Portabella Mushroom Rockefeller - Meatless Monday

Our dinner on Sunday night.
12 o'clock - Portabella Mushroom Rockefeller
6 o'clock - Israeli Couscous with Saffron, Olives and Vegetables

I saw a recipe in my new Vegetarian Times magazine titled Oyster Mushrooms Rockefeller. I thought wow that sounds good. Let's see what's in it. What I was looking for was whether I had the items on hand.

I know I've said it before but I don't make special trips for ingredients. EVER! If I don't have the stuff on hand I don't make the recipe or I substitute. My theory on this is that if you are making several trips to the store for special ingredients that you don't keep on hand then you are just wasting money. Sure, if you are planning to make something that has ingredients that you don't normally keep on hand and add them to your weekly grocery list that's okay but if you've done your shopping for the week and that item is not on the list then it will have to wait until next week.

So with that on my mind I went through the list of ingredients in the magazine recipe.

1. Oyster mushrooms - I don't really keep these on hand. They are expensive and my local grocery store doesn't carry them. I'd have to go into the big city. I hate driving to the Central Market. Houston drivers are crazy.
   
2. Fennel - not on my list. I'm not really big on fennel. It tastes like licorice to me. I don't like licorice. Make that I hate licorice. This is the same reason that I don't use or grow tarragon. JR loves licorice but I have convinced him that it isn't good for him. Don't tell on me.
   
3. Shallots - these are just expensive and mild onions. I never buy them. They are really small which makes them hard to chop. But, the real reason is that with my exceptional knife skillz I am bound to take a finger off trying to chop these things.
   

Could I still make this recipe? Sure I could. With a few substitutions.
Okay, with a lot of substitutions.
Okay, with most everything substituted.
At this point the recipe was nothing like the one in the magazine with the exception of the process. I'll give you my recipe. Check out the April issue for the original.



Portabella Mushroom Rockefeller

1 large Portabella mushroom, gills removed and large chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 - 10 ounce package of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dried
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped sweet or green onion (I used green)
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon black truffle oil
4 small slices or 1 tablespoon per ramekin mozzarella cheese (any mild white melting cheese will do)

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat 4 ramekins with olive oil. Equally divide and spread mushrooms in each ramekin.
  
• Thaw spinach, place in a clean dish towel or paper towels. Squeeze as much of the water out as you can. Split up between the ramekins. Covering the mushrooms.
• Whisk together mayonnaise, mustard, onions, garlic and truffle oil. If you don't have truffle oil substitute 1 tablespoon olive oil and a teaspoon of sage or tarragon. Divide and spread over spinach until well covered. Top with cheese.
• Bake 15 minutes. Change the oven to the broiler. Broil until brown and bubbly.
  

Makes 4 servings. About 250 calorie per serving and lots of fiber.

JR loved this so much that he had two servings. I have one left over for my lunch. Which is in two more hours. I'm not sure I can wait.

BTW, that couscous? Awesome! Also, from VT but I didn't have the ingredients so once again I improvised. The leftovers will be part of dinner tonight. I love a two-fer.

Give the mushrooms a try. If you don't like mushrooms (what is wrong with you) you'll hardly taste them in this recipe or you could substitute sliced zucchini or yellow squash. Eggplant would also be great.

Love,
M

Room and Board

Took a quick trip to Denver last week.

This is the bed and breakfast that I stayed in.
Cool house, huh?

It was right on the bus line.
That was a plus because that is how we were getting around.
Denver has a pretty good bus system.
I was really impressed but I impress really easily when it comes to bus service.
Why? Because Houston is not known for its public transportation. I couldn't take the bus to work if I tried. There is no bus service from my house to my work. Sad huh?
Getting from the airport to the B&B was really easy.
And the people on the bus, drivers and passengers, were more than ready to help out an idiot out-of-towner.

My new friend Glee and I had the whole B&B to ourselves.
Two 50 year old menopausal librarians sharing the same room.
The innkeeper may never be the same again.

We couldn't figure out the significance of the dead Ficus in front of the windows.
Or why the wing chairs are guarding the entrance of the tower.

The food was okay.
They were happy to cater to my culinary oddity. This was baked chili rellenos. A little on the salty side but not bad.
The service was wonderful
The second evening we were there the innkeeper sent his granddaughter up with our nightly tea and cookies. She was a 9 year old delight.

There's Glee, standing in front of the B&B as we were leaving.
She didn't want me to get her in the picture.
Too late!
She'll learn next time to get out of the way.

Now on to Sunday night dinner. There was a sale on Portabella mushrooms at our local Kroger. They are one of our favorites for burgers. So on our way home from the grocery store we stopped at Lowes to fill up the propane tank of the grill.

I decided that Greek stuffed Portabella burgers were what we were going to have. Here is proof of the yummy gooey goodness. With spiced baked steak fries. Yummy!


This is the simplest of dinners. Scrap the gills out of the portabella. Pour a little vinaigrette into the stem pool of the mushroom. Coat with olive oil. Grills stem side up for about 5 minutes. Flip. Grill over another 3 minutes. Flip so the stem side is up again. Layer the following into the mushroom pool; thin sliced onions, chopped Kalamata olives, sliced tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella cheese. Shut the lid of the grill, turn the heat down and cook for another 5 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Place on a toasted bun with hummus spread on one side and mayo and lettuce on the other. Sandwich the mushroom between the two halves. Enjoy.

JR loved everything. He would argue the point but I don't think he really misses the meat. This is a very quick meal that would make a great meatless Monday meal. Leave off the bun to have a gluten free dinner.

I think that catches you up on my travels and dinner.