Stuffed Mushroom Caps

(from Chef Matt Weber at The Uptown Café in Louisville, Kentucky)

The Uptown Café, on the very eclectic Bardstown Road, is one of our favorite go-to restaurants and has been for years. We loved and were loved on by original owner, Nancy Shepherd, God rest her soul. Her very fun and cute daughter, Kelley Ledford now runs The Uptown. She graciously and patiently holds our window table when we run on “Hoagland time”. (Translation: a tad tardy.) God bless her!

Nearly every time we visit the Uptown we order the same thing: a split Caesar salad and their Linguine with Sesame Chicken and Broccoli. We get to where we crave it and have to dash over for a fix. When we’re really hungry, we order up the same appetizer. Every time: Stuffed Mushroom Caps. (Can you say, “Dogs of habit?” Like-wise my friend Mary always orders the Chicken Piccata.) We always pray whoever’s plating them will overserve the sauce as we not only gobble up the stuffed mushrooms, we bathe our bread in the to-die-for sauce.

Gracious Chef Matt and Kelley are gifting us with the recipe! Bon appetit!

First, figure out how many of these mushroom caps you wish to make. Chef Matt likes to use silver dollar mushrooms, white, uncooked. Buy 1 or more pounds, according to how many you want. Clean and pull out the stems to prepare for stuffing.

Mushroom Stuffing:
2 ½ pounds of Italian sausage
1 ¼ pound of ground chuck
½ pound of yellow onion, finely diced
1 oz. minced garlic
1 pound of goat cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 Tablespoon basil
1 heaping teaspoon of pepper flakes
2-3 dashes of Tobasco
¼ bunch of flat leaf Italian parsley
Scant teaspoon EACH of salt and pepper

Directions:

  • Sautee sausage and ground chuck until browned and drain. Set aside.

  • Sautee the onion and garlic together in olive oil until onions are translucent. Set aside.

  • Combine all of the stuffing ingredients by hand or in a mixer with a paddle. Depending on mushroom size, it usually takes about ½ ounce to fill each mushroom. (Cook as many as you wish to fill, shelling out stems prior to stuffing.) Yields: 9 and ¼ cups.

For an appetizer order, we usually receive about 6 stuffed mushrooms on a salad-size plate and they’re happily sitting in the sauce. Oh the sauce…

Brandy Cream Brown Sauce
2 cups heavy cream
1 ½ teaspoon chopped basil
4 oz. brandy, flamed
1 scant teaspoon EACH of salt and pepper
6 oz. of demi glace

Directions:

  • Heat cream, basil, brandy, salt and pepper until slightly thickened.

  • Whisk in the demi-glace. Note: A demi-glace or brown sauce base can often be found at your local specialty stores. Yields: 2 cups.

  • Uptown serves approximately ½ ounce of sauce per mushroom. Just make sure you have enough for the mushroom AND some to dip your French bread in.

My mouth is watering this very minute. I know where we’re going for dinner tonight!