Monthly Archives: May 2012

Portobello Mushroom Sandwich — It’s Amazing.

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“I can’t believe we’re sitting here eating mushroom sandwiches.” My husband took another bite of the thick sandwich filled with a mix of sauteed portobello slices, onions, garlic and spinach. “A year ago, we wouldn’t have gone near a mushroom,” he said.

He was right. Until we’d gone hunting for chanterelles with Dick Ojakangas in Duluth last August, we had no idea what we’d been missing as mushroom-challenged individuals. The moment we tasted the chanterelles that Beatrice Ojakangas had sauteed, we were hooked. And that opened up a whole new world of culinary magnificence to us. You can read about that mushroom-enlightening experience on a blog post I wrote last year. Just click here to get to that story.

Since that mushroom turnaround last year, I went to Mushroom Camp, joined the Paul Bunyan Mushroom Club, tramped through the woods on a few forays and have been eating mushrooms with enjoyment. Nothing from a can, though. Only fresh mushrooms will do for my palate.

These Portobello Mushroom Sandwiches have become a favorite. It takes little time to slice up a couple of large Portobellos and marinate them for a few minutes in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Italian seasoning blend. While the mushroom slices marinate, you can saute the onion and garlic, adding some fresh spinach or kale that wilts in just seconds. Then, add the mushroom slices, cook for a few minutes and serve on toasted bread slices.

It’s a gourmet sandwich. It takes minutes to make. We think it’s amazing — in more ways than one!

The Confetti Bean Salad in my column this week goes well with Portobello Mushroom Sandwiches. You can get the Bean Salad recipe by clicking here.

You might also enjoy Mushroom Crostini. I posted that recipe on this blog not too long ago. Click here for that recipe.

Marinated Portobello Mushroom Sandwich

  • 2 Portobello mushrooms, stems removed, tops dusted with a dry paper towel
  • 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus 1 tablespoon for cooking
  • 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons dried Italian seasoning blend
  • 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
  • 4 chubby cloves garlic, sliced
  • 2 or 3 handfuls baby spinach leaves or baby kale leaves
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • Bread slices, toasted or grilled

Prepare marinade by whisking 3/4 cup olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Italian seasoning together.  Cut portobello mushrooms into slices about 1/4-inch thick.  Arrange slices in a 9-x 13-inch glass baking dish in a single layer. Pour marinade over the slices. Use your fingers to rub mixture over the slices, coating them completely. Turn slices over and  make sure all of the cut sides are coated. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 12-inch skillet (cast iron works well) over medium heat. Add onions to hot oil and saute until soft. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Add spinach or kale and cook until wilted.  Add mushrooms, scraping any leftover marinade from the dish into the skillet. Stir and cook for about 5 or 6 minutes, until mushrooms are tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve on toasted or grilled bread slices. Makes 4 sandwiches, depending on size of bread slices.

Tip from the cooks

We like to brush both sides of bread with a light coating of olive oil and toast them in our grill pan on the stove.

Rhubarb. Roasted. Honey-Glazed. Sigh.

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Bemidji’s Natural Choice Farmers Market opened for the season yesterday. I was there with my market bag, filling it with fresh butter lettuce, baby turnips, green onions and beautiful rosy red radishes. Oh, and I can’t forget the homemade bread.

I spotted long, slender stalks of rhubarb, too. I didn’t need to buy that, though. A friend supplied me with several pounds of beautiful rhubarb, one of my favorite vegetables of spring.

Vegetable, you ask? Yes. As Kim Ode, author of the recently published cookbook, “Rhubarb Renaissance,” explained in a class she taught at Byerly’s in St. Louis Park last week, since we are accustomed to using rhubarb in desserts sweetened with sugar, we think of it as a fruit. In fact, it is a vegetable that was first used for medicinal purposes centuries ago.

Other things I learned about rhubarb from Ode:

  • Rhubarb is almost 95% water. It’s not necessary to use a lot of liquid when cooking the tart vegetable. It releases moisture as it breaks down during the cooking process.
  • To make an eye-pleasing batch of rhubarb sauce, stir in a tiny bit of red food coloring paste.
  • Although the combination of rhubarb and strawberries is classic (I still have dreams about my grandma’s strawberry-rhubarb pie), it’s become a little tired. Ode suggests stepping out of the traditional rhubarb (dessert) box and exploring new flavor combinations that result in savory appetizers, salads, side dishes and entrees. She offers many savory rhubarb recipes in her book.

