It’s nearly Christmas!!! 

The countdown this year hasn’t been as movie-centric as my Christmas countdowns usually are. Mainly due to getting Uni work done, to be honest. But also, because every spare moment I have, I want to cook or bake, and write about it to share with you all.

I say you all, as though hundreds of people read my blog. The truth is that most of my posts get an average of 4 views. I’m still growing, I’m still developing, but I’m okay with that. This is something I currently do for fun, and I don’t expect to be reaching hundreds of people every time I post. In fact, if my Instagram pictures/posts get more than 10 “likes” I feel proud. 

I’m just someone who reads cookbooks, recipes, magazine clippings, internet posts, and then adapts recipes that I like the look of. The amount of adaptation varies depending on the ingredients required (sometimes it’s quite hard to get things in HK that are considered “easy-to-find” in the US or UK), taking humidity into account, my taste buds (or those of who I plan to give the food to), or simply based on what I have in my kitchen.

Having said that, this recipe needs no adaptation from the various recipes all over the internet. I first remember making these during my final year at University. I watched an episode of Saturday Kitchen, and these mushrooms were made. I went out that day and bought the ingredients to try it all out. I’m a huge fan of mushrooms and honey, but blue cheese is a hit and miss for me. Sometimes I really love it, and other times I couldn’t touch it with a barge pole. I don’t know why my tastes for blue cheese vary so much. However, this weekend, I wanted blue cheese and mushrooms.

The best part is that I won some orange blossom honey from our work Christmas party. Each table at the party has a large bag of “table prizes”. Each person at the table draws a ticket from a lai-see packet, and then you get the prize that matches your ticket. Last year I believe I won a bunch of different roasted almonds, which were shared with my colleagues in the office. This year, I got the orange blossom honey. 

It has a slightly bitter aftertaste which I think works beautifully well with the blue cheese and the mushrooms. You can use regular clear honey with this recipe, of course – it’s what I would have done if I hadn’t won the orange blossom honey.

These mushrooms would make a great Christmas party amuse-bouche or canapé. To be fair, they’d make a great amuse-bouche at any party, or even just for yourself. 

Ingredients

1 punnet (about 8) button mushrooms, stalks removed 
50 grams blue cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
salt
pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Place mushrooms onto a baking tray. Crumble cheese into the cavities of the mushrooms.
3. Drizzle olive oil and honey over the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese has melted.
5. Serve warm.