Portobello steaks and butter bean mash

General

• Source: Ottolenghi
• NB: Portobello mushrooms need nearly 1.5 hours in the oven.

Ingredients

Portobello steaks

8 - medium to large portobello mushrooms (about 650g), stems removed
10 - garlic cloves, peeled
1 - onion, peeled and cut into 6 wedges (150g)
1½ tbsp - chipotle chilli flakes
1 - red chilli (15g)
4 tsp - cumin seeds, roughly crushed in a pestle and mortar
1 tbsp - coriander seeds, roughly crushed in a pestle and mortar
2 tbsp - tomato paste
400ml - olive oil

Butter bean mash

• 1 × 700g - jar of good-quality cooked large butter beans, drained (500g) (we use Brindisa Navarrico large butter beans, but you can, of course, use tinned or cook your own)
• 1½ tbsp - lemon juice
• 1 tbsp - olive oil
• flaked sea salt-

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan.
2. Put all the ingredients for the steaks and 1 tablespoon of flaked salt into a large ovenproof saucepan, for which you have a lid. Arrange the mushrooms so they are domed side up, then top with a piece of parchment paper, pushing it down to cover all the ingredients. Cover with the lid, then transfer to the oven for 1 hour. Turn the mushrooms over, replacing the paper and lid, and return to the oven for 20 minutes more, or until the mushrooms are very tender but not falling apart. Use a pair of tongs to transfer the mushrooms to a chopping board, then cut them in half and set aside.
3. Use a spoon to remove the onion, garlic and chilli (discarding the stem) – don’t worry if you scoop up some of the spices and oil. Put them into the small bowl of a food processor and blitz until smooth. Return the blitzed onion mixture to the saucepan, along with the mushroom halves, and place on a medium-high heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, for all the flavours to come together.
4. While the mushrooms are cooking, make the mash by putting the beans into a food processor along with the lemon juice, olive oil, ½ teaspoon flaked salt and 2 tablespoons of water. Blitz until completely smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan and cook on a medium-high heat for about 3 minutes, stirring, until warmed through.
5. To serve, divide the butter bean mash between four plates. Top with four mushroom halves per plate and spoon over a generous amount of the oil and its accompanying aromatics (you won’t need all of it, though – see intro).