Caprese Portobellos with Balsamic Glaze

The Best Caprese Portobellos

If you love Mushrooms and you love Caprese, you are absolutely going to love this Caprese Portobellos recipe because it combines the best of both worlds.  Using Large Portobello mushroom caps gives a ton of surface area to cram in plenty of Mozzarella, Tomatoes and Fresh Basil.  And, if you prepare your dish the way I show you how to do it, you’re whole world will change.  So open your mind to other possibilities and I’ll show you how to make the best Mushroom Caprese.

What is Caprese Portobellos

To understand Caprese you must understand, first, that it is a traditional Italian recipe that usually breaks down to 3 basic ingredients: Mozzarella, Tomatoes and Fresh Basil.  Many folks consider Caprese Antipasto ingredients and many Caprese Salad recipes exist because of the over all freshness the combination provides.  My sources tell me that the real Caprese is just Buffalo Mozzarella, which is made from Buffalo milk and it’s a typical dish served in the Isle of Capri.

Normally, Caprese Portobellos is prepared and served with fresh Tomatoes but I am recommending my Marinated and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, instead, for several reasons.  First, because roasted cherry tomatoes are awesome, so that’s just a no brainer, and second because you want to add olive oil to the mushrooms and the olive oil, marinating the cherry tomatoes, has garlic and fresh herbs roasted into it.  So it really enhances the flavor, a ton.  If you want to use fresh tomatoes, instead, that’s fine too but I highly recommend mixing a 1/4 cup of olive oil with some fresh chopped garlic and a pinch of salt, at the very least, and add that to the mushrooms.

Also, when it comes to the Balsamic Glaze, most recipes recommend a 1 to 4 ratio of Brown Sugar and Balsamic Vinegar.  I don’t agree with this at all and I was trained to balance the bitter with more sweet.  I would recommend a 1 to 1 ratio, instead but that’s entirely up to you.  Bring it to boil and reduce the heat to medium.  Cook it for 5 minutes until the sauce reduces and practically caramelizes and you will have a perfect glaze.

Caprese Portobellos Ingredients:

4 to 6 Large Portobello Mushroom Caps
4 oz Cherry Tomatoes, marinated & roasted
1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese
6 Fresh Basil leaves, chopped
2 tbsp Butter, melted
1 Garlic Clove, chopped
Salt and Pepper, taste

Balsamic Glaze
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
2 tbsp Brown Sugar

Be sure to watch the short video tutorial for this Caprese Portobellos recipe and follow the recommendations in this post for a perfect dish.

Tempura Lobster Tails with Dipping Sauce

Awesome Lobster Tails

If you thought Shrimp Tempura was good, you’re going to go out of your mind with this Lobster Tails recipe.  Especially if you your a fan of good Tempura because you’ve got the best of both worlds right here.  As you may or may not know, Prawns and Lobsters are in the same crustacean family, only Lobster’s are generally much larger.  So, from my perspective, bigger is better and I show you how to make Perfect Tempura Batter, in one of my older posts, and take you straight to one of the best appetizers ever invented.

What size Lobster Tails to use

I’ve been seeing 4 to 6 oz Lobster Tails on sale in just about every grocery store that has a seafood department for only about $5 bucks a piece, lately.  So you really can’t go wrong with that kind of deal if you want to give this a try sometime.  Really you can use just about any size you want.  You’ll just have to adjust the cooking time if you get any thicker than what I’m recommending here for this Tempura recipe.  Just be sure you buy enough Lobster Tails because these things are so delicious and they go down fast.

Check out my other Lobster recipes:
Stuffed Lobster, Steak House style Lobster Tail, Lobster Ravioli Sauce,
Lobster Bisque, Red Lobster Crab Cakes, Poor Man’s Lobster

Tempura Lobster Tails Ingredients:

2 Lobster tails, pealed and de-veined
Pinch of Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Tempura Batter
1 egg yoke
1 cup Tonic or Seltzer Water, Carbonated is the key
1 cup Flour

Dipping Sauce
1 teaspoon Hoisin Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Black Bean Sauce
1/4 cup Orange Chili Sauce

Cook and submerge your Tempura Lobsters in Oil for approximately 5 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Oysters Rockefeller – Cleaning, Shucking and the Recipe

The Best Oysters are Rockefeller

Oysters Rockefeller are a great way to kick off any celebration.  New Orleans Mardi Gras is certainly no exception.  And as you may or may not know, the original recipe was developed in the French Quarter at local restaurant called Antoine’s back in the 1800’s.  This recipe has since gone platinum.  And you as you can see in the picture below, they are fairly inexpensive to buy and with this recipe, they certainly live up to their name, “Rockefeller”.  I think I paid about 58 cents a piece is all and the results were spectacularly “Rich”.

What kind of Oysters do you have?

These are West Coast Oysters.  You can tell they aren’t from the East Coast because of the Greenish color, instead of brown, and they’re a bit more long gated as well.  They should always be scrubbed and rinsed before shucking.  This will help eliminate any grime getting into the shell.  Personally, I like to rinse them out after anyway.  But some folks will freak out if you drain the “liquor” from the oyster before serving because there’s so much flavor there.  But for Oysters Rockefeller, there is so much flavor added to it through out the recipe, in my opinion, it really doesn’t matter.  The important thing is that no one breaks a tooth trying to eat them.

Shucking Oysters

I’ll show you, in the video below, how to properly shuck these things and lay them out on the half shell.  There’s really nothing to it once you learn the tricks.  But it’s important to lay them down on something that will keep them stable so they don’t teeter back and forth.  Some people, restaurants included, press the round shell backs down into Rock salt, and that’s great for serving but I just use cup cake pans to keep them from moving and it works great for broiling.

Oysters Rockefeller

To make this recipe, you need a few key ingredients but the main thing is to make it green like money.  As the story goes, when this recipe was created, someone in the restaurant exclaimed that these Oysters were as rich as Rockefeller.  Others think it has to do with the color of money itself.  Either way, the name stuck and now the world can enjoy them for any occasion.

If you’re interested in other Cajun recipes and food celebrated in New Orleans and at Mardi Gras, check out my Boudin, Crawfish Etouffee and my Jambalaya!

Oysters Rockefeller Ingredients:

1 doz Med/Lrg Oysters
2 cloves Garlic, ground
1 Green Onion, ground
1 sprig of Fresh Parsly
4 oz Baby Green Spinach
2 tbsp White wine, can sub ice water or white grape juice
1 stick of melted butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp Crab Boil or Crawfish Seasoning (Old Bay is fine)
1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp Basalmic Vinager
1/3 cup Fresh Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/4 cup Bread Crumbs, optional

Be sure to watch the full Oysters Rockefeller Video Tutorial so you can see, step by step, exactly how to make them from scratch.