A few summers ago, while dinning at a small outdoor cafe, I discovered the wonders of portobello mushrooms marinated in Madeira wine.  It was one of those combinations that I would have never thought of on my own, but now that I have tried it, there is no turning back – it is ingeniously brilliant.

Do not get me started on aioli.  I spent a summer on a archaeological dig in Minorca – the birthplace of mayonnaise and aioli (garlic + mayonnaise = another ingenious combination). There is a long, several thousand years long, story on how mayonnaise got its name involving Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca’s brother Mago (2nd Punic War), the Romans, the Arabs, and an ongoing conflict (Seven Years’ War) with the French which led to mayonnaise’s eventual popularization through British colonialism.  All in all – I ate a whole lot of aioli that summer.  In fact, at the end of the season we calculated the quantity of rocks and dirt each person excavated based off of the weight of the dumpsters filled divided by the number of excavators, and came up with an average of 1 ton per person.  That is a whole lot of aioli powered digging.

Brie & Portobello Sandwiches

Recipe makes 4 – 5 Sandwiches.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms (mini portobello mushrooms)
• 3/4 cup Madeira Wine
• Salt and Pepper for seasoning
• soften Brie
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
• 1 loaf Ciabatta Bread

Directions:

1. Marinade the mushrooms in the madeira wine for a few hours before assembling sandwiches.
2. Combine the garlic and mayonnaise to make an aioli.  Use a garlic press to crush the garlic in order to stir it into the mayonnaise.
3. Heat up a cast iron pan to sauté the mushrooms
4. Sauté the mushrooms in the leftover wine from the marinade.
5. Slice the bread.
6. Spread the brie onto one slice of the bread (for each sandwich).
7. Spread the aioli onto the second slice of bread (per sandwich).
8. Spoon the mushrooms onto the aioli coated bread.
9. Press the brie covered bread, brie side down, onto the mushrooms to finish assembling sandwich.