Here We Are, Now. Entertain Us.

I've been entertaining a lot this past week, having folks over for dinner and drinks out on my back porch. I had forgotten how much I enjoy having folks over for dinner. Living in a small place and on a limited budget means that dinner parties are more or less out of the question, and since I don't have a proper table to sit at and eat in doors, even small parties are fairly impossible in the winter. The upshot of that is that I don't cook as much as I would like. Cooking for one is distinctly different than cooking for lots of people. I tend to make myself simple, small meals--like pastas and rice dishes--that I can eat in a sitting without too many leftovers. If I make larger, more complicated recipes, I can't eat it fast enough, so I end up wasting food. I hate wasting food.

So with all of the people coming by this week, I decided to take the opportunity to cook a couple of feasts. I'm particularly proud of the mushroom-spinach burgers I made on Thursday, so here's the recipe for any of you folks who want to try it out.

Mushroom-Spinach Burgers
Inspired by the Asheville Brew and View (and particularly by a failed attempt to find the same in Chicago when Amanda was visiting a couple of years back)

2 lbs portabello mushrooms
1 bag of baby spinach
1 medium onion (in truth, this was half a large onion and some leftover of another onion, but I estimate it came out to roughly as much as one medium onion)
2 eggs
Bread crumbs
Garlic, thyme, basil, and other herbs to taste

I washed the portabellos and spinach, then chopped the portabellos until they were coarse. Just enough to get them into manageable pieces to sautee. Sauteed the portabellos in a large skillet, then added a good portion of white wine. Enough to essentially boil the shrooms for a bit. After that cooked for a while, I slowly added the spinach--putting the lid on the skillet when I did, so that the spinach would wilt and cook into the mushrooms--until I had added the whole bag of spinach and cooked everything until the liquid portion was gone. After that, I tossed the whole mess of mushrooms and spinach into a food processor and blended until it was good and pureed. I'd rather have had them a bit chunkier, but my food processor doesn't do that very well.

I also ran the onion through the processor, then tossed everything into a bowl and mixed it well. Added the two eggs and the bread crumbs until the mixture was firm. Then I formed it into patties and broiled them.

They were a little mushy, but all in all, they were really good, especially for a first attempt at a burger clone. The next time I try it, I'm going to leave about a third to one half of the mushrooms out of the puree and simply chop them up so that there's a bit more of a meaty feeling. Also going to add more egg and use either matzoh meal or oats instead of bread crumbs. The ultimate goal being to have a burger pattie that's firmer than the ones I had. I've also found that they firm up pretty nicely when I reheat them the next day, so I might give them more time to set before I broil them.

In the mean time, if anyone wants to come over my place for a bite to eat, let me know. The oven's all fired up and ready for you.