East-West Stuffed Portabellos

East-West Stuffed
Portabellos

Let’s face it—we’ve fallen in love with porta­bello mush­rooms. They’re big, easy to use, and deli­cious in a wide vari­ety of dishes. So, unless you’re fungi-phobic, revel in these lavish mush­rooms!

  We don’t know whether Marco Polo took any mush­rooms with him to Asia or brought any miso and sesame oil back to Italy, but this dish is what might have hap­pened if he had. For a full meal, serve the porta­bellos on a bed of rice or on soba or udon noodles, top with steamed broc­coli spears, drizzle on the sauce, and scat­ter scal­lions and mung sprouts over all. The Simple Sweet & Sour Sauce can be pre­pared while the mush­rooms bake.

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Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 to 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes

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1 cake firm tofu (16 ounces)

½ cup diced red bell peppers

⅓ cup diced canned water chestnuts

⅓ cup minced scallions

½ cup cooked brown rice

¼ cup peanut butter

2 to 3 tablespoons light miso, to taste

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root

4 teaspoons dark sesame oil

1 teaspoon Chinese chili paste with garlic (optional)

4 portabello mushrooms (about 5 inches in diameter)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 recipe Simple Sweet & Sour Sauce (page 386)

scallions sliced on the severe diagonal

mung bean sprouts

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Preheat the oven to 350°. Oil a baking pan large enough to hold the porta­bellos.

In a bowl, crumble the tofu into small pieces. Add the peppers, water chest­nuts, scal­lions, rice, peanut butter, miso, ginger, 1 tea­spoon of the sesame oil, and the chili paste, if using. Mix well and set aside.

Twist off the mush­room stems and gently rinse the caps to re­move any dirt. Place the caps gill side up in the oiled pan. In a small cup, stir to­gether the re­main­ing 3 tea­spoons of sesame oil and the soy sauce. Brush the mush­rooms with the mixture. Mound one quarter of the filling in each mush­room.

Bake for 35 minutes, until the mush­rooms re­lease juice and the filling is firm to the touch. While the mush­rooms bake, prepare the Simple Sweet & Sour Sauce. When the mush­rooms are ready, top with the sauce, scal­lions, and/or mung sprouts. Serve immedi­ately.

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PER 12-OUNCE SERVING: 322 CAL­ORIES, 16.2 G PRO­TEIN, 17.1 G FAT, 30.8 G CARBO­HYDRATES, 2.9 G SATUR­ATED FATTY ACIDS, 0 MG CHOL­ESTER­OL,740.1 MG SODIUM, 4.4 G TOTAL DIET­ARY FIBER