Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese

I've made stuffed portobellos before but had never marinated the mushrooms first. This added a lot of flavor to the stuffing, which seemed sort of bland to me. I pretty much followed the recipe--minus Marsala and thyme sprigs. When confronted with the realization that I didn't have a garlic press, I minced the garlic instead. I did a quick web search to weigh my options, concluding that it wouldn't really make a big difference. Do you know what the flavor difference is between pressing and mincing garlic? An Alton Brown-esque answer would be appreciated.


Here's the 'shrooms' first soak. Loving both balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, I thought the smell of the marinade was wonderful. However, an innocent bystander described the aroma as "strong." Hmm, to each his own.









After a few hours of flipping back and forth in the marinade, they looked like this.





The filling was a bit bland for my taste. Ok, full disclosure, I under-salted...again. Since the final result wasn't so beautiful, I'll let you picture it yourself. Hopefully your mental picture will look better than the photo I took which resembled something more like a pile of white, brown, and green mush. Think: mushroom, balsamic, chèvre, spinach...do you have a lovely picture in your mind now? Good, now maybe you could make this recipe look better. I've never been one for presentation!