Portobello Burger with Complimentary Dipping Oil

Here is a great recipe for lunch, or dinner! These portobello burgers have an amazing taste, and a great texture.

When you make these burgers, you also create a lovely dipping oil for the crusts of the bread.
If you want a dipping oil in which you can taste the portobello and its juicyness, use Canola Oil.
If you want a dipping oil that tastes like regular Italian dipping oil with a hint of portobello, use Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Ingredients:

• 1 Portobello mushroom, washed and with stem removed
• 2 slices of good quality grainybread. Sara Lee and Wonderbread wont kill it, but it certainly doesn't do the burger justice! It is best if the bread is lightly toasted.
• Oil of choice
• Condiments (ketchup, mustard, etc)

1) Heat the oil in a small skillet. If you are using the Extra Virgin Olive Oil, be careful not to let it smoke, it has a medium heat smoke rate.
2) Put the portobello mushroom in the skillet, with the ridges facing downwards. Cook for approximately 3 minutes. You should see the mushroom start to deflate a little bit.
3) Flip the mushroom over. Since the ridged side sucks up a lot of oil, you will probably need to a some more. Cook for about 3 minutes, until mushroom is deflated. It is normal for the oil to spritz, mushrooms have lots of water in them. When it starts to spritz (around 3 minutes) it is usually done.
4) Put the mushroom on the bread, and add condiments. The burger is done.
5) Now, take the oil from the pan and put in a seperate bowl. This is your dipping oil. Since the extra virgin olive oil gets absorbed by the mushroom more, you may need to add some more if you used olive oil to begin with.

Use the dipping oil for the crusts of the bread, and anything else you want to dip! Now do you see why I said Sara Lee and Wonderbread suck when you use them? The best type of bread to use is a multigrain artisan bread that is about 1/2 to 1/3 of an inch thick. You can also use the oil to dip foccaccia, in which it is absolutely amazing.