Grilled Portobello Burgers

 

A while ago, David & I had a pre-movie dinner at the Mellow Mushroom in Albany, GA.  We don't generally like eating at chains, but there are a couple that measure up to our standards -- Mellow Mushroom is one of them.  They have a large variety of brands of beer on tap, including a respectable number of ales -- this is David's requirement.  I am a wimpy beer drinker, but I do like the menu with a number of sort of exotic or "hippie-type" healthy, but tasty vegetarian offerings. I am often a creature of habit when I go out to eat and generally order the same thing, which varies from restaurant to restaurant, but within a specific restaurant, I have my favorite thing to order every time I go there.  The Mellow Mushroom is different -- I feel compelled to experiment.  I am generally not a "sandwich" person, but I decided to order a grilled hoagie with a cup of their tomato bisque.  The Portobello & Cheese grilled hoagie caught my attention.  It included just about all of my favorite "hippie" foods -- A choice of heated white or whole wheat hoagie roll topped with a grilled portobello mushroom cap, "large enough to fit on your head", slathered with garlic butter (okay -- I love butter, but I prefer garlic & olive oil in this case), with artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, spinach & feta plus garnished with sprouts (alfalfa). I chose the whole wheat roll and immediately worried that it would be dry, heavy and cardboardish like the ones at Subway (Subway is not a favorite place for me to eat).  The hoagie was wonderful and I immediately wondered how to reproduce it at home.  The roll was perfect -- and I knew exactly how to reproduce that -- my homemade whole wheat hamburger buns are only sightly better then the whole wheat rolls at Mellow Mushroom. So, guess what I now order every time I go to Mellow Mushroom?? It also goes very well with their tomato bisque, which I still have not quite been able to reproduce!


When David asked me if I would mind inviting a group of people over for dinner from a training event that his department was conducting, he knew I would say yes.

He then threw in that he would like to grill burgers on his new charcoal grill/smoker that I got him for Christmas -- hamburgers and Morningstar's Spicy Black Bean burgers for the vegetarians. (Yes, that's a Ron Paul campaign sign in front of the compost pile back in my garden - please don't ask!) That's when the light bulb in my head went on full glaring force!  Generally there are a few vegetarians in the group and whenever I cook for one of David's training classes, I need to figure out a menu that pleases both the carnivores and vegetarians.  My famous rice pilaf is a huge hit, with both groups and could actually serve quite handily as a main dish for vegetarians. But this time, the light bulb was blinking a message bright & clear -- "Here's your chance!  Grill some portobello mushrooms!"  I had never done it before and I usually don't like to experiment with a large dinner party of 20-25 people, but I just had to go for it.

Like I said the hamburger rolls were easy, but I had to research the grilling of portobello mushrooms a bit -- do I marinate them or how do I go about this?  Well, my reseach was pretty unanimous that all I had to do was plop the mushroom caps on the grill and brush them with olive oil -- that could be seasoned with fresh thyme leaves, fresh minced garlic and salt & pepper.  There were some suggestions for other things like blue cheese crumbles.  Well, we grilled them and I had grilled & marinated artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes (in olive oil), a selection of provolone, havarti & swiss cheese slices, & alfalfa sprouts, plus the usual condiments (only organic), including hot & spicy mayo. YUM!  We did the spicy black bean burgers too (which I am now trying to figure out how to reproduce).  The portobello burgers did not quite taste the same as at Mellow Mushroom, but it didn't matter, because they were so darn good anyway.  This is definitely a repeater meal for summertime-grilling.  BTW, we also had my special rice pilaf (which again got rave reviews) & a Greek salad, along with Amaretto cheesecake topped with raspberries and whipped cream -- a pretty decent meal, I'd say!