Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Portobello Push


Portobello Mushrooms, the vegetarians steak. Mushrooms, Portobello's in this particular recipe, are quite versatile and can be used in all manner of cooking, baking and grilling. Many of you remember the scene in Forrest Gump, when Bubba was reciting all the different ways to make shrimp. Well the Portobello could just as easily be inserted there. Portobello sandwiches, Portobello salad, grilled Portobello, stuffed Portobello, so on and so forth. And with vegetarianism being much more chic these days, Portobello's and the rest of the fungus family have become quite the rage.

There are a few variations of the history of the Portobello and how it got its name, but the one that I like the best (and the one that seems most feasible to me) is that the portobello in Northern Italy is called "cappellone" which means "big hat". Whatever its name origination, the only thing we need to know is that it is some good eatin'.

I have dabbled in the past with stuffing Portobello Mushrooms and grilling them on a charcoal grill, which came out quite good, but this is a newer revised recipe that I threw together a couple weeks ago. Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

8 medium to large Portobello Mushrooms, stems included.
2 or 3 green onions
1/2 Cup Feta Cheese
1/2 Cup Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
3 to 4 pieces of white bread
1 egg
Dried Sage (2 or 3 pinches)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive Oil

Preparation

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and set aside. Then using a small spoon or butter knife, scoop out the dark inside of the caps and discard. Dice up the stems that you had set aside along with with the green onions. Add the stems and green onion to a frying pan with enough olive oil to grease the pan and sautee over medium high heat until the onions are soft and most of the liquid has been cooked out of the stems. Set aside and let cool a bit.
In a bowl add the Feta and Cheddar Cheese, two or three pinches of sage, and salt and pepper to taste. Toast the slices of bread until they are very dark (but not burnt) and then crumble them into small bits into the bowl with the cheese. The bread bits should be pretty small, to basically make your own bread crumbs. You can substitute store bought bread crumbs here as well, but I didn't have any on hand and this worked out great. Beat the egg, and then add it to the mixture. Add the sauteed mushroom stems and onion and stir the entire mixture until it has all blended well.

Rub the backs of the mushroom caps with olive oil and place oil side down in a large baking dish. Then using a spoon, scoop the mixture into the mushroom caps. It is completely fine to overstuff them! Once all caps have been filled with the mixture, place in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Serve hot. We had this with corn on the cob and grilled chicken and it was an excellent dinner!