  I had a good Thanksgiving.  It involved family, friends, good food, a warm house surrounded by blankets of fluffy white snow…and five or six glasses of champagne.  Cheers!

On the 3.5 hour return trip home, I alternated between listening to the History of Rome podcast Josh likes to put on for long car rides and fantasizing about all the mushroom dishes I want to make this weekend.  Specifically this first one–mushroom parmesan pinwheels: a roulade of puff pastry, goat cheese, a couple kinds of mushrooms cooked in butter with fresh herbs, and a healthy sprinkling of salty parmesan cheese.

mushroom pinwheels

homer-simpson-drooling-a

In fact, the moment we got back into town, we went to Whole Foods to pick up some chanterelle and cremini mushrooms.

This dish is a great appetizer, and that can be made ahead of time and served at room temperature.  It’s also vegetarian, easily customizable (swap out different kinds of mushrooms, herbs, cheeses, etc), easy to make and of course, delicious.

But before I get to the recipe, I want to share these fun mushroom facts.  Learning earlier this week that mushrooms can create their own breezes, I started wondering what other secret talents the little fungi possessed.  Apparently:

  • Mushrooms have no chlorophyll, so they don’t need sunlight to survive.
  • Mushrooms are one of the few natural producers of vitamin D.
  • They are found on every continent in the world and used in almost every cuisine.
  • They can be used to make natural dyes.
  • Some mushroom spores can lay dormant for decades and still grow.
  • Each mushroom contains around 16 million spores.
  • They pretty much fruit when they want to; we’re not really sure what the exact conditions need to be.

Photo Nov 29, 11 29 32 PM

Mushroom parmesan pinwheels

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb fresh cremini mushrooms
  • 1oz dried chanterelle mushrooms
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2lb fresh goat cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan
  • 1 sheet puff pastry

Instructions

  1. Unwrap the puff pastry, leave it loosely covered and let it come up to room temperature at least a half hour before starting.
  2. Dice the cremini mushrooms and garlic as finely as you can, and roughly chop the dried chanterelles as well as you can.
  3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and olive oil together. Add in the mushrooms, garlic and parsley and cook together on low for 12-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the salt and pepper.
  4. Let the mushroom mixture cool and then stir in the goat cheese until well-incorporated.
  5. Sprinkle the puff pastry with flour and roll it out just a bit to smooth out the creases. Spread the mushroom-cheese mixture over the puff pastry. Sprinkle half of the grated parmesan over the filling. Gently and tightly roll the puff pastry up on the long side, until you form a long roll.
  6. Carefully wrap the roll in plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  7. Preheat the oven to 375F.
  8. Remove the puff pastry roll from the fridge and, using a serrated knife, gently cut half inch rounds from the roll. Place them cut-side up on a cookie sheet that's been laid with parchment paper, and sort of squish them back into a circular shape if you need to. Sprinkle them with the rest of the parmesan cheese.
  9. Bake the rounds at 375 for about 30 minutes or until browned.
  10. Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!
http://haveforkwilleat.com/2013/11/mushroom-parmesan-pinwheels-and-other-ways-in-which-mushrooms-are-awesome/

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