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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Containing a Surprise Frozen Ingredient



I owe my sister-in-law some special thanks for telling me that you can freeze mushrooms. Seriously, did you know that? Have you ever tried it? It totally works!

I saw some sliced mushrooms on sale, but I didn't have a recipe planned that required mushrooms. I got the mushrooms anyway and froze them on the advice of my sister-in-law. When it was time to cook this dinner, I simply sauteed the frozen mushrooms. It worked beautifully and tasted fantastic! Try it sometime! Oh, and the recipe below is a great place to try them...this was delicious.


Mushroom and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 pound cremini or button mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Coarse salt and and ground pepper
1 can (15.5 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
8 corn tortillas, warmed and halved
2 cups sals
1 1/4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (4 oz)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until browned, 7 minutes. Add garlic and cayenne; season with salt and pepper. Add black beans and stir to combine. Cook until beans are warmed through, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Arrange 5 tortilla halves in a 2-quart baking dish. Top with half the bean mixture and 1/2 cup salsa, then sprinkle with one-third the cheese. Repeat with another layer of tortilla halves, bean mixture, salsa, and cheese. Top with remaining tortilla halves, salsa, and cheese.

Cover with foil and bake until center is hot and cheese melts, 10 minutes. Uncover and bake until cheese is bubbling, 5 minutes.


Source: Martha Stewart Everyday Food recipe, January/February 2011. You can find it here.

Notes: The corn tortillas in this casserole are a must. I used slightly more than the 8 corn tortillas the recipe called for--I think I used 10. This was so flavorful. Really good stuff!

Oh, and I blew it. I used up the last of my black beans a couple of days before I made this (without realizing it). All I had were pinto beans, so I used those. It was still fantastic. It would be great with black beans, but it was great with pinto beans too.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting. You don't usually think of mushrooms being paired with South of the Border fare.

    I didn't know you could freeze mushrooms either. Did they water up more when you cooked them?

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  2. I thought I responded to this. The frozen mushrooms did water up a bit more when I cooked them. I just drained some of the liquid. However, it turned out in this recipe that having more liquid was a good thing.

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