A while ago, I went to a cooking demonstration hosted by Merchant Gourmet, who sell easy convenient ingredients such as chestnuts, chestnut purée and lentils.
Anyway, chef Alex Mackay showed us as amazing way of working chestnuts into everyday dishes such as roast veg. His creations were amazing, with mushroom Wellington stuffed with chestnuts and meringues topped with chestnut purée.
I decided to recreate the mushroom Wellington with a twist. While the original recipe was wrapped in pastry and totally savoury, mine was sans pastry and had a slight spicy kick (I am Asian, after all). And while my dish will not win any culinary points for presentation, it was pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself.
The chestnuts, which are vacuum packed to last longer, add a nutty texture and slightly earthy flavour to the mushroom, while my home cooked lentils add a grainy and slightly spiced kick to the proceedings. The cheese is totally optional, but I felt it added a nice bit of comfort to the otherwise rather healthy dish.
Ingredients for stuffed mushroom with chestnut and lentils
1/2 packet of Merchant Gourmet chestnut mushrooms
Method for stuffed mushroom with chestnut and lentils
First bring the lentils to a simmer in salted boiling water.
Then in a separate pan, fry some onions with garlic, then add the spices to pan and cook for two minutes.
Transfer the spiced onions to the almost cooked lentils, and cook off for a further few minutes.
Now prepare the mushrooms by taking out the stalks.
Chop up the stalks and mix with the lentils and chopped Merchant Gourmet chestnuts.
Place the lentil and chestnut mixture in the mushrooms, place in the oven and bake for 20mins at 200 degrees.