Portobello Mushroom Pockets

These portobello mushroom pockets are little pleasure packets of flavor that you will be so happy to add to your party food repertoire!

The inspiration for these came from some mushroom turnovers I bought in the frozen food section of Trader Joe’s and brought home in a cooler from St. Louis.  They were really good, but we don’t have a Trader Joe’s anywhere close to us, so when they were gone…they were gone.  Not to worry.  They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and while it’s hard to think of a mushroom dish as a true necessity, thinking about how to produce my own did bring out my creative side.

Four ingredients, people!  Four.  You have more fingers than that on one hand.  (Five, if you brush them with beaten egg or melted butter.)  And you don’t have to wait for a party.  I served these for dinner with a lovely salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup caramelized onions (measured after they were caramelized)
• 8 oz. sliced portobello mushrooms
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 pkg. flour tortillas (low carb, or otherwise)
• Optional:  2 tbsp. melted butter OR 1 beaten egg to brush on before baking to make them golden.  [The butter really didn’t turn them very golden.  The ones pictured here were with the egg wash.  But since our friend is a vegan, I did some butter ones for him.]

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with a silicone liner or with parchment paper.

After you have caramelized your onions (or pulled them out of your refrigerator if you have followed my advice in the past and made lots of extra so you have some on hand), put them in a good sized skillet and add the mushrooms.  Sautee over medium heat until the mushrooms are tender, then add the cream cheese and stir it into the mushroom/onion mixture until it is melted.

If you like big slices of mushroom, then you are ready to go to the next step — but good grief, I have only been eating mushrooms for about five years and I still am not a fan of their texture, so I have an interim step.  I put the mixture into my Ninja (if you haven’t purchased a Ninja master prep yet, God help you, and try your food processor) and I pulse it about 10 times until it knocks down the size of those slimy portobello slices to little morsels.

Get your stack of tortillas ready.  What you’re going to do is take a scoop or a big spoon and make four lumps of filling on a tortilla (imagine the tortilla is a clock and you’re sticking one at 12, one at 3, one at 6 and one at 9, about 1/2 inch from the outer rim of the tortilla).  Place a second tortilla on top.  Remember the last Pampered Chef party you went to when you bought a Press ‘n Seal (or whatever it’s called).  Rummage through your kitchen until you find it or a suitable substitute — or go old style and just use a strong round cookie cutter or (gasp!) a paring knife to cut in a circle around each lump, thus creating a pocket.  (You knew I had a reason for the name, didn’t you?)  If you did a circle by hand, crimp the edges of the top and bottom tortilla together around the perimeter with the tines of a fork while you kick yourself for not ordering a whatever-it-is-called from Pampered Chef.

This is the object you are looking for. (above)

You may need a small paring knife to trim off some stubborn gnarly edges.  It happens.  In the end, you should have exquisitely round, perfectly made little pockets to plop into the oven, like the ones below:

If you overfill, you will create mutants, not that there is anything wrong with mutants.  I made a few of my own, like this one:

I made slits and little holes and Xs and such in them because I thought perhaps they would need a way to release steam.  I am not sure they did, but feel free to etch a smiley face into them with your blade, if it makes you happy to do so.  If you are not serving vegans (or people allergic to eggs), I strongly recommend beating an egg and brushing the pockets with beaten egg before you bake them.  (If you just beat the egg yolk and not the whole egg, it would probably be even more pretty.)  I brushed some of mine more than once, and I think it made a difference.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, until golden brown (or until you just can’t stand it anymore because it smells too darn good.