Portobellas and Porcinis at their finest

Just a short note to tell you about a dish I made tonight. Could be served for supper, lunch or breakfast. A vegetarian version of Eggs Benedict, made with portobella and porcini mushrooms, spinach, and other ingredients that lead to a taste of heaven.

Only the one photo this time and I’m not even including the recipe, ‘cause you can easily pop over to Closet Cooking’s blog and find everything you need to know about making Roasted Portobello Mushrooms with Poached Eggs in a Creamy Mushroom Sauce.

What I will share is how I handled the recipe. After all, we all have our preferences in ingredients and styles of cooking, so most of us adapt recipes to suit us.

1. First of all, I’m cooking for one and Closet Cooking’s recipe is for four. So, I quartered the ingredients to the best of my ability.

2. Since I sometimes grill large portobellas in place of hamburgers, I automatically chose a large one for this recipe. Next time, I’ll use a medium sized one. Check your store and you'll find large “Poppa Bear” bellas, tiny “Baby Bear” bellas, but what you want for this recipe is the 2-3 inch “Momma Bear” size.

3. I was worried when I couldn’t find the porcini mushrooms in the produce section ‘till someone pointed out that porcinis come dried and are in the aisle with canned veggies. Allow 20-30 minutes to rehydrate these mushrooms and save the water after you drain it off.

4. Heavy cream, light cream. I say use whatever you like. Me, I chose Half’n’Half. Now I need a recipe to use up the rest of it. I’m working on a raspberry muffin recipe (version 3 coming up) and plan to sub Half’n’Half for the milk. More on this subject in another post.

5. I wish I had steamed the spinach a bit longer, plus I forgot to squeeze out the excess liquid.

My final word on this recipe. Absolutely delicious and easier to prepare than I thought it would be. The Creamy Mushroom Sauce was out of this world and I wished I had had more of it!

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MUSHROOM GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH

I absolutely love food blogs and am subscribed to about a dozen. Tis the season for cookies and other desserts, with a few “healthy” foods in between, for most of them. I have to admit to the same addiction to sweets for this Christmas season.

Today I’m going to back up a week or so to when I made the most delicious Mushroom Grilled Cheese Sandwich. I first saw this sandwich on Closet Cooking - a blog by Kevin in Canada. Be sure to take a look at what he has to offer. These men sure can cook and not just meat and potatoes!

You should see me when I try out someone else’s recipe. Unless I’m absotively sure I’ll be making the recipe numerous times (such as those that include chocolate), I run back and forth to my computer to find out what the next ingredient is and what to do with it.

Meantime, I have a notebook with me in the kitchen and I make notes on what I do different and what I discover about the original recipes.

According to my notebook, I made this sandwich twice. Kevin, if you can be decadent, I can be even more decadent. I’ll tell you and our readers about it in a minute. Meantime, here’s the original recipe and some photos of my version which is not as gooey, melty looking as Kevin’s.




Kevin’s Mushroom Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients...

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, sliced
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
1/4 cup white wine or broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon truffle oil (optional)
1 cup fontina or gruyere, shredded
1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano, grated
4 slices bread
2 tablespoon butter


Directions...
Melt the butter and heat the oil in a pan over medium heat.
Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the garlic and thyme and saute until fragrant, about a minutes.
Add the cremini mushrooms and saute until the start to caramelized and turn golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.
Add the wine, deglaze the pan and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat and let cool a bit.
Mix the cheese into the mushrooms.
Butter one side of each slice of bread and place 2 in the pan buttered side down.
Top each with 1/4 of the mushroom mixture and finally the remaining slices of bread with the buttered side up.
Grill until the cheese has melted and the bread is golden brown, about 2-4 minutes per side.

Okay, so that’s Kevin’s version and here are my notes about my first endeavor:

*The gruyere was expensive, so I purchased the fontina. Good choice, a yummy cheese. The parmigiano reggiano was very expensive, so I ended up choosing a mix of parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano.

*I made one sandwich the first time using a bit less than half the cheese. That’s a lot of cheese! My bread slices were big, so my version doesn’t overflow as much as Kevin’s did.

Here’s my first sandwich...


The next night, I made another sandwich. Be still, my heart. I added a bit of crushed red pepper flakes, just a small amount on the end of a teaspoon. I like a bite of heat, not an overwhelming mouthful. I also added a heaping tablespoon of cream cheese. That’s full fat cream cheese, not lite or fat free!


You’ll notice that the cheese did not melt as much as it did in the first sandwich. Probably because I took it out of the pan sooner than before so it wouldn’t get as brown.

So there you have it. If you’re not totally overloaded on coma-inducing, sugary treats and cholesterol-laden entrees, give Kevin’s Mushroom Grilled Cheese Sandwich a taste. Thanks, Kevin, for letting me use your idea!


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