Swiss Chard and Ricotta Portobello Caps

I saw this on "The Chew" and thought it looked really good.  But wow, portobello mushrooms are so expensive here, or at least "downtown" where I bought them!  4 caps cost me $12!  I was going to do these on my cast iron grill.  While I love my Lodge cast iron frying pan more than anything, this grill hasn't been kind to me and is not "seasoned" yet even though it was supposed to be "pre-seasoned".  Food sticks to it and it's not pretty, so I've barely used it.  It's almost impossible to clean it as well, a real PITA (pain in the ass).  It cost me $100 too, so I'm determined to get it to where I can enjoy it.


Yesterday, I bought a heavy duty grill brush for it.  So my plan was to give it a good brush down and oil it up, bake in the oven at 350°F AGAIN for an hour, and see what happens today...The brush down didn't do shit, but I went ahead anyway.  After it came out of the oven, I brushed it again (much better results), then oiled it up and put it on the stove for use.

I thought the mushrooms might be a good thing to start with on the grill, unlike hamburgers or something that could crumble and fall apart and STICK.

I did the panko topping first.  Honestly, when I looked at the recipe again, I realized I wasn't in the mood for doing it today, but I was not going to waste the money on the mushrooms so I sucked it up and got busy.  I toasted the crumbs and removed them from the heat.  I stirred in the Parmesan and the few fennel fronds I had, but I should have waited until it cooled, as the cheese melted and became clumpy.  I had to break it up after it all hardened as it cooled.

Next I mixed up the ricotta.  I put the zest of the lemon, some Parmesan Reggiano and salt (I put fresh cracked pepper in too, even though the recipe didn't say to do so).  I also added a squeeze of lemon juice too.  So, when I looked at the recipe and it said to put the mint in the toasted panko crumbs I didn't do that since it was being garnished with mint as well.  I added two leaves of mint here, chiffonade.  I stirred it all together, covered and put in the fridge until needed.

I cleaned the portobellos next.

I kept the stems for soup stock and put them in the freezer.  I scraped the gills out with a spoon.  I would have left them in, but I figured my son wouldn't like them.

I put these back in the fridge until needed.

I chopped the shallot finely.  I cut the chard chiffonade and the fennel into thin slices.  I sauteed the shallot first until soft, then added the rest in until also tender.

I seasoned with S&P and lemon juice.  I put this aside.

Onto the mushrooms.  I heated the grill until medium hot.  I brushed the shrooms with some olive oil, bottoms up first.  I flipped them back and forth about 5 minutes on each side for 10 minutes total.  I lost the "cap" look and they were flat.  I'm guessing because I scraped all the gills out?

I stuffed them with the ricotta.  I piled on the chard mix and then I sprinkled liberally with the panko topping.  I garnished with mint.

The mint really heightened the character of the dish nicely.  This was tasty and the mushrooms had a grilled flavor.  My favorite thing was the panko topping and the fennel did not overpower which I was concerned about.  However, my son said it did overpower everything but he hates fennel or black licorice in general.  It was messy to eat, everything slid off but it all blended well together in the mouth.  And P.S.  The grill was a breeze to clean tonight.  Hopefully it will continue that way...