I never buy rhubarb. Rhubarb is a lot like zucchini — people who have it growing in their garden usually have plenty to give away. Some years I must work harder than others to find a source for my favorite spring and early summer vegetable. If all else fails, I buy it at the farmers market.

When I have a generous amount of rhubarb, I use some of it to make Roasted Honey-Glazed Rhubarb Sauce. Roasting rhubarb in the oven brings out its flavor and allows it to hold its shape. When chunks of rhubarb are cooked on the stove, it breaks down and becomes a stringy compote.

This time, I added some pomegranate molasses to the sauce as it cooled in the baking dish. That’s another tip I gleaned from my time in Ode’s rhubarb class. Pomegranate molasses, often used in Middle Eastern cooking, is a thick, slightly sweet syrup that adds a sophisticated depth of flavor to rhubarb sauce. Pomegranate molasses is stocked in most supermarkets these days. I found my bottle in the section with all of the syrups.

Honey sweetens the juicy rhubarb as it spends time in the oven. Adding pomegranate juice to the baking dish enhances the color of the sauce and helps create deliciously syrupy juices. A split vanilla bean added to the roasting dish contributes luxurious mellow creaminess to the mouth-watering sour-fruity rhubarb.

I use a little cornstarch to barely thicken the sauce as it bubbles in the oven. If you like a thicker sauce, use an additional teaspoon or two of cornstarch.

Just as rhubarb itself, Roasted Honey-Glazed Rhubarb Sauce is versatile. Spoon it over angel food cake or pound cake. Eat it for breakfast with yogurt and granola. It makes a delicious topping for ice cream, pancakes and waffles. When you make Brenda Langton’s Rhubarb Cake that I have in my column this week (click here for that recipe), float pieces of the cake in shallow pools of Roasted Honey-Glazed Rhubarb Sauce and top each piece with a puff of sweetened whipped cream.

It’s traditional rhubarb sauce with a twist — definitely not tired.

Rhubarb recipes you might enjoy from some of my earlier blog posts:

Rhubarb Ginger Tart

Glorious Day Rhubarb-Strawberry Muffins

Bickey Bender’s Rhubarb Nut Bread

Old-Fashioned Rhubarb Peach Coffee Cake

Rhubarb Blueberry Nut Muffins

Good Neighbor’s Rhubarb Dessert

Rhubarb Cream Scones with Orange Thyme

Better-Than-A-Biscuit Strawberry Rhubarb Scones

Rhubarb roasts in a mixture of honey and pomegranate juice in a glass baking dish.

Roasted Honey-Glazed Rhubarb

  • 2 pounds trimmed and washed rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces (it will measure about 7 1/2 cups)
  • 3/4 cup honey, preferably local
  • 1/2 cup pomegranate juice plus 2 tablespoons
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 3-inch piece vanilla bean, split open down center
  • 3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place rhubarb pieces in a large mixing bowl. Add honey and stir until rhubarb is completely coated with honey. Add 1/2 cup pomegranate juice and stir. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining 2 tablespoons pomegranate juice. (I do this in a custard cup and use my  clean finger to mix it up.) Add the cornstarch mixture to the mixing bowl and stir until it is blended evenly into the rhubarb mixture.

Dump rhubarb mixture into a shallow glass baking dish. A 13- x 9-inch baking dish works well. Push the split vanilla bean into the mixture.

Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for about 25 minutes, gently stirring every 10 minutes. Mixture should bubble and begin to thicken slightly. Rhubarb should be very tender.

Remove dish from oven. Add pomegranate molasses and gently stir to blend. Allow mixture to cool in dish at room temperature. Store, tightly sealed, in refrigerator. Makes about 4 cups.

Tip from the cook

  • Add a sprig of fresh lemon thyme to the roasting rhubarb for lovely aroma and flavor.

