Stuffed Mushrooms

Mushrooms stuffed with Peppers

Now this is an inspired dish, which got polished up before the wonderful fried fish starters at the last party, this must be the first in our circle. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for this dish which goes to my nephew, who is amongst the new generation in India, who have taken some control of the kitchen. In our time men were just not allowed to enter the kitchen. Most of us who came to the UK in the 1970's were given a crash course to make a pot of tea before leaving the Indian shores, only to find that in the UK one made tea in a mug by tangling a PG Tips teabag in hot water! Tea pots found a well deserved place on the show cabinets in the drawing rooms.

In India one is seeing an emergence of young, usually middle class, IT literate men, working with or for the ferengi (term used for foreigners in India) multinationals. Their association with the Westerners has made them understand that it is cool to dwell in the art of cooking, in fact they are quite proud to say so - my father must be wondering where did he go wrong to produce such children who can't even get a servant, failing which a wife who could do all such creative stuff. In my father's books men had the harder part of tasting then enjoying the food. Well my nephew who originates from my sister's stable (a good stable to originate from, I must add), is one such young middle class, IT literate man, working with ferengi crowd.

I may be cruel with the description, as I really think this is one of the better takes in India. My nephew  works hard and occasional culinary skill must be therapeutic after a long hard day at the office. He informs me this version of mushrooms is his creation, here he is one step ahead of me as I haven't created anything yet and at best I am reviving old recipes.  

Ingedients:

• 250 gms of Mushrooms
• 2 Red/Yellow Peppers
• 10 cloves of Garlic
• 75 gms Philadelphia cheese
• Fresh Pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 tbsf live oil   

Method:

1. Remove the stalk of all you mushrooms.
2. Finely chop the peppers, cloves and the stalks of the mushrooms.
3. Lightly brown the garlic in a frying pan. Add freshly ground pepper and salt.
4. Add the chopped pepper and mushroom stalk mix and lightly sauté it. 
5. In a bowl add the above mix to the Philadelphia cheese. 
6. Stuff the mix in the hollow's of mushroom and lay them in a single row in a oven tray.
7. Place the stuffed mushrooms in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees, and cook for approx. 20 minutes. 

Serve as a starter or a snack.