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.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
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4 comments:
"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."
Take him up on this. The spinach-mushroom burgers were delicious. Thanks for a fun night Matt!
-Sincerely,
Beauty and the Beast
Very strange. My friend Amanda lived in Asheville and she was just recently telling me about this fantastic place called the Asheville Brew and View because of all of the things it has there...a brewery, food, movies (I think), etc...her favorite thing was a video game called Dance Dance Revolution Extreme. Do you know of it?
I don't know it, but I have an idea of what she's talking about from something similar I saw on TV once. Nice moustache, by the way.
sfmufo: The Italian smurf, known for his traveling acrobatics show.
Ahhh, if I only I could fly... Of course, you'd expect me to not want anything you make. Perhaps you'd be surprised, though, as you are still the only one to have gotten me to try venison.
Wishing I could stop in on a whim,
KWJ
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