Speaker: We got some big portobellos, we are going to marinade those. We are going to put them into a burger with some lovely provolone cheese and in the end, it's going to be the ultimate vegetarian indulgence.
With this burger, we are going to put our mushrooms into bun and there are two types of buns that you can use. The first one which hasn't been cooked, we are going to put into the oven and that will take about 20 minutes because those are already par-cooked, and what they are is that would be lovely crispy burgers. Now the other type that I have is a precooked one. Now let's find, I have traveled all over the world cooking and if you are in America, people might like that softer bun that's already cooked, and if you are in Europe, people seem to favor that crunchy one. So we have got the option; you cook whichever one you feel happiest with.
Now I am going to take those cooked buns off and we are going to put our two crispy ones into the oven. They should take about 15 to 20 minutes to cook. So the first thing that we are going to look at are our mushrooms. These are portobello mushrooms and you will usually find that they are about eight centimeters across at the maximum and sometimes a little bit smaller. Now to clean these, there is two options. As you can see, these ones are very nice. You want to try to avoid any dark blemishes, any warty bits on the skin. And I find whenever you did get a really bruised mushroom, you could just look for that little edge and peel the skin back like that. You could take all of that skin off.
But what we are going to do, because these are beautiful and fresh, is we are just going to leave them exactly as they are. With mushrooms, you never ever wash mushrooms. If you wash mushrooms, they are going absorb that water. You are going to put them into your pan and they are just going to stew away and that's not what we are looking for at all. We want the beautiful really nice caramelized texture on the outside of that mushroom.
So, if you want to wash it, just get a nice thin cloth and pad it. If you just want to take the small amount of dirt that might be remaining there, so you just pad it. Portobello mushroom really absorbs flavor nicely. So we are going to try and marinade them and get as many of those nice flavors in there.
I got some garlic to start off with, on the bench, crush it like that and when you crush it, that skin will come off in one easy action. It couldn't be any easier than that. So we are just going to chop that nice and fine. Take your time. Very good way to mask the smell of garlic, you have that garlic breathe and you want to rid of it. There is a little bit of chopped parsley, just chew a little piece of parsley. So in that goes. I have also got some nice chopped shallot. One nice chopped red bell pepper. Add some balsamic vinegar.
Now use the best quality balsamic vinegar you could have. You'll find there's different balsamic vinegars; the older it gets, the more expensive it is. So the next thing that we are going to add is some wonderful fresh basil. I've picked these leaves off the stalk and as we always do, we are just going to lay them on top of each other like this. This is the effect that instead of chopping one leaf at a time, once we layer them all up and roll them like a cigar or cigarette, you can getting the effect that you chop them all nice and thinly in one smooth action.
One more nice twist to add and that's of lemon. I first discovered this dish when I was in Italy and the best lemon to use is amalfi lemon. They are the big ones that have the piece of green stick on it. If they are not available, a regular lemon will do. In it goes, so let marinade this, really starting to take shape now. Just like that. We just bring that marinade together. We are going to turn our mushrooms upside down and those gills that you have there. The marinade is going to split over there and it's just going to soaked down into those mushrooms nice and slowly.
So on it goes. Make sure you've divided evenly between all of the mushrooms. The last one, so drop them in like that. The last thing I want to do is add a lovely little extra virgin olive oil, I am just going to drizzle a little piece of that over each mushroom. Now we are going to set those aside and we are going to allow all the flavors to start intermingling and I think that process will take about 20 minutes.
So now that the portobellos have finished marinating, we are ready to cook them. I am going to bring them over and light my grill on a nice medium heat. The beauty about this dish is it's just as home here on the grill as it would be outside on the barbecue. Now I can check into my oven just before I grill my mushrooms and I can see that those lovely burger buns have crispened up beautifully. I give them a tap, yeah they are cooked. Now what we have here is little herb oil. I made this up this morning that's great for grilling ; anything from portebellon mushrooms to a little fish. I have got a sprig of rosemary, a sprig of thyme and just some crushed garlic. The same way we crushed the garlic, just bang it and put it straight in there.
So what I do is I just paint the bottom of my pan and what this ensures is that we got a nice even distribution of the oil. We really don't want to make these too greasy. I think they were aligned with that nice clean flavor. So I am going to grill them nice and slowly, in they go. You can hear a small sizzle there. Now what's going to happen is as that heat slowly transfers up through the mushrooms that is going to meet the marinade coming down that we put in earlier and there is going to be an explosion of flavors in there.
So my mushrooms have been cooking away for three or four minutes on that nice low heat and if I just have a peek under there, I can see that they are starting to take some color. So what I want to do is I am just going to get a nice piece of tin foil and I am just going to place that over the mushrooms. Then we are going to turn that temperature right down to the lowest possible heat. Those are just going to slowly brace away with those incredible flavors and that next process should take about seven or eight minutes and when that's finished, we will be ready to build those burgers.
So I am getting those great smells coming under, they have been in there for seven minutes. I am just going to have a little peek and those look perfect to me. If you are not sure whether they are done or not yet, just feel the edge and you can see that there is little bit tender. Those are looking incredible. There's one last luxurious touch that I have add to these burgers and that's of slice of provolone cheese. That cheese is going to melt nicely down into those burgers.
I was just thinking to myself these are perfect for vegetarians and I am just going to pop that tin foil back on. If you are cooking in the oven, put it back into the oven for 30 seconds. We are going to leave that there. What I am actually going to do is I am going to turn the heat off, because there is enough temperature underneath there, so it will slowly melt that cheese. Then in the time that cheese takes a melt, I am going to start getting my bread ready to finish the burgers.
So what I am doing is I am just running my knife through those nice crispy buns, I have to say I really prefer the crispy ones over the precooked ones, just got that lovely texture and that's going to compliment those burgers perfectly. So now at this stage, if we go back and peek under here, we will be able to see aren't those just the ultimate vegetarian. Now vegetarian food has that stigma, it may be being a little bit boring and you wouldn't eat it that much yourself, I think anybody will enjoy those. So we just with a little spatula transfer them over to our plate.
So what I am going to do is I am going to put those into my buns and then we are ready to serve.
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