Recipe - Grilled Portobello Club

FOR THE BASIL PUREE
1 One half teaspoon Chopped garlic
4 tablespoon Olive oil
1 tablespoon Lemon juice
1 bn Fresh basil

FOR THE SALAD
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 Bay leaf
1 cup Pearl barley
3 cup Water
Salt and pepper; to taste
4 Portobello mushrooms
1/3 cup Olive oil
1 Zucchini
1 md Red onion

To make basil puree: In blender or food processor, combine garlic and olive
oil. Process ingredients until smooth. Add lemon juice and basil. Blend
entire mixture until smooth. You may have to stop machine once or twice to
scrape walls of blender to redistribute ingredients.

To make the salad: In large, heavybottomed saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon
olive oil over medium heat. Add bay leaf and pearl barley and toast
lightly, stirring, about 3 minutes. Add 3 cups water and One fourth teaspoon salt.
Cover and simmer until barley is doubled in size (about 40 to 50 minutes).
Drain any excess water and spread grains on baking sheet to cool.

Remove stems of portobello mushrooms. Toss mushrooms with One fourth cup of the
olive oil and salt and pepper. Slice zucchini into rounds on the diagonal.
Slice red onion into rounds. Toss both with remaining olive oil, salt and
pepper. Grill all vegetables over medium flame, then chop mushrooms and
onion into small pieces.

To serve: Combine chopped portobellos with cooked barley and red onion. Mix
in about onethird of the basil puree (refrigerate remaining puree for
another use). Spoon salad over grilled zucchini slices. Adjust seasonings
to taste.

Grilled portobello mushrooms with pearl barley, zucchini and roasted red
peppers. This salad pairs ancient and modern tastes. Barley dates back to
the Stone Age and has been used for everything from cereals to breads to
soups. Portobellos are a trendy favorite mushroom. Pairing these two is a
takeoff on the classic mushroombarley soups of Middle Europe, Stehling
says.

Pearl barley is barley that has had the bran removed and has been steamed
and polished. It comes in several sizes (coarse, medium and fine).
Different kinds of barley are available; be sure you get the pearl barley
for this salad, Stehling says.

Notes: Hominy Grill on Rutledge Avenue, Charleston, SC

Hanneman: Recipes provided by "Ann Burger" www.charleston.net/ on July
30, 1997, converted by MC_Buster.

Recipe by: Robert Stehling, Chef, Hominy Grill

Posted to MCRecipe Digest by Kitpath phannema@wizard.ucr.edu on May 17,
1998