Portobello Egg Cups — and some thoughts on Pinterest

Welcome back to Sunday Scratchups, your weekly recipe from scratch around grocery store matchups, coupons, and sales. This week Jewel again had portobellos on sale for $.45 each — love this sale!

We grilled up a few portobellos last Wednesday, more again yesterday for our Memorial Day BBQ, and I’ve been using the leftover grilled mushrooms in everything from omelets to grilled cheese. (The photo above really has nothing to do with Portobello Egg Cups, but do try adding some cooked mushrooms to a grilled cheese if you haven’t yet — it’s the bomb.)

Speaking of photos

While I was making these, I was thinking about our tendency to put our best foot forwards on social media. Facebook is full of our smiling happy children, selfies at our most flattering angle, and never-messy homes, while Pinterest shows the shiniest food and crafts with none of the recipe disasters, whoopsies, or frustrations. It makes a certain amount of sense in these recipe photos since we eat with our eyes and pretty photos make everyone happy; I’m as guilty of this as anyone else. But I’ve also made recipes I’ve found on Pinterest that aren’t nearly as tasty as their shiny exteriors make them appear, and I’ve made recipes that are downright unphotogenic, yet darn delicious. So in all honesty: This pretty recipe, although delicious, was a partial fail. Here’s why and how you can easily avoid my error.

At Jewel I bought a number of portobellos intending to grill some and make egg cups from others. For egg cups, you’d want a deeper mushroom cap that’s intact all the way around, while for the grill I was looking for big flat ones. We accidentally grilled all the intact cup-shaped ones, so I thought I’d try it with one that just had a liiiiitle piece missing from the edge and build up a wall of sauce to keep the egg in until it was cooked enough not to leak out. Well, that didn’t work so well, did it?

If you buy portobellos intending to cook eggs inside, be sure that your mushrooms are deep, not cracked, and not missing any important edges. When I made mine the egg slid right on out at some point and cooked directly on the pan — I popped the cooked egg back on top at the end and ate my delicious Portobello Egg Cup for lunch, but the yolk had cooked almost all the way through (a la hard boiled eggs) rather than achieving the runniness I’d anticipated. (If your mushrooms are broken and you need to cook the eggs separately, do so in a different pan until it’s at the desired done-ness.)

True Confessions Time Over — Here’s the Recipe!

Ingredients

Portobello mushroom caps (one per egg) — look for deep cups with intact edges
Olive oil
Eggs (one per cap)
Shredded cheese
Chimichurri sauce — I had some left over from the recipe I used with this tuna. (No chimichurri handy? Substitute pasta sauce or pesto for a different yet equally delicious treat.)
Parsley for garnish, optional

Directions

Clean your portobello, remove stem, and scrape out gills. Brush outside of the cap with olive oil and place in grill pan. Scoop in a little chimichurri sauce, top with shredded cheese, and crack in an egg. Cover pan and cook on medium for 15-18 minutes, or until egg is set to your liking. Garnish with parsley if desired, then enjoy!

Pretty brunch idea

Speaking of eating with your eyes, wouldn’t this be such a pretty presentation for brunch? One of these was plenty filling for a fresh yet savory springtime lunch.

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Portobello Egg Cups -- and some thoughts on Pinterest

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Yummy portobello egg cups -- even with a little "oops!"

Course brunch

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

• Portobello mushroom caps one per egg -- look for deep cups with intact edges
• Olive oil
• Eggs one per cap
• Shredded cheese
• Chimichurri sauce No chimichurri handy? Substitute pasta sauce or pesto for a different yet equally delicious treat.
• Parsley for garnish optional

Instructions

• Clean your portobello, remove stem, and scrape out gills.
• Brush outside of the cap with olive oil and place in grill pan.
• Scoop in a little chimichurri sauce, top with shredded cheese, and crack in an egg.
• Cover pan and cook on medium for 15-18 minutes, or until egg is set to your liking.
• Garnish with parsley if desired, then enjoy!