zucchini stuffed mushrooms

lately dinner with the princess involved games and tricks, begging and imploring, threats and tears, and enough bribery to make the sopranos look like innocent kittens. i'm concerned she's not getting enough nutritive elements, since all she wants to eat is yoghurt and fruit. and crackers. so i do what any good mother does: find a weakness and exploit its full potential. as it happens, my daughter has three: pickles, mustard and tortilla chips. and it turns out, she'll eat anything if it's perched on a chip or pickle slice or it's sitting in a blob of mustard. i made these stuffed mushrooms and she wouldn't even look at them, but when i put them on tortillas, that was a new story entirely.

typically i make these with spinach, but i wanted something new. i used zucchini instead, finely grated. you end up with about the same texture. first i panfried some bacon, and in the fat rendered i sauteed a mountain of onion. then i added a bit of garlic and some red and green peppers.

my mushrooms were medium sized portobellos, which seemed thick to me, so i parbaked them while this was happening. when the pepper was slightly softened i added the finely grated zucchini, gently drained, and seasoned with white pepper and very little salt. off heat i crumbled in the bacon and some feta.

i mixed in chopped parsley and after i stuffed the mushrooms i sprinkled grated parmesan over the top. since everything was half cooked it took no time at all to finish in the oven. and i must say, they go well quartered and balanced on tortilla chips. now the drama accompanying the dish, not so good for the digestion.