Mini Portobello Cheeseburgers

Today has been a very intense day at work with 4 hours straight of accounting training.  Our company has so many different transactions that there seems to be "an exception" for every rule there is.  This is why I am taking my lunch and writing my blog so late.  I do have a fun night planned though, I am meeting up with two very lovely librarians to enjoy some amazing beer.  My friend Turner has a brother who lives and brews on the east coast, the brewery is Oxbow.  Turner was lucky enough to convince his brother to ship some of this beer to us on the west coast so we finally get to try the infamous beer.  The other person meeting up with us tonight is the most passionate beer man I have ever met.  He lives and breathes beer and even barters with people around the world to taste different beers.  So to say the least I will be in good hands while we enjoy beers and each other's company at Beermongers.  Are you local to PDX?  Do you like Double Mountain Brewery and/or Lardo?  If you said yes to either you should go to this awesome pop-up event that they are putting on in order to help support The Portland Kitchen (look at flyer below).  Ok let's talk food, these burgers were pretty delicious, I adapted this recipe.  I will say choose what style burger you want before making them, you want fancy or traditional?  The original recipe is my traditional and I went fancy adding grilled onions and drizzling balsamic vinegar.  The thing I would change is that I wish I had made a reduced balsamic vinegar glaze because I was looking for a little more sweetness and didn't want to add ketchup to what I had.  Hope you enjoy!

Serves 2 (filling portions)

The Ingredients
6 medium portobello mushrooms
1/2 lb Ground Beef
2 tsp Worcestershire
2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
dash of cayenne
6 small slices sharp Cheddar Cheese
3 cherry tomatoes (I used yellow ones), sliced in half
6 basil leaves
1/4 of an onion, sliced into rings
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar


The Process
1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Remove the stems from your mushrooms and scrap out the gills and put them in a medium bowl.

3.  In the same bowl add the beef, Worcestershire, Parmesan, salt, pepper and cayenne. Mix together until everything is combined.

4.  Stuff the mushrooms with the beef mixture.  Place each mushroom in a baking dish, and place in the oven for approximately 10 minutes.

5.  In the mean time heat a skillet up over medium high heat and add olive oil.  When hot add onions and fry on each side until they start to look brown and charred, about 5 minutes each side.

6.  When 10 minutes are up on the burgers take them out and pile sauteed onions on each burger and top each one with a piece of cheese.  Put back in oven for another 10-15 minutes.

7.  While burgers are cooking add more olive oil to the same hot skillet and put all your tomatoes halves cut face down.  Sautee for about 6 minutes, remove from heat and add a splash of balsamic vinegar in the pan so that it somewhat glazed the tomatoes.

8.  When burgers are done remove from oven and top with fresh basil and tomatoes.  This is when I also drizzled a little more balsamic vinegar over the tops of each one. And eat!