Geyserville chef's burgers blend mushrooms with beef
Domenica Catelli has always been passionate about healthy, nutritious food, and she’s got the resume to prove it.
Her food gigs have ranged from opening chef at the The Ravens vegetarian restaurant in Mendocino to food stylist and personal chef for Oprah Winfrey. She even wrote a family- friendly cookbook, “Mom-a-licious,” aimed at feeding kids easy, healthy fare like lentil soup and butternut squash penne.
“Eight years ago, when I wrote the cookbook, it was hard to get ingredients like quinoa and kale,” she said. “But now they are trendy. You can get all those things at Target and Wal-Mart.”
When she and her brother, Nicholas, reopened the landmark Catelli’s restaurant in Geyserville six years ago, Catelli made sure to add lots of tasty, vegetarian food to the menu. When she was asked to join the James Beard Foundation’s initiative last year to blend mushrooms into burgers, Catelli met the challenge - and went above and beyond - with real relish.
“We got the call to come up with a 25 percent mushroom burger, and I came up with a 50/50 blend,” she said. “I already had a mushroom melt on the menu that was 100 percent mushrooms.”
As part of the project, about 250 chefs across the country came up with a blended burger, then served it at their restaurants so diners could cast their votes for their favorites. Catelli called hers “The Ultimate Burger 2.0” and made it from a combination of shiitake, cremini and dried porcini mushrooms.
This year, Catelli is among more than 400 restaurant chefs taking part in the growing competition, and she’s come up with a new and improved version. “The Kings Burger” offers the same, tasty patty as last year, gilded with arugula and Spicy House-Pickled Enoki and Maitake mushrooms.
“I love the tang of the pickled mushrooms and the pepper of the arugula,” she said. “We do a quick pickle with Sparrow Lane Golden Balsamic and Apple Cider vinegars, plus dill.”
The Blended Burger Project, a brainchild of the Culinary Institute of America’s Healthy Menus R&D Collaborative, aims to help Americans embrace burgers that are more sustainable for the planet (it takes much less water to grow mushrooms than to raise beef) but also more nutritious and delicious.
“From a health standpoint, it’s better for you,” Catelli said of her blended burger. “Even people who are not crazy about mushrooms still love it because it makes a nice, juicy burger.”
To make the burger, Catelli roasts the mushrooms in a 450-degree oven, stems and all, for 5 to 6 minutes, turning them once. Then she throws them in a food processor with garlic, fresh herbs and Parmesan cheese, and lets the mixture cool before massaging it into her house-ground meat.
To form the burgers, she lines a baking ramekin with a plastic bag and presses the mixture into the ramekin, then puts the patties on a sheet pan so they are ready to go. Because they are delicate, it’s best to leave them on the sheet pan when they cook, even on the grill.
“It’s so much more forgiving than a regular burger to cook,” she said. “If you want to do them (directly) on the grill, you could reduce the mixture to a third mushrooms.”
To lighten up the patty, you also could replace the beef with chicken, turkey or lean or grass-fed beef. Adventurous cooks may also want to play around with the flavors, using jalapeños and cilantro rather than parsley and thyme.
Cheese lovers could also top the burgers with a slice of sharp cheddar, cambozola or goat cheese after they are cooked. In the summer, Catelli suggests adding a simple slice of ripe tomato.
Also, it’s important to source a soft bun as the vehicle for the tender patties.
“You don’t want to bite into it and have the burger squish out,” she said. “I use the soft bun from Costeaux Bakery.”
As an appetizer for Independence Day, Catelli suggests a simple salumi and cheese platter, along with some sliced peaches and balsamic vinegar drizzled on top. You could also serve peach slices with burrata cheese, crispy prosciutto and a balsamic reduction.
As a side dish, you can’t go wrong with Catelli’s Easy Kale Salad, made with thinly sliced kale, oranges, Parmesan, crushed croutons, nuts and a dressing of fresh lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil.
“The day before, get everything ready for the salad,” she said. “Then put it all together about an hour before serving.”
And for a sweet finale guaranteed to produce fireworks, pick up some fresh strawberries from a roadside farmstand and slice them on top of her savory and sweet Strawberry and Thyme Shortcake, with a dollop of whipped cream.
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