Meat, Potatoes, Mom and Portobellos

I owe a lot to my mother. When I was growing up, she diligently prepared a good 1950's style, meat and potatoes, nutritious dinner for our family every night of the week. She was not a born cook either.

At the time of my my parents' marriage, she had never cooked a thing. My grandmother, her mother, was a really good old fashioned, eastern european Jewish cook. Grandma Miriam made delicious chicken soup, completely from scratch Gefilte Fish, Chopped Liver, Pot Roast and Potato Kugel, among many other tasty dishes.

Ii seems odd that my Mom didn't learn to cook at her mother's side, since that was the usual way that girls of that era were taught.  But of the little I remember of my grandmother, she was withdrawn and silent,  with sad accusing eyes.  Perhaps she was too preoccupied to take the time and energy to teach my mother, the only girl of the six kids she had, to cook. Perhaps my mother, quiet girl that she must have been, was too timid to ask anything of her busy and unhappy mother.

Finding herself married in her early twenties, with a colicky newborn and a wayward husband (that's another story ), my mother taught herself to cook. My father liked to tell funny stories of her early cooking failures but I am amazed by her successes.

Ten or twelve years into their marriage, by the time I came around, she had become a good, meat and potatoes cook. She used fresh ingredients and  in spite of the popularity of canned and frozen vegetables, she often made fresh green vegetables in the waterless cookware my father had bought when they first got married.

My mother liked to say I was always a good eater and that is true to this day. I think I love food the way I do because of the good hearty food I grew up on. I remember very clearly that I always loved coming in from a hard day of play to  eat dinner. I was rarely, if ever disappointed in the food set before me and I ate my dinner with gusto as did my brothers.

I admire my mother for learning to cook on her own and I so appreciate the fact that she made the effort to do so. She developed a wonderful repertoire of homey and tasty meals that many family members and friends got to enjoy over the 30 some odd years of my parents' marriage.

I learned to cook by watching my mother. It was not a warm and fuzzy scene with the little me at her side where we wore matching aprons and laughed knowingly together, punctuating our experience with periodic hugs and knowing smiles. And yet it seems like it happened naturally, like osmosis.

I made the same things she did, like her delicious home made French Fries. She made them in a little pink enameled pot, 2/3 filled with sizzling vegetable oil.  She would peel and slice each spud individually and when the oil was just the right temperature, she'd throw them in and wait for them to turn golden brown.
Those fries would emerge as perfect specimens, so crispy and delicious that they didn't even need ketchup.

In the middle of winter, it is as natural to crave rich and hearty fare as it is to crave a cool crispy salad in the height of summer.  Winter is the time when I am most likely to wax nostalgic about the foods I was raised on.  I don't crave the meat. What I long for is the warm homeyness of a substantial tasty meal, prepared with love.

When I spied some very fine looking portobellos at the local produce market and recalled that I had some left over mashed potatoes in the fridge, I was inspired. I thought I would make a savory stuffing for the mushrooms by combining the potatoes with some veggies and herbs.

With their rich deep taste and their meaty texture, portobellos easily satisfy that craving for something filling and rich.  This dish lends itself to a lot of improvising, so try using other vegetables and herbs in the mashed potato stuffing like broccoli, zucchini, red peppers, thyme, rosemary, etc. You can also mix in or top with Daiya cheese substitute for added flavor.

Mashed Potato Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

4 large portobello mushroom caps
2 cups mashed potatoes***
2 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 carrot, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced.
2 Tbs minced garlic
1/4 Cup Fresh Parsley, minced
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs tamari

Pre heat oven or toaster oven to 350

Make a marinade for the mushrooms by combining 1 Tbs olive oil, 2 Tbs garlic, lemon juice and tamari.
Pour marinade over the mushroom caps and let them sit a few minutes while
you prepare the stuffing.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion in the remaining Olive Oil for a few minutes.
Add carrot and saute over low heat till onion and carrot are soft, about 5 minutes.
Add sliced mushrooms and garlic and saute 5 minutes more until mushrooms are soft.
Mix in the mashed potatoes and parsley and heat through.

While veggies are cooking as above, place the marinated Portobellos in a
baking dish and bake about 10- 15 minutes untl soft.
Remove from the oven and stuff each cap with 1/4 of the filling.
Turn the oven up to broil and place in oven for  just a few minutes, unti brown.

Even though my Mom has been gone for several years now, I still get the impulse to give her a call. I would show her this blog post if I could and I'd give her a hug and say thanks for all the planning, shopping, cooking and serving you did over the course of so many years. The fruit of your effort lives on.

Luv,
R