Roasted Portabella Mushroom with Sherry Sauce

Lately I have felt inspired to cook pretty much every night this week, which, truth be told, doesn't happen too often.  Teaching classes, working full time and hanging out with the Hubby sometimes makes it difficult to get up the energy to go back into the kitchen and make a nice full meal.  (Thankfully though we do not yet have children, or on top of everything else, we would have to cook every night!)  Well, happily for the Hubby's belly, I have been in the mood lately to make nice dinners, and tonight was no exception. 

I have been going through my tons of cookbooks lately to get inspiration for cooking fun things for dinner.  If I do not periodically go through these books, I feel like I'm making and serving the same thing over and over again and get tired of it very easily.  I'm sure the Hubby feels the same although he would never say anything of the sort.  So, I was going through a cookbook, and saw a roasted portabella mushroom dish that called for a sherry sauce, and used it as a base to create the delicious dinner we had.  It included white rice (the Hubby is Dominican and is against any kind of rice other than white), some leftover baked seitan, sesame kale and the roasted portabella mushrooms with the sherry sauce.  Two of the recipes are outlined below:

Roasted Portabellas with Sherry Sauce:



Roasted Portabella Mushroom, Sesame Kale, White Rice & Seitan



2 portabella mushrooms, destemmed and rinsed
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and black pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste

Sherry Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
1/4 cup sherry
1 1/2 cups roasted mushroom stock
1 tablespoon unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed with fingers
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Sesame Kale:
1 bunch kale, washed, deveined and chopped into bite sized pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 pinches of sea salt - do not add more

1.  Start roasting the mushrooms.  Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil and place mushrooms on top.  Drizzle both sides with the olive oil and sprinkle the top and bottom of each mushroom with sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder at 400 degrees.  This will take about 15 minutes.
2.  Make the sherry sauce.  Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic, cooking for about 2-3 minutes, then add the rubbed sage, dried rosemary and thyme, sea salt and black pepper, continuing to cook for an addition 2-3 minutes.  Deglaze with the sherry- do not pour directly from the bottle.  Allow the sherry to reduce by half before continuing onto the next step.
3.  Once half of the sherry has evaporated, add the flour and whisk until it is completely smooth and thick.  Add the stock and whisk continuously until everything is well mixed.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat.  Continue simmering until sauce is thick and has reduced slightly.  Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
4.  Make the sesame kale.
5.  Place the kale on a sheet tray and drizzle with the oil, using your fingers to massage it in.  Sprinkle the sea salt evenly over the kale and stick in the oven with the roasted mushrooms.  This needs to cook for 10-12 minutes and will become nicely crisp on top. 
6.  Once the mushrooms are done, drizzle the sauce over top (or you can do what I did and eat the mushrooms as they are because they're so tasty that way and use the sauce for something else).  Serve the kale on the side.  Yum!

Enjoy!

-K