There is no question that preparing foods to feed a crowd of holiday visitors can be stressful! But if your challenged by the lack of space in the kitchen, then I have a solution for making holiday grilled appetizers.

A grill is a cooking vessel, just like your oven. Unfortunately, this equipment tends to be forgotten after summer. Well, clean it off in Fall and Winter and gain valuable cooking space to end a stressful holiday season. Time to make holiday grilled appetizers.

Holiday Appetizers: Pick #1

Artichoke Stuffed Mushroom Caps

This is a super easy holiday appetizer that takes no time at all. Start by first heating a gas grill to 350 degrees F. A charcoal grill can be used as well but set up the coals on only one side targeting the same temperature as the gas grill. Now start the food prep.

Wash 30 medium to large mushrooms, patting them dry, and then removing the stems. Reserve the stems to be used in the filling mix. For the filling gather the following:

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 14 ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, pat dry and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small shallot, minced
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 cup grated parmesan
• ¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
• 1 egg white
• Reserved mushroom stems
  

  Preparation:

  Start by chopping the mushroom stems, dice the shallots, and mince the garlic cloves. In goes the butter to a hot skillet, then all three prepared ingredients are added. Once cooked down, the white wine is added to the mixture. Continue cooking until the wine has evaporated.

  The aromatics are now ready for the rest of the filling ingredients. Add the chopped artichoke hearts, parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, and egg white. Mix everything together until it binds well. Time to fill the cleaned mushroom caps. Using a teaspoon, fill each mushroom cap heaping the filling on top. There is enough filling to do 40-50 caps depending on the size of the mushrooms selected. Tip: extra cooked filling can also be serve on crackers or bread slices. Place the filled mushroom caps in a baking dish or on a sheet tray. Place the prepared dish on the grill grate, closing the lid and allow to cook for 20-30 minutes (check after 20 minutes – these should have a golden top when finished). Serve hot.

  What a flavorful nibble to serve guests visiting at the holidays. Best part, you can have the filling prepared ahead of time, even freeze, for those spontaneous visits. All the more reason to keep these ingredients handy all year round!

Stuffed Mushroom appetizer featuring smoked artichoke heart cooked on the plancha-stove top.

STUFFED MUSHROOM APPETIZER FEATURING SMOKED ARTICHOKE

HEART

You’ve seen us use our plancha to do squid, now we’re going to smoke some artichoke hearts and mushroom caps using just one application of wood chips. This time, our plancha will be set up with Beech Piccolo® wood chips to infuse wood flavoring into artichoke hearts and button mushroom caps for the ultimate stuffed mushroom appetizer. I’ll take you through the recipe and cooking technique using my plancha on the gas range. Easy entertaining starts here with Stuffed Smoked Artichoke Mushrooms.

Wood Firing the Artichoke Hearts

We start off with a 14 oz. can of artichoke hearts packed in water. This will be roughly 8 artichoke hearts. After draining, rinsing, and patting dry, we fire up the plancha on our gas range placing a small handful of SmokinLicious® Beech Piccolo° wood chips on the plancha. As the plancha temperature rises close to 300° F, it’s time to add the artichoke hearts to the smoker racks. Place the cover on the plancha and let the artichoke smoke for about 8 minutes, turning one time half way through the cooking time. Then remove the hearts from the plancha, rough chop them, and put aside for the mushroom filling.

Button Mushroom Caps

Next on the plancha go the mushroom caps. We prepared them by first washing them, patting them dry, and then removing the stems. The stems are reserved to be used in the filling mix. If you want extra smoky flavor, feel free to smoke the stems as well but you should smoke them separate from the caps so they don’t shrink and lose too much water.

We’re still using the Beech wood chips that were used for the artichoke hearts as these still have plenty of smoke vapor to be released. Again, these mushroom caps will only take a matter of minutes. Remember, mushrooms are loaded with water so don’t let the caps stay on the plancha too long causing them to shrink and fall apart. Just bronze them with the smoke vapor, then remove to be stuffed. A good sign that they are ready to come off the plancha is when you see a small puddle of water forming in the cap.

Mushroom Cap Filling

With the artichoke hearts and mushroom caps smoked, it’s time to start on the filling. Here are the ingredients need for the filling:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small shallot, minced
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 cup grated parmesan
• ¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
• 1 egg white

First, I chop the mushroom stems, dice the shallots, and mince the garlic cloves. In goes the butter to a hot skillet, then all three prepared ingredients are added. Once cooked down, the white wine is added to the mixture with cooking continuing until the wine has evaporated. This is a highly aromatic filling that will blend well with the smoky flavors of the artichoke and mushroom.

The aromatics are now ready for the rest of the filling ingredients. First, add the chopped smoked artichokes hearts. Next in, the parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, and egg white. Mix everything together until it binds well. Time to fill the smoked mushroom caps. Using a teaspoon, I fill each mushroom cap heaping the filling on top. Although we prepared 20 mushroom caps, there is enough filling to do 40-50 caps depending on the size of the mushrooms selected. I place these in a baking dish and slide them into a pre-heated 350°F oven for about 30 minutes.

Soon to be the Favorite Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer

After smoking both the artichoke hearts and the mushroom caps, I infused the filling with the smoked, chopped artichoke hearts. With the additional flavors of parmesan, thyme, parsley, garlic, shallot and wine, these mushroom caps are full of flavors including that subtle smoke undertone. These are sure to become a favorite appetizer or snack. Plus, when done on the plancha, they can be smoked year round without concern for the weather.

Purchase products:

Wood Chips- Piccolo®

Additional reading:

-STUFFED SQUID COOKED ON THE PLANCHA WITH SMOKINLICIOUS®

-Crostini with Smoked Asparragus

-EMBER FIRED EGGPLANT & FETA TARTS

Dr Smoke- “This will most likely be one of your favorite recipes once you try it.”