Alan’s Sardine Stuffed Mushrooms

Ok… I just had to add this recipe for Alan’s sardine stuffed mushrooms, as I sit here at half eight on a Friday evening. He is making dinner tonight while I finish some work, and he had some mushrooms left over… and some tinned sardines. I think I’ve found my new favourite flavour. Here’s how he did it.

Ingredients

• Mushrooms – cleaned and with the stalks removed. Just your normal bog standard ‘shrooms… although this would also work with the larger Portobello mushrooms too.
• Sardines. Alan used tinned (in brine) but fresh would be lovely too – as long as you have already cooked them and removed any bones
• Couple of knobs of butter, and/or a couple of glugs of olive oil
• Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

There are no quantities there… but a rule of thumb would be around a heaped teaspoon of sardine for each medium sized mushroom

Method

• Mash the sardines with a fork. Alan didn’t flavour his, but you could add a bit of garlic or chili, or paprika
• Stuff the mushrooms with the mashed sardine and press down well. Keep filling and pressing down until the top is levelled off and pretty flat
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides
• Pop a couple of knobs of butter into a frying pan and place on a medium heat. Add a small glug of olive oil to stop the butter burning. Or just use olive oil on its own
• Once the butter has melted, pop the mushrooms in. Don’t crowd the pan or they’ll end up sauteéd instead of fried.
• Cook for a couple of minutes until the underside is starting to brown, then flip them gently. If you’ve rammed that sardine in right, it shouldn’t come out
• Cook for another couple of minutes, turning if necessary until the mushrooms are golden brown and the mushroom has softened.
• Serve hot!

I’d say that 4 mushrooms per person would be a substantial starter, or you could serve them as a side dish.

Healthy option. Ok ok… you could just drizzle the raw stuffed mushrooms with a teeny bit of olive oil and grill them – but where’s the fun in that?

Elle Draper

Elle, along with Alan, is the owner of Spain Buddy and the busy web design business – Spain Web Design by Gandy-Draper.
Born a “Norverner”, she then spent most of her life “Dann Saff” before moving to Spain in 2006. Elle’s loves are Alan, the internet, dogs, good food, and dry white wine – although not necessarily in that order.