portobello caps stuffed w/ bleu cheese
Okay, this one I discovered in Toronto when I, once again got suckered into cooking for some friends. (Their theory as to why i should do the cooking is because I am the one with dietary restriction and they don’t know how to cook good meals without meat.)
I was getting ready to prepare the usual, easy, Italian-summer fare, with portobello mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and olive oil in some combination, when my friend suggested stuffing the caps with blue cheese. A light went on. I said get the spinach, a bell pepper, an onion, the caps and the cheese. See you at my place at 18.00. Synchronize watches!
Ingredients:
Portobello mushroom caps (large), approx. one per person.
1/2 pound savory blue cheese
2-3 apples (I like McIntosh, but any tart apple should do), cut into bit-sized pieces
Big bag o’ spinach
short grain, brown rice
1 bell pepper
1 sweet onion
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
fresh sweet basil
You will also need:
a casserole dish, large enough to fit your caps whole plus deep enough for a bed of spinach.
First, mix olive oil and vinegar into the bottom of the casserole dish, along with basil.
Then, lay a bed of spinach, about 1/2 inch thick in the dish. Add apples. Add another layer of spinach and a layer of apples until the layers are almost at the top of the dish.
Place caps up-side-down on the spinach and apples. Fill caps with blue cheese.
Bake in oven on about 350 F until cheese is slightly brown and crispy on top, approx. 20-30 min.
While caps are cooking, cut and saute pepper and onion with a little olive oil.
Cook brown rice (usually at a 2:1 water:rice ratio, but check packaging since brown rice can need more water sometimes).
When rice is finished and veggies are sauteed (remember, this means still a little crunchy), mix together.
When caps are finished take out of oven and let cool for a minute or two. The spinach will have absorbed the oil and vinegar, plus the mushroom juices and will look a little brown and gross. Don’t worry, it’ll still taste great!
I like to serve this as so, with a bed of rice in the center of the plate and the cap on top in the center, being sure to spoon some of the juices from the bottom of the dish over the plate before serving. The juices with be sweet and really compliment the savory cheese and vinegar.
This recipe is dedicated to Hilary (for trying it first and inspiring Kevin to tell me about it), and Kevin (who bled for this meal, and let me run in a new direction with his suggestion).
