Ingredients
For 4 people
For the portobello steaks:
8 medium to large portobello mushrooms (about 650g), stems removed
10 garlic cloves, peeled
1 onion, peeled and cut into 6 wedges (150g)
1½ tbsp chipotle chilli flakes
1 red chilli (15g)
4 tsp cumin seeds, roughly crushed in a pestle and mortar
1 tbsp coriander seeds, roughly crushed in a pestle and mortar
2 tbsp tomato paste
200ml veg oil - this is half the quantity Ottolenghi specifies (he also specifies Olive oil)
For the butterbean mash:
1 × 700g jar good quality cooked large butter beans, drained (500g)
1½ tbsp lemon juice
1 grated clove garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Preheat the oven to 150 Fan.
Put all the ingredients for the steaks and 1 tablespoon of flaked salt into a large ovenproof saucepan, for which you have a lid. Arrange the mushrooms so they are domed side up, then top with a piece of parchment paper, pushing it down to cover all the ingredients. Cover with the lid, then transfer to the oven for 1 hour. Turn the mushrooms over, replacing the paper and lid, and return to the oven for 20 minutes more, or until the mushrooms are very tender but not falling apart. Use a pair of tongs to transfer the mushrooms to a chopping board, then cut them in half and set aside.
Use a spoon to remove the onion, garlic and chilli (discarding the stem) – don’t worry if you scoop up some of the spices and oil. Put them into the small bowl of a food processor and blitz until smooth. Return the blitzed onion mixture to the saucepan, along with the mushroom halves, and place on a medium-high heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, for all the flavours to come together.
While the mushrooms are cooking, make the mash by putting the beans into a food processor along with the lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, ½ teaspoon flaked salt and 2 tablespoons of water. Blitz until completely smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan and cook on a medium-high heat for about 3 minutes, stirring, until warmed through.
To serve, divide the butter bean mash between four plates. Top with four mushroom halves per plate and spoon over a generous amount of the oil and its accompanying aromatics
Method
Well first post of 2021, as I look back these posts seem to come in blocks, when I have had the muse and tried some dishes, I then get my nose down and tend to post a few new dishes at once. No apologies, just an observation.
so christmas 2020 was unusual to say the least, Coronavirus et al forcing us into strange behaviours. But we made the best of it and mixed it up a little as we went. The Eldest had her Current Boyfriend (he knows who he is) down to visit for a while and as they are both vegetarian, it did lead to some experimentation - but looking for celebratory, luxurious food rather than hair shirt stuff. I am all for veggie/vegan stuff so long as it is tasty in its own terms, and not emulating something else (see Traybake vegan ragu for some commentary here). That said, the title of this post is clearly designed to put you in mind of a non-veggie dish but I think the flavours are sufficiently distinct to allow it this time. What the title tries to provoke is the feeling, the gemuetlichkeit, that the dish has. Pretentious I know, but you understand.
The original recipe if from Ottolenghi's newest book,Flavour. The Eldest gave it to me for Christmas which was very welcome. And so you will see a few recipes from it here. The original recipe calls for Portobello mushrooms and I made this with a mixture of Portobello and large flat field mushrooms. The latter appeared to actually have a better texture in the finished dish. it also called for 400ml of olive Oil which is a hell of a lot (and the recipe even says that you will have lots let over to use for other things) so instead I cut the amount by half, which actually ended well - so that is what I have gone with here.
The recipe also calls for butter bean mash. I actually made a mix of Butter Bean and Canellini beans. I also added some grated garlic to the mix, to bring it more into line with the Nigella recipe I have elsewhere on the blog.
The resulting dish was delicious, feeling meaty and celebratory. It suffers a bit from a texture perspective - I think with a lot of vegetable cookery you need to be careful not to just produce dish after dish of food that does not require teeth. this is as it stands a dish that does not require teeth and both the Eldest and I agreed that the addition of (for example) some onion rings for a bit of texture and crunch would be an improvement.