Goat Cheese, Roasted Tomatoes and Chives Stuffed Portobello Mushroom

I bought a packet of large portobello mushrooms the other day. Nothing specific in mind. Just that the big ones don't come often, and they are good for stuffing. It wasn't a very clever purchase since I am about to leave Bangkok for three weeks, and there isn't much dinners to make in the coming days. I didn't want to buy another bunch of greens and Camembert to make another pesto for stuffed mushroom although we did like them very much. Anyway I bumped into this recipe that uses goat cheese, which happened to be one of the four cheeses that Pi Soo gave me and that I'm yet to use. In the recipe it uses Pancetta (a kind of cured pork belly), not very vegetarian-friendly. I thought sun-dried tomatoes would go well with goat cheese but the last bits went to this morning's breakfast. Therefore I roasted some cherry tomatoes, which also needed to be rid of before Tuesday.

This is a very strong savory dish. Personally I liked it. Although I can imagine how some people may get turned off by the pungent goat cheese. If you are making this, I suggest to use big button mushroom instead of Portobello - you'll get a big enough well to hold up the stuffing when the stem is removed. Portobello mushroom is kind of flat. The stuffing sort of melt over the place while baking. Nothing major really.

Ingredients:

• 4 large Portobello mushrooms, stem removed, washed and dry
  
• 2 oz cream cheese (soften at room temperature)
  
• 1.5 oz goat cheese (soften at room temperature)
  
• 4 cherry tomatoes, halved
  
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• 1 small bunch fresh chives, minced
  
• Breadcrumbs
• Sea salt and ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
   
2. Toss and coat tomatoes with enough olive oil and sea salt. Bake in oven at 180C for about 45 minutes - tomatoes will shrink in size.
   
3. Place mushrooms bottom side up on baking pan. Sprinkle with sea salt.
4. Blend together cream cheese and goat cheese. Set aside.
   
5. Saute onions and garlic till fragrant. Stir into the cheese mixture. Add roasted tomatoes, chives, salt and pepper.
6. Divide filling into 4 and spoon over mushrooms. Top with breadcrumbs and drizzle with olive oil.
7. Bake in oven for 15 - 20 minutes, until the top is nicely browned. Top with chopped chives if desired.