I am very fond of making Sea Bass with a Black Olive Crust. In ensuring that I have have sufficient crust mixture to cover the fish fillets, I usually end up with some left over. This recipe grew from wanting something constructive to do with the left over Black Olive Crust mixture.
Recently I have been using some white sourdough bread for the crumbs; the texture remains loose rather than clogging together, which makes for a lighter result. Mushrooms contain plenty of moisture so can resist baking in the oven without assistance.
It really did seem to work very well as a lunch using large Portobello Mushrooms and, of course, would be admirable as a starter. This would also be great as part of a tapas spread or a even a mezze platter, though you might then find smaller mushrooms more appropriate.
Planning
| serves: | 4 |
| preparation time: | 20 mins |
| cooking time: | 10 mins |
Ingredients
- 4 slices sourdough bread, crusts removed
- 8 black olives, pitted & finely chopped
- 1 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, peeled
- 50g butter
- juice of ½ lemon
- olive oil
- 4 Portobello mushrooms, peeled & stalks removed
- Salt & pepper
Method
First make the black olive breadcrumb mixture. Blitz the bread into breadcrumbs, preferably in a food processor and turn it out into a glass bowl. Stir in teh finely chopped olives followed by the chopped parsley. Crush or finely chop the garlic clove and add it to the breadcrumbs together with a few twists of salt and pepper, then stir all together to mix well.
Heat the butter in a small frying pan to make a beurre noisette. When it is nicely nutty brown, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice to stop it cooking further. Pour the beurre noisette into the breadcrumb mixture and mix well with a spatula. If your bread is like mine, it won’t bind together too much. Let the mixture cool.
Once the mixture is cool, drizzle a little olive oil into the cap of each mushroom before spooning in a generous amount of filling. You can do this all ahead of time.
When you are ready to cook, heat the oven to 220°C/gas 7. Sit the mushrooms on a bakiing tray with a small drizzle of olive oil beneath each one. Bake for 10 minutes when the crust should have turned an attractive light golden colour.
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