Recently I bought over 2 lbs of mushrooms at Costco. I had plans for half of that, and figured that between salads, an innovative stuffed chicken recipe, and the like, I'd use them all up. That's what I thought anyway.
With 1/2 lb of mushrooms left, I got creative. I figured that if I made bite sized items, I could freeze them and use them as appetizers later. (My sneaky way of getting around the "you can't freeze mushrooms" clause.)
First I made a two pie crust recipe from scratch, though you could use the refrigerated / frozen variety (which many people keep on hand). I rolled it out in two parts, cut with a 3 inch round cutter, and pressed into mini cupcake pans. I baked them ever so briefly, until light brown and set.
As the shells cooled I made the mushroom-goodness. I added a tablespoon of butter to a medium-hot pan, and threw in a cup of chopped green onions (which I had leftover as well) and all of my mushrooms, diced up. I cooked them for about 5 minutes and then added 2 tablespoons of flour and a pinch of salt. After everything was thoroughly combined, I added 2/3 cup half and half (you could also use evaporated milk) and boiled until thickened. I removed from heat at this point and let all the goodness cool.
Once cool, I spooned the mushroom-goodness into each tart shell and placed them on a baking sheet. I popped the baking sheet into the freezer for an hour or so, until everything was good and frozen.
After frozen, I put them into a freezer bag, labeled them, and noted re-heating instructions from frozen (bake at 325 F for 30-40 minutes, until heated through).
These little babies were put to true test when our dear foodie friends, the Hekman's, had them. They gave two thumbs up, which is quite the complement from them! :)
(In case you were wondering, this recipe made approximately 3 dozen tarts. I still have some in the freezer.)
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