 

 

Green Scene No-Bake Energy Bites

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I was on a mission. I needed more Green Scene No-Bake Energy Bites. I had been to the cozy organic market and deli just the week before. The half dozen Energy Bites I grabbed from the Green Scene deli lasted only minutes in the car on my way home. I did save a couple for the peanut butter monster I live with. Now, I was on the road to Walker for more of those addictive Energy Bites.

The sweet fragrance of onions and garlic cooking together in a pan hit my nose when I walked into Green Scene. I could see Chef Kristin Melby working at the stove in the open stainless steel kitchen situated in a corner of the small organic market in Walker, Minnesota. The owner of Green Scene, Erin Andrus, was visiting with a customer. It was Thursday, and this customer had come to pick up one of the weekly organic produce boxes Andrus has been offering to people in her community way before she opened her store on June 1, 2011.

Green Scene was started by a woman with a mission. In 2007, when her local grocery store stopped carrying organic produce, Andrus got a special permit from the city and with her friend, Theresa Bilben, started a business in her garage. Her customers would drop their coolers off at her house on Wednesdays. She would pack them with organic and local produce she sourced from farmers in the area and from the Twin Cities. Her customers came back on Thursdays to pick up their loaded coolers as well as recipes Andrus supplied so that people would know how to prepare the fresh vegetables and fruit they took home.

“I grew up in a food-obsessed family,” said Andrus. “My grandpa had a large vegetable garden. I would pick green peppers and eat them like apples. When my family ate meals together, we’d talk about what we’d eat for our next meal.”

It was this appreciation for good-tasting food and her desire to educate people about good food that brought the energetic young mother from one garage to another. Green Scene is housed in a building that was once a body shop garage.

I browsed the few short aisles of gourmet organic groceries. Sun semi-dried tomatoes from Italy and a bag of dried sprouted mung beans went into my sack. I couldn’t pass up a bag of granola made of sprouted organic buckwheat groats, organic dates, sprouted flax seeds and organic raisins. I had to add a loaf of the locally-made artisan bread to my stash on the counter. Strolling through Green Scene is a food-lover’s delight.

When Andrus looked over my purchases, she immediately kicked into her excited good-food educator mode. “Oh, mince up these sun semi-dried tomatoes and put them on a dish along with the oil the tomatoes are packed in. Dip thick slices of that bread into it. It’s amazing.”

I was offered a taste of the Balsamic Green Beans with Kale that Chef Kristin was working on when I arrived. Turns out the aroma of onion and garlic that drifted to my nose was shallots she had sautéed for the green bean dish. Delicious.

Goods in the Green Scene organic produce box I purchased

I left the store with a bag full of groceries, a box of fresh organic produce, some spinach hummus with the recipe and No-Bake Energy Bites with the recipe. Mission accomplished. Oh, happy day!

Use a strong spoon to blend the ingredients for Green Scene No-Bake Energy Bites. Honey sweetens the mixture of peanut butter, oats, ground flax seeds, chocolate chips and coconut. Children will have fun rolling the no-bake dough into balls. It’s best to keep the Energy Bites in the refrigerator. The two dozen peanut buttery balls did not last long in my refrigerator. The peanut butter monster in my house ate them right up.

These Bites are a good snack to have in the refrigerator for children this summer. Runners can get a burst of energy after popping a couple of Energy Bites. Anyone can satisfy a sweet tooth just by eating one or two or six Green Scene Energy Bites.

The recipe for Green Scene Spinach Hummus is in my column this week. Click here to get to that recipe.

Green Scene is located at 617 Michigan Avenue in Walker, Minnesota, right next to Super One Foods and the Sanford Clinic. It’s just a block or two off of the bike trail, making it a convenient stop for weary bikers to grab a snack from the deli.

Learn more about Green Scene’s weekly produce boxes, their deli and catering and their cooking classes by visiting their web site. Click here.

Green Scene No-Bake Energy Bites

Recipe provided by the kind people at Green Scene, Walker, MN
 
  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup coconut flakes
  • ½ cup ground flax seeds
  • ½ cup mini chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly blended. Let mixture chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Roll into 24 balls and enjoy. Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.