Each week, a beautiful big box is dropped off at the front door of our London apartment. It is full of wonderful, seasonal, organic fruit and vegetables grown on Riverford Farm out in Devon. It is brimming with delicious produce ready for cooking and eating.
The loveliest thing about this box is that its contents vary from week to week which means we are always eating something different and delicious. It also allows me to get creative in the kitchen.
This week, I was delighted to find that ‘wet garlic’ was one of the many vegetables in our box. This is the very first crop of garlic that has been picked in the Springtime. Generally, garlic is hung up and dried out. Wet garlic, however, is picked and used without the need for drying, hence its name.
The cloves of the wet garlic have a much softer skin and therefore there is no need for peeling and the entire clove can be chopped and used.
I teamed my garlic with other treasures from this weeks box and came up with this stuffed mushroom recipe. It’s very simple and easy to make, but sure does have a lot of flavour. If you don’t have access to wet garlic (it’s only available in Spring, after all) you can substitute it for regular garlic. It will be equally delicious.
MAKES 4 STUFFED MUSHROOMS
4 Portobello mushrooms, brushed clean
1 ½ cups cooked brown rice (approx. 3/4 cup raw)
3 small vine tomatoes, seeds removed and roughly chopped
1 small brown onion, finely diced
1 wet garlic (or 3 cloves dried garlic), finely diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Parmesan Cheese, plus extra for sprinkling
½ tsp hot, dried chilli flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra drizzle olive oil and finely chopped parsley, to serve
Preheat oven to 180 degrees, fan forced. Carefully remove the stalk from the mushrooms. Chop these up and set aside.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and place your mushroom on top. Drizzle each mushroom with some olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt.
Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan. Add the garlic and onion and sauté for about five minutes, until onion and garlic are soft. Toss in the chopped tomato, mushroom stalks and chilli flakes and cook for another five minutes.
Add the rice and mix through, cooking for a further 3-4 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir it through. Remove the pan from the flame and stir in the Parmesan cheese.
Using a tablespoon, divide the rice and vegetable mixture between the four mushrooms. Grate a little more Parmesan cheese on the top. Place in oven and cook for 12-15 minutes, until mushrooms are nice and tender.
Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with finely chopped parsley.