Stuffed Mushrooms With Sour Cherry Cranberry Sauce

When Shabbat or the holidays roll around, you want a gorgeous appetizer to kick off your meal and I find both an easy and spectacular looking first course is stuffed mushrooms with chopped meat, although you can make it part of a main dish if you use larger mushrooms like portabellos.

This is a way of elevating chopped meat to a higher level of elegance and you have a lovely plate without it being prohibitively expensive. I use either canned or jarred sour cherries for this, I find they both work well here. The sourness of the cherries and the sweet tartness of the cranberries work particularly well with the meatiness of the chopped meat, cutting the heaviness for a brighter flavor. People, it’s succulent, that’s the deal.

You can use a larger or smaller mushroom, depending on the look you go for. I like medium sized mushrooms and plate two mushrooms with a generous drizzle of gorgeous plum colored sauce to sauce and garnish it together.

First you need firm mushrooms. Clean well and pull out the stems like so

As you can see, there are bigger and smaller mushrooms, and you can choose them to make a larger or smaller portion, as you like or if you have bigger and smaller appetites.

Set aside the mushrooms and prepare your filling. Take a kilo of chopped meat (not too lean) and add 2 eggs and one cup of panko crumbs.

Take a medium size onion and chop finely. Sautee in a tablespoon or two of oil and when lightly brown put half the onion into the chopped meat mixture.

Now take the mushrooms and gently stuff with the chopped meat mixture. Put aside.

In the other half of the onion still in the pan, take the stems and chop them fine and throw them into the onion and sautee together till lightly brown.

To the onion mixture in the pan, add the whole contents of the sour cherry can and the whole berry cranberry sauce

which you stir together and add 1/4-1/3 cup red wine. Cook together till slightly thickened.

Leave enough liquid to help cook the mushrooms properly. Carefully put the stuffed mushrooms into the sauce till you fill the pan and they nestle nicely together.

Cover the pan and cook for approximately 25-30 minutes or just till the meat is cooked through. Ya may have to test taste one. Both DH and Netanel felt it necessary to provide that testing service 🙂 .

Now since I served this on Shabbat (as well as Chag) I found that letting the flavors mingle till it reached the table just added to the yummy goodness of the dish.

Eaten on Sunday night, it transformed leftovers into fine dining since it tasted even better with the benefit of resting in the sauce for a day or two.

They are sweet-tart and frankly, divine. They look lovely on the plate as well and will be appreciated by both family and guests equally.

Stuffed Mushrooms in Sour Cherry Cranberry Sauce

About 20 firm white mushrooms, washed and with stem removed

Stems, separately, chopped

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of chopped meat, not too lean

2 large eggs, beaten

1 cup panko crumbs (or regular breadcrumbs will do)

2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

one can whole berry cranberry sauce 16 ounces or 454 gram

one can sour cherries 14.5 ounces or 411 grams

1/4-1/3 cup dry red wine

Take the onion and sautee in a pan large enough to hold the mushrooms and when lightly colored, scoop out half and add to bowl. In bowl add chopped meat, egg, breadcrumbs and mix together well.

Take the mushrooms and stuff with this mixture. Put aside. Into partially cooked remaining onion in the pan, put the chopped mushroom stems and continue to sautee briefly. Meantime, open the two can of cherries and cranberry sauce and pour into pan with all juices. Add the wine and cook till slightly reduced about 5 minutes and gently add the stuffed mushrooms to fill the pan till nestled one against the other. Cover the pan with the lid tilted and cook on low heat (make sure it’s simmering but on low) and cook approximately 25-30 minutes till meat is cooked through.

This dish tastes better when left to its own devices for another day or so so it’s great if you wish to cook in advance.

Plate as is on a plate with a drizzle of the red sauce on it. Divine!