Peanut battered mushrooms

Thanksgiving was a welcomed day for me, since it was the first day I truly was able to settle into my new place in St Louis. Adam and I drove 800 miles over two days in snow, rain, and wind to get here, and spending the day indoors was the best idea we had.

Instead of the usual turkey + mashed potatoes and gravy, we did things a little different. He made pork tenderloin, crusted with salt and pepper because that was all the seasonings I had; and I made the salad. Along with these, though, we tried something we've never done before: peanut flour battered mushrooms.

It's hard to describe how I feel about battered mushrooms. I used to hate mushrooms. Since going gluten free, I find that I eat them more and more, and I actually quite like them now. But the battered-bowling alley-style mushrooms have never really been a big hit in my book. I was curious how the peanut-battered ones would turn out.

We used crimini mushrooms, because their size is perfect for battering, and their flavor is pretty good. The batter was 1 cup peanut flour (from Trader Joe's), 1 egg, and Tuscan vinegarette dressing and olive oil to wet the batter; plus a dash of salt and pepper. It was super easy, and I fried them in a saucepan with about 1.5inches-deep pool of olive oil. They were cooked until they turned dark brown.

I actually thought these were pretty darn tasty. The first batch was a little bland, so I added more salt and pepper to the batter and the flavor improved. We also put chevre (garlic and herb) cheese on these and it melted a little to stick to the mushrooms. I'd like to think these were healthier, since they were cooked in olive oil and peanut flour, but I am probably delusional.