Mushroom Recipe Challenge: Bison Sliders with Mushroom & Onion Crumble

And so it comes to this. Unless, of course, I decide to crank out another recipe given the extended deadline.

I love burgers and I love mushrooms (obviously) but something inside told me that it would be a good idea to whip up an appetizer/tailgate recipe for the competition. Frankly, after finishing cooking and trying the end result I wish I had a bison burger contest to enter... these things ROCK!

To be perfectly honest I think the recipe for the mushroom and onion sauce would have been better if I'd remembered to add a little tomato paste. My original concept was to have the topping be a combination of onions, mushrooms, red wine and tomato paste that would result in a ketchup of sorts. Unfortunately, I forgot the tomato paste and had to settle on the resulting saute which I dubbed a "crumble" for lack of a better term.

But it was still pretty darn good. I picked Dried Porcini for this recipe thanks to their earthy, nutty flavor and their ability stand up to long cooking.

Ingredients
1 lb. ground bison
1 egg
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp. kosher salt, divided
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup porcini mushrooms, rough chopped
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup mushroom stock
16 mini buns
Condiments (optional)
Bread & Butter Pickle Chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Reconstitute mushrooms in boiling water to cover for 20 minutes and reserve stock.

Combine ground bison, egg, cheddar, garlic powder, rosemary, 1/4 tsp salt in a bowl. Mix with clean hands and shape into 16 patties about 2-1/4" in diameter on baking sheet. Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes, flipping once halfway through cooking time.

While burgers cook melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onion and season with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Cook about 3 minutes and add mushrooms. Cook until dark, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high, add 1/4 cup wine, 1/4 cup stock and deglaze pan. Cook until liquid evaporates. Remove from heat, let cool.

Serve on mini buns and top with condiments and pickles (optional) and approximately 1 tbsp of mushroom & onion mixture.

Mushroom Recipe Challenge: Shrimp & Lobster Mushroom Bisque

With one of my all-time favorite foods – meatloaf – given the mushroom treatment earlier, I thought it would be appropriate to use another variety of dried mushroom to tackle another love of mine. Actually, two loves – seafood bisque and mushroom soup.

Granted, I'm not sure that I've ever had anything other than Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup more than a half-dozen times in my life so I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. I ended up choosing Lobster Mushrooms thanks to their sweet, delicate flavor but in retrospect perhaps I should have gone with the Black Trumpet variety.

Ingredients
1/2 lb. medium shrimp, cleaned, peeled, deveined
1/2 cup lobster mushrooms, chopped
2-1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp shallot, minced
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp Bacon Salt (Original)*
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup mushroom stock, divided
1/6 cup all purpose flour

Reconstitute mushrooms in boiling water to cover for about 20 minutes and reserve broth. Place shrimp and 1/3 cup stock in blender or mini chopper and process until finely minced.

Heat large saucepan or other heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high. Melt butter and saute mushrooms and shallots until liquid evaporates. Remove from heat and stir in flour to coat, then add wine and stir.

Add 1/3 cup stock, seasonings and shrimp mixture. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add cream and heat through. Do not boil.

Using immersion blender puree until desired consistency. Can also be pureed in blender in batches.

*If Bacon Salt is not available use commercial Creole or Seafood blend.

Mushroom Recipe Challenge: Mini Morel Meatloaf

For this recipe I chose morels because of their deep, earthy flavor and the fact that they work well in dishes like stuffing. As a meatloaf lover I'm fond of ordering the dish whenever I go to a new diner – frankly, if you can't do this down-home dish right I probably can't trust you with any of your more exotic endeavors. The following recipe makes wonderful mini meatloafs that would be great as appetizers. Makes 9 servings.

Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped morels (approx 1/2 oz dried)
1 lb. ground beef or meatloaf mixture
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup mushroom stock
1/2 cup Havarti, shredded

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Reconstitute morels in boiling water to cover for about 20 minutes and reserve broth. Chop mushrooms. Heat saute pan over medium high heat, add olive oil and saute mushrooms and onions until onions are soft but now browned. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Use clean hands to mix ground beef, egg, parsley, bread crumbs, mushroom stock and mushroom/onion mixture in bowl. Coat muffin pan with cooking spray and place meatloaf mixture into muffin tin.

Bake approximately 40-50 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and top each loaf with shredded cheese. Return to oven 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Mushroom Recipe Challenge: Introduction

I have to admit that I'm very intimidated by cooking contests and recipe competitions.

I'm much more of a food fan than I am a gourmet and I consider myself a better cook than chef. In fact, I probably would have been a great line cook in somebody's kitchen had I not become a freelance marketing consultant and web entrepreneur. If I've learned anything about myself over the years it's that there are some situations where I'm good at flexing my creativity and there are some at which I'm not (or don't feel very comfortable).

For me, the kitchen is a place where I don't feel at home freelancing. I tend to follow recipes if not to the letter at the very least close to the spirit in which they were intended. Chris is much more of an experimenter when it comes to recipes and her adventurousness has paid off with handfuls of ribbons in the baking competition at the Maryland State Fair.

But I was admittedly intrigued when I read about the Marx Foods Blogger Mushroom Recipe Challenge. The concept was pretty simple. The fine foods purveyor would provide participants with samples of various dried mushrooms hand-foraged from the woods of the Pacific Northwest. All they asked was that each participant prepare at least one recipe and post it on their blog. The winner would receive shipments of the dried mushrooms of their choosing throughout the season.

A wrinkle that made this challenge a little tough is my wife's aversion to the main ingredient. In the decade we've been together I've always counted on her as an excellent culinary sounding board, taster and critic. Considering the "something in here smells bad" face she makes if I even mention the word "mushrooms" I knew I was sorta on my own as far as recipe development and cooking was concerned.

I ended up developing three recipes for the challenge and I just read that the company has extended the deadline from October 11 to October 14. Hmmmm, maybe I'll develop another recipe or two with what I have left.

In the meantime I hope you're intrigued with what I put together so far...