Savory cream puffs filled with mushrooms and prawns
( Bignè salati funghi e gamberetti )

Recipe for cream puffs with mushrooms and prawns

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare your empty cream puffs in advance. It would be better the day before.
  If you follow my recipe consider that you'll get about 40 empty cream puffs with these doses. The link to the recipe below.
  Then you can halve my doses, or choose to fill half with this stuffing and the other half in a different way. Read below for more tips.
• - The morning or the night before, remove the prawns from freezer and transfer them in the refrigerator to allow them to thaw.
  Don't worry if you don't forget this step. It's enough to place the bag with frozen prawns in a bowl full of cold water for a rapid thawing.
• - Clean the leek and slice finely.
• - Prepare your stuffing.
  Let your leek fry slightly together with bay leaf in all olive oil on very low heat.
  Add the mushrooms still frozen and stir gently a few times to mix well with leek.
  If the mushrooms are cut too big, remove them from the freezer about fifteen minutes earlier so they can be reduced to small pieces without being thawed completely.
  When you see they start to thaw, add tomato paste too and mix well.
  Then lower heat, season to taste with salt, cover and complete their cooking.
  Pour in hot water or vegetable stock, a little ladleful at a time, if necessary.
  Once turned off the stove, add parsley and chives too.
• - Add your thawed prawns when mushroom sauce is still hot but away from heat.
  Remember to cut your prawns into small pieces.

Just before serving

• - Fill your cream puffs.
  Halve everyone.
  Spoon your mushroom-and-prawn mixture on both the halves.
  Reconstitute cream puffs and arrange them on your serving platter.
• - Your savory cream puffs are ready to serve if their stuffing is still warm.
  On the contrary warm them up at 90°C (190°F) in the oven for few minutes.
  You can stuff them some hours ahead and then warm them up as I've just written above.

Note

Tips

• - Choose frozen assorted mushrooms in which there are also shitake or porcini if you want a tasty and flavored stuffing.
• - Use fresh parsley and chives if you can.
• - Use a crock pot to cook mushrooms. In this way you could cook your frozen mushrooms without any water or stock. But cook on very low heat.
• - You can prepare your filling in advance.
• - If you buy ready-to-fill cream puffs, my tip is to fill them some hours ahead.
• - Preparation and cooking times don't include cream puff dough.
• - These savory cream puffs should be served slightly warm to appreciate even more their flavor or at least at room temperature.
• - They can be made all year round.
• - Fiber per serving: 1.7 grams

Menu planning

• - As I've just written you can fill at least 24 cream puffs, to serve 8 or more. It all depends on how much your guests are used to eat and what you'll serve together to accompany them.
  So if you decide to use my recipe for cream puffs (about 40 cream puffs) you can fill half of them with this filling and the remaining, for example, with cottage cheese (250g - 8 3/4 ounces) and raw or cooked ham cut into strips (100g - 3 1/2 ounces). This is my special tip for a meal, buffet-style or a refreshments for a special occasion.
• - Arrange them in a serving plate as you can see in the photo or in an assorted antipasto platter together with salmon carpaccio or smoked tuna, swordfish or salmon in slices.
  These salty cream puffs can be combined with meat or fish dishes.
• - They are perfect finger food, aren't they? ;))

Useful links for this recipe

• - As promised here's the recipe for cream puff dough.
• - Read more about the right mushrooms for your recipes on the pages we dedicated to them.
• - Here are some links you may follow if interested in:
  our page dedicated to Italian antipasto ideas to look for other recipes to combine with these salty cream puffs;
  the recipe for salmon carpaccio that I think to be perfect.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Savory cream puffs filled with mushrooms and prawns "?

Pair the wine thinking of the other dishes too. You could match the classical bubbles of Italian prosecco, an aromatic white wine or a young red one.