Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

It's game day, you are pushing your grocery cart around the store and wondering what you're going to take to that party for an appetizer to share.  You want something simple, but it'd be nice to show up with something besides the same ol' pre-packaged cheese spread or veggie tray.  You start to fade into the endless sea of  vegetables laid out in the produce section when suddenly, you've got it: 'shrooms to the rescue.  Of course...stuffed mushrooms are always a crowd favorite!  Try this new twist on an old favorite to create an easy yet artful combination of flavors that will make you Queen (or King) of amuse-bouches.

What You'll Need:

1. 20-25 mushrooms (white or baby bellas)
2. 6oz lump crab meat, picked over for shells
3. 3 strips bacon
4. 1/2 small yellow onion, minced
5. 1/2 small red bell pepper, minced
6. 3 cloves garlic, minced
7. 1/2 cup shredded smoked Gouda
8. 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
9. 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
10. Salt and pepper
11. Garnish: Shredded Parmesan cheese and chopped chives

Let's Get Started:

• Pre-heat oven to 350°.
• Clean mushrooms and remove stems.  Mince half the stems, set aside.
• Cook bacon in frying pan until crispy.  Remove bacon from pan, set on paper towel to blot.  Leave the pan on medium heat, with bacon renderings.
• Add minced onion, bell pepper, mushroom stems and garlic to frying pan and sauté for 5 minutes.
• Mince bacon.
• In a medium bowl, combine items 1-9, adding salt and pepper to taste.
• Stuff each mushroom cap with the mixture (don't be shy--heap those babies!), and evenly space the stuffed caps on a cookie sheet.
• Bake stuffed mushrooms for 12-15 minutes (longer for bigger mushrooms)
• Remove mushrooms from oven 
• Switch oven to broil 
• Sprinkle mushrooms with Parmesan and chives
• Broil mushrooms for about 5 minutes, or until Parmesan sprinkle browns (leave oven door cracked open while broiling and keep an eye on 'em)
• Remove from oven, transfer to a serving dish and enjoy!

I used baby portabellas (criminis) for my mushrooms, as they tend to have a meatier flavor, but white mushrooms would work just fine--and tend to be great for stuffing due to their bigger size.  I chose red bell pepper for the color, but any will do (get what's on sale).  Also feel free to substitute the cheeses out for any other kind you prefer.  Maybe you have a few different kinds of cheese in your fridge...get creative!  I would definitely advise medium-strong cheese, as it adds to the depth of flavors.  Smoked Gouda and aged white cheddar sounded like the perfect accompaniment to the crab and bacon, so I went with it.  And the crab?  Well, there is just something about crab that makes whatever you're making fancier.  We made the mushrooms through the baking and topping at home, and then broiled them once we got to our destination...definitely a dish you can make before-hand and zap in the broiler when the guests arrive...or if you're the guest, when you arrive :)

Maybe it's because I had a great time inventing this recipe on the fly with PJB just hours before the Superbowl kickoff, or maybe I like mushrooms more than the average bear, or maybe...just maybe...these really are the best stuffed mushrooms ever!  Try them out, and let me know what you think.