Portabella Skillet Sammie

So picture this – you’re hungry and out of ideas for what to eat – be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. I’m not saying that you have to feed a whole army – it’s not that kind of dire situation – you just have to feed yourself and maybe a hungry boyfriend/wife/roommate. I secretly love this scenario. You’re desperate and think you have nothing to make, but then ingredients start popping up in the fridge as ideas start lighting up in your head. Bread – check, random assortment of half used veggies – check, small piece of smelly cheese – check, one egg left…- check!

So I start picturing this epic meal – just a sandwich really - in my mind and I get hungrier by the second. How can I maximize efficiency and cut down on time…enter trusty cast iron skillet. Well hello my hefty well-seasoned problem solving friend – lets get down to business. It's at this point I realize that I can pretty much add all of my ingredients into the skillet and cook them at the same time – I am feeling pretty self-satisfied.

Ok enough about my feelings and talking to my kitchen cookware. I’ve made this sandwich a few times now and it’s yummy and satisfying. You don’t need to use the same exact ingredients that I used, that’s exactly NOT the point - It’s to use up what you have in your fridge and make an awesome sammie. There are too many options to even try and cover here. So go on now, go on and try it for yourself!

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Portabella Skillet Sammie                                                                                                                                               PRINT RECIPE
[Prep: 10 / Cook: 20 TOTAL: 20 (the prep can take place simultaneously to cooking)]
[one serving]

• 1 portabella cap washed and stemmed
• 1 egg
• ½ ripe avocado mashed
• 1 garlic clove peeled
• ½ roma tomato cut into thick slices
• ¼ red pepper sliced
• ¼ medium onion sliced
• handful of arugala
• 1 tablespoon soft cheese
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• ½ tablespoon salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• few grinds of back pepper
• crusty bread

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Heat the oven to 350° - this is only necessary if you don’t have a toaster oven.

Place a large cast iron skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil. Wait a few minutes for it to heat up and then add the portabella cap face down. Let this cook on its own for a few minutes - 5 minutes should be enough.

While the mushroom is cooking, put the sliced bread in the oven - set your timer to 5 minutes - slice up the onion, pepper and tomato.

To the same skillet add the sliced onions, red peppers, and tomatoes. Keep them separate from each other. The idea is to caramelize the onions and blacken the peppers and tomatoes. The peppers and onions should be stirred up and can mix a little with each other, but the tomatoes will fall apart if you are too rough with them. When the onions start to turn a warm golden color and the peppers start to blacken, carefully flip the tomato slices over. [Check to see if the toast is ready!] Now you can flip the portabella slice over and add a pinch of salt to everything and a pinch of sugar  just to the onions. Then you can let everything sit in the skillet for 5 more minutes, stirring up the onions and peppers every now and then.

While you are waiting on the veggies in the skillet, spread  on the still warm toast whichever soft cheese you’ve decided to use - I had a rich triple cream on hand. Take the halved avocado and mash it up with a fork while still in its skin. Take the peeled garlic clove and rub all over the other half of toast, then smear it with the mashed avocado and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Add the piece of toast smeared with cheese to the skillet and crack your egg into any empty space you can find – you may need to do a little rearranging for everything to fit – and cover. Since the skillet should be nice and hot the egg shouldn’t spread out too much once it hits the pan, if it does, just coax it back a little before covering. The egg should be done after a 2 minutes or so, flip it – waiting about 30 seconds, and then scoop it up with a spatula and place on top of the portabella.

Now the fun part - carefully stacking the sammie. I chose the creamy triple brie smeared side to be on the bottom, dressed it with the arugala  and then the portabella with egg. Next, I added the fried tomatoes, peppers and onions, and topped it off with the garlicky avocado toast. So yes it’ll become sort of a mouthful for a sandwich, but you can press down a little on it, cut it in half and watch the yolk spread and mix with all the yummy ingredients. [If runny yolk isn't your thing just let the egg cook another minute (instead of 30 seconds) after you’ve flipped it.]

If you have some potato chips to throw on the side, even better! Oh and it’s a pretty hearty sandwich – so if you feel like sharing – a half is probably enough to fill a hungry belly.

Enjoy!