::mushroom:&:goat:cheese:purses::

When Travis and I first went to California together to visit my parents my Mom had made this one to-die-for recipe that involved delicious salmon and phyllo dough. She called it "paper-fish". 

What it is, is salmon wrapped in phyllo dough and baked in the oven {or you can probably BBQ it too}.
It is so freakin' delicious. 

In the new issue of Everyday Food there is a lot more sweet recipes in there than savoury like I was hoping for since it is their Christmas "special". Oh well...

I did, however, stumble upon a small section in the magazine that has a few recipes that star phyllo dough. There is actually a salmon recipe in there too, although a bit tweaked with some spinach and cream cheese added in for good measure {and a bit of fat content}.

The recipe that caught my eye though is the small little mushroom cups with goat cheese. Omg. I am obsessed. 

Seriously though, lately I am just ga-ga over mushrooms, shrimps have been replaced with mushrooms {okay, that is a total lie, I am still obsessed with shrimps} but seriously, I love mushrooms!!! 

I love them on everything and anything!! 

Okay, again, maybe I don't want 'em on ice cream nor do I like those ones that are soaked in jars {yech} but other than that, I am alllll over it. 

So I am totes mcgotes making this recipe ASAP. Because it just looks freakin' amazeballs.

HA! And they call them purses, HOW CUTE!

Bon Appetit!

Mushroom-and-Goat-Cheese Purses

Makes 24 // Active Time: 25 min // Total Time: 55 min

You can make the mushroom filling a day in advance and refrigerate it until ready to use.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus 1/2 stick melted

2 shallots, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped

10 cups chopped cremini or button mushrooms {about 1-1/2 pounds}

Salt and pepper

1 cup crumbled fresh goat cheese {4 ounces}

8 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400. In a large nonstick skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium. Add shallots, garlic, and thyme and cook, stirring until shallots are translucent, 4 minutes. Add mushrooms and season with salt and pepper, cook until mushrooms are tender and any liquid has evaporated, 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes, then stir in goat cheese. 

2. Lay 1 sheet phyllo on a work surface and lightly brush with melted butter. {Keep extra phyllo covered while you work.} Stack 3 more sheets on top, brushing each with butter. Cut stack into 12 squares. Repeat with remaining 4 sheets and more butter to make 24 squares total. 

3. Top each square with 1 tablespoon mushroom mixture. Gather and pinch phyllo around mushroom mixture to form purses with ruffled tops. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. 

{Per 2 Bites: 128 cal / 8 g fat {5 g sat fat} / 5 g protein / 11 g carb / 1 g fibre}

MUSHROOM TIP

Here is a little tip for you darlings. 

Never wash your mushrooms; here's why.

Mushrooms are extremely porous and soak up water like a sponge ~ leading to an extra-long cooking time...waiting for those babies to release that water and than waiting for that water to evaporate!

Since mushrooms are usually grown in a sterile medium, you can just invest in a small mushroom brush {like $2 buckaroo's at Ikea} and gently brush off the dirt from your mushrooms. Also just cut the tough stems or blemished spots on your mushroom. 

When using salt while cooking it helps the mushrooms releeeeease that water, so use salt according to your recipe, don't overdo it. Too much salt on anything is gross...

And will lead you to waking up 50x in the middle of the night drinking huge amounts of water and THAN the other 50x you wake up during the night to go pee!

True story...happened to a friend of a friend...

Let me know if you guys try these babies out! I plan on doing so this weekend! Even though my boyfriend is sick of mushrooms by now...at least they're not shrimps.

:)

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

-S.*