Copycat Portabella With Korean Barbecue Glaze

By Dana McMahan FoodConnect Louisville foodconnect.com@gmail.com As restaurants in our foodie city close theirs doors one after another due to the economy, it was heartening to see an exciting new place open recently. A friend at work told me about Z’s Fusion downtown, where her friend Dallas serves as executive chef. We planned to go out with a group on a recent Friday night to try it out. We swayed in after a few drinks at a friend’s gallery opening nearby and were immediately struck by the cosmopolitan interior. I forget sometimes that Louisville is an actual city where one can dine in posh, modern surroundings. I examined the menu, a bit disappointed in the slim pickings for non-meat eaters. Luckily for us, the chef’s girlfriend Laura, (a vegetarian) was eating with us and asked the waiter to bring the vegetarian menu. The bonus points just went through the roof – a menu tailored for those of us who don’t eat meat. (They need to offer it to everyone though, or print a notice in the main menu.) It included veggie-friendly versions of some of the regular items, as well as creations just for us cool kids. I chose the Portabella with Korean Barbecue Glaze. While we waited (and waited – new restaurant plus busy Friday night = long wait), Laura told us about Dallas’ food background. He hails from the South, and attended culinary school in South Carolina, then spent time working in England at an Italian restaurant. His interest in Asian food fused with these influences to create the strongly East-leaning all-over-the-map menu at Z’s. My giant, meaty portabella when it arrived was glazed with a sweet and spicy sauce unlike any barbecue I’d ever tried. When Dallas came out to check on things I begged the recipe, which he was kind enough to later email. I reduced it from gigantic restaurant-sized portions to a manageable home cooking quantity, visited the Oriental Supermarket near our home, and we made a delicious Valentines dinner featuring portabellas glazed with the Korean Barbecue Sauce. It was fun loading up the food processor with things like pineapples and pears, sesame oil and ginger, The result was very similar, if I say so myself. We still ended up with three cups of the sauce, so we’ll try it out next as a marinade for seafood. Z’s Fusion Korean Barbecue Glaze 4 cloves garlic minced 1 apple, peeled and sliced ½ cup pineapple, diced 1 pear - peeled, cored, and minced 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced ¼ cups soy sauce ¼ cups white sugar 2 T light brown sugar 2 T sesame oil 2 T rice wine vinegar 2 T sesame seeds 2 t minced fresh ginger ½ t freshly ground black pepper ½ t crushed red pepper 4 oz Hoisin sauce