Receta Portabellas Stuffed with Cabernet Onions and Gorgonzola: #SundaySupper
When I moved to a mostly vegetarian diet a couple of years ago, I needed to create some new entrées for the holidays. Let’s face it; whether you’re 2 years old or 75, food is central to festivities, starting with Thanksgiving and continuing all the way through countless holiday parties to New Years Day. So, just two months after my leap into the big green world of vegetarianism, heated debates raged in my extended family over the best way to roast (or deep fry) turkey to get a crispy skin and juicy flesh, while I tried (and failed) to muster interest in tofurkey. Friends discussed whether Christmas Eve dinner should be a standing rib roast with a mustard crust or a simple cioppino stew with hunks of bread, and asked what I thought since I’d recently graduated from culinary school. I thought I should have delayed my vegetarian mission to January.
Creating a vegetarian dinner for Thanksgiving was fairly easy with all the squash arriving at the markets in their whimsical colors, sizes, and shapes. But once that passed, I wanted to put on my dancing shoes for December. It was time to be festive, to bring out my jewels, to toast the year done, and welcome the new one on the horizon. Unfortunately I stumbled through two holiday seasons with uninteresting vegetarian grain pilafs studded with dried apricots, leaving my need for something special unsated.
I vowed this year would be different. I needed something with wine for the touch of exuberance it brings to otherwise stolid dishes. When I saw #SundaySupper team up with Gallo Family Vineyards, and learned I was one of 20 lucky bloggers chosen to create a recipe with their wine and post about it, I saw my opportunity to resolve my dilemma.
I started with tasting a few of GFV’s family of 16 wines, although I’ve been a long-time fan of their Cabernet Sauvignon starting from a blind tasting I attended several years ago when it won the #1 spot. Their crisp Sauvignon Blanc tempted me too, and if I was making a dessert, the white Moscato with tones of honey would have been my choice. All in all, I had a great family of wines to choose from for my kitchen-play.
And before I forget, then head over to a very fun project to create your own family crest. You can create one for your work group, gang of friends, and your family. Have some fun with it! Here’s our family crest! The middle four sections represent our first date over coffee, our marriage in the wine country, the small home we have in the mountains and our even smaller home by the Bay.
But GFV isn’t just a great vintner, they also give back to the community, their larger family. In fact from now until Dec. 31, 2013, they’re partnering with Meals On Wheels Association of America to fight hunger with our Every Cork Counts™ campaign. Every day, 8 million seniors in the U.S. face the threat of hunger – that’s one in every six seniors.
There’s still time to help – and have a little fun! Visit http://www.EveryCorkCounts.com. Just select a wine bottle, and use it to catch the falling corks. GFV will donate $1.00 for every cork caught! In addition, they will donate $5 for every GFV wine cork you send their way (up to $90,000). All you have to do is uncork a bottle of wine to share with your family, and then mail the cork to the GFV family. Corks should be mailed to:
Every Cork Counts
P.O. Box 3017
Grand Rapids, MN 55745-3017
All corks must be postmarked between now and Dec. 31, 2013, and received by January 15, 2014, so run out and get that case today.
If you want to keep up with the Gallo family, go follow them on their social channels:
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And now read on for the recipe I came up with using Portabella mushrooms and Gallo Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon; easy enough for a weeknight dinner, fancy enough for company. And all dressed up for the holidays in pomegranate jewels.
by Susan Pridmore
Serves 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 large yellow onions, sliced
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper, divided
- ¼ cup golden raisins
- 2 cups Gallo Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
- 8 cups baby spinach, loosely packed
- 4 medium portabella mushrooms, stems sliced off
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 1 large sprig of thyme
- 4 tablespoons gorgonzola
- ¼ cup pomegranate seeds
Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the onion slices, and carefully turn with tongs to coat. As they warm, they’ll begin to collapse into the pan. Continue to cook, occasionally stirring, until browned, about twenty minutes.
Add the nutmeg, half of the salt and pepper, and the raisins, and toss to mix into the onions. Cool another five minutes. Pour in the wine, and cook at a rapid simmer until absorbed, about ten minutes. When the pan is fairly dry, add the spinach. Toss in with tongs. Once most of the spinach begins to wilt, remove to a bowl. The spinach will continue to wilt, so don’t wait until it’s completely wilted before removing to the bowl.
Using the same sauté pan, heat up the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Clean the cap and gills of the mushrooms using a brush or paper towel. I reserve a pastry brush for this, which does a great job of brushing dirt out of hidden nooks and crannies. If they feel dry, rub a little olive oil on their surfaces. But only a little. Mushrooms are very absorbent.
Place the mushrooms, cap side down, in the pan and cook for two – three minutes. Add the vegetable broth and thyme, and flip the mushrooms over. Cover the pan and cook for another two – three minutes. Flip again, and season the mushrooms with the remaining salt and pepper. Divide the onion – spinach mixture between the four mushrooms and top each with one tablespoon gorgonzola. Reduce the heat to medium, cover the pan, and cook for an additional two minutes.
Place the stuffed mushrooms on a serving plate and shower their beauty with pomegranate jewels.
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Our contributors have had such a fun this week coming up with beautiful recipes around two of the Gallo Family Vineyards Wines, Moscato and Cabernet Sauvignon. Not only did we have fun cooking with wine, we wanted to share with you some of our favorite Holiday Traditions and Recipes. Wait until you see some of these recipes — they are out of this world!
Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. Check out our#SundaySupper Pinterest board for more fabulous recipes and food photos.
Compensation was provided by Gallo Family Vineyards via Sunday Supper, LLC. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Gallo Family Vineyards.
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