jaunthie | Mmmm...mushrooms

(Those of you who don't like to read about food and recipes can skip this entry now.)

I never used to like mushrooms, but recently I have discovered several tasty ways to prepare and enjoy them. I'm particularly pleased with a recipe I invented this past weekend, not only because it's tasty and healthy, but because it is so easy to do...particularly if you're doing a second batch later in the week, when you're working and don't have time for lots of prep. And it looks so nice! Now if I only had a name for this creation, I'd be set. Well, and the foresight to actually measure proportions of spices; I know how I did it, but I'm a bit hard-pressed to explain it here. Oh well, here goes:

Ingredients:

1 small red onion, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

Sautee the onion in a nonstick skillet. Add the garlic just as the onion turns translucent.

1/2 lb. ground lamb, as lean as you can get it (it's still going to be pretty fatty)

the cleaned and chopped stems from the portabello mushrooms (see below)

Add the lamb before the garlic can scorch. Brown the lamb until no pink remains. Turn on your oven broiler as the lamb nears done; you're going to need it.

a sprinkle of cinnamon

a pinch of cardamom

a pinch of coriander

2 to 3 large pinches of cumin

5-6 saffron threads

a large pinch of tumeric

cayenne pepper (small pinch unless you like heat)

black pepper (a pinch or so)

salt (sprinkling of kosher salt or a pinch of regular table salt)

All spice amounts are approximate (duh!); adjust to taste. Add spices to browned lamb, mix thoroughly, and cook together at least 3-4 minutes until flavors all combine. Remove meat mix from heat. Scoop out from pan using a slotted spoon, and place meat somewhere where it can drain off excess fat.

2 equally-sized large portabello mushrooms (4-6 inches in diameter)

Clean, degill, and destem mushrooms. (If you're thinking ahead, make sure you chop up the mushroom stems and add the bits to the lamb as you cook it; if not, discard.) When lamb is cooked and removed from the pan, lightly brush mushroom tops only with pan drippings and place bottoms-down on an oven-proof rack resting on a foil-lined jelly roll pan. Broil for four minutes or until starting to brown and shrink; remove from oven. Gently turn over the mushroom caps so the hollowed sides are upright.

2 teaspoons hummous

1 ounce crumbled chevre or other goat cheese

Lightly coat the hollow of each mushroom cap with 1 teaspoon of hummous. Place 1/4 cup of the meat mix inside each cap (this will fill the mushroom and then some, unless your portabellos are absolutely gigantic). Top with 1/2 ounce crumbled chevre, making sure to have dots of cheese equally distributed across the top of the meat. Place back underneath the broiler for another 4-5 minutes, or until the cheese is browned and soft, the meat has crusted, and the hummous starts puffing up (if you can see any of it). Serve immediately with a big spinach salad or other veggies (the allspice-dill green beans are fantastic with this).

Refrigerate leftover meat mix (there's at least two more servings left over) until later in the week, when you can make this all over again without the hassle of having to do all the browning/spicing/etc - it takes maybe 15 minutes. Be sure to microwave the refrigerated meat mix so that it's hot before stuffing the mushrooms.

Because most of what you're eating is actually that big portabello mushroom (there isn't that much meat or cheese in an individual serving), this is surprisingly dietetic - but it surely doesn't taste like it, and it looks absolutely cooking-show gorgeous. If you don't care about calories but are more into the Atkins thing (or active metabolism thing), feel free to splurge more on the meat and/or cheese proportions, but honestly, you don't need to. A little broiled chevre has a LOT of taste to go around!