I have this great ambition of being a top-notch hostess, throwing lovely parties with the best wines and, of course, the best foods.
Practice makes perfect so I was delighted when the fine folk at Marx Foods contacted me and asked if I would like to be part of their 2011 Morel Recipe Challenge.
In this contest, I get to try my hand at making my own original hors d'oeuvre (French for "appetizer") and learn a little more about the Morel mushroom. I received a sample in the mail from Marx Foods, and I did a little qualitative research in preparation for my recipe.
I even asked my Twitter followers about their favorite flavors with mushrooms (my response: crickets). My final creation, a creamy, salty, and earthy bite to eat, is fancy (and delicious) enough for a high-class dinner party, but honestly, it was very easy. I made it so it had to be! I even made two recipes (a DUO of Morel Mushroom Bites), and I will post the other tomorrow!
Morel Mushroom and Black Forest Ham Crème on Toast
Serves 4 (small, app-sized portions)
Total time: Approximately 30 minutes
Ingredients
4 medium-sized dried morel mushrooms
4 pieces of toast
1/4 cup cream cheese
2 ounces Gruyere (Swiss) cheese, separated
1 tablespoon butter
2 ounces black forest ham, sliced thin
1/4 cup half and half or heavy cream
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Instructions
Reconstitute (rehydrate) the dried morel mushrooms by placing them in a bowl of boiling water and covering them for 20 minutes.
Remove from water and allow to dry slightly on paper towel.
Once dry, roughly chop. Save the water for stock or for my other recipe - Savory Morel Mushroom Bread Pudding!
Trim toast into squares and set aside.
Place half the Swiss cheese and all of the cream cheese in a bowl and place in a microwave. At the very end of the recipe, you’ll microwave these ingredients for 20 seconds and stir.
In saute pan, melt the butter and coat the pan add the mushrooms, thyme, and salt, and pepper. Heat mushrooms, stirring occasionally.
While the mushrooms are cooking, cut the ham into squares the size of the toast squares and save the trimming, place in the pan with the mushrooms and brown. Remove ham from the pan.
Add the half and half and remaining cheese to the mushrooms, stir.
To assemble: start with the toast squares, divide cheese/cream cheese mixture evenly among the squares.
Add the ham squares, mushroom mixture, and top with any remaining ham pieces.
Serve warm and enjoy!
nice appetizer - I would love to try one.
Posted by: christo/doggybloggy | 05/12/2011 at 06:08 PM