Thursday, July 29, 2010

grilled mushroom torta

as often i was inspired by rick bayless's tv show, mexico one plate at a time, which by me airs on saturday mornings on pbs. it's reruns now, from last summer, and i wonder if they'll be putting anything new out soon. anyway, housesitting for my mum i had access to a grill again, and was my mouth started to watering when a torta show was rerun. the highlights of this sandwich are the sauces, though everything is good. the black beans were directly inspired by the show and are just cooked with a little roasted garlic, onion, and chile before being pureed. the grilled salsa verde was sublime and very simple.the mushrooms i marinated in a little mojo de ajo (garlic roasted in oil) and balsamic vinegar. for the salsa i took tomatillos, serrano chiles, and red onion and tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper before throwing everything on the grill. when it was all nicely blackened i set the mushrooms aside and took all the salsa ingredients and threw them in the food processor with a handful of cilantro, a bit of olive oil, and a squeeze of lime juice. not only did this produce a nice piquant salsa verde, but the smokiness of the charcoal gave it a wonderful body and depth of flavour. next i took a loaf of french bread, sliced it longways and pulled out most of the crumb.i lightly grilled the bread, then spread the black bean paste over the bottom. i then layered the sliced, grilled mushrooms, cilantro, pepper jack cheese, the salsa verde, and avocado before wrapping the whole thing up tightly in foil and throwing it back on the dying coals for ten more minutes.and then i ate the whole thing. all by myself. one of the best sandwiches i've ever had.

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