Perfect Tempura Every Time

Tempura is Touchy!

Lets nail down the issues most people have with making Tempura, starting with buying it in a box. For the most part, you’re just buying a box of flour with a fancy picture on the front that shows you how good it could look if you buy their product. But does that make sense? You’ve got flour at home in your kitchen, right? Oh, maybe you need the directions on the back of the box. Wait, that doesn’t make sense either because you’ve got the web at your finger tips. You can just look it up. So here we are, you and I, and we’re going to get through this together.

Tempura in a Box

The truth is that no matter what the contents of that Tempura box are, flour, corn starch or whatever, the box directions are WRONG! Sure they give you a few pointers from step 1 to 3 but they don’t talk about a few key issues you will have if you don’t mix it in the right order, if you just use regular tap water or if you don’t keep your batter ice cold. That’s right. If you ignore any one of these 3 things, your Tempura is not going to turn out right.

Tempura Ingredients:

1 egg yoke
1 cup Tonic or Seltzer Water, Carbanated is the key
1 cup Flour

Mix the ingredients in a bowl over the top of another bowl full of ice water
Stir the liquids first, then add the flour and don’t over mix; leave it lumpy
Use ice cold Tonic or Seltzer water, not Tap, to get the batter to poof up

Watch the video tutorial and follow these simple instructions and you will have perfect Tempura, every single time.

Cooking King Crab Legs

The Best King Crab Legs

The thing about King Crab Legs, or any crab legs for that matter, is that they are already cooked when you buy them. I know, Shocker, right? So all we need to do is reheat them and you just need to choose the method you’d like to prepare them. Steaming is an easy way if you have a big enough pot that can be covered with a lid. A few inches of boiling water in the bottom will get them done in about 4 minutes. Just make sure that you get the water to a rolling boil before you actually add the King Crab Legs. Most people don’t realize that you can actually cheat and take it a step further; you can usually have them steamed at the place of purchase when you are buying them. Of course this means you need to be picking them up at meal time but if you’re waiting on the oven for bake potatoes, a quick trip to the grocery is perfect for that waiting time; just a suggestion.

Be Careful Grilling King Crab Legs

Grilling King Crab Legs leaves people oohing and awing every time you flip open the lid, but you need to be very careful not to dry them out. Even though you tend to gain the Smokey flavor of the grill, you lose the natural flavors of the crab meat. Remember this is just a reheat anyway so you don’t want them on the grill for too long. 10 minutes on low with the lid down, tops!

The oven will have a similar effect that grilling does if you don’t cover up the Crab Legs. It will dry them out, and you will lose flavor. The way I show you how to cook them in this tutorial is on a broiler pan covered with tin foil. The reason I do it this way is because you get the best of both worlds. By adding a half cup of water to the pan you get the steaming effect with convection as the heat rises from underneath the King Crab Legs, then the heat reflects off the foil, cooking the top. It’s win-win.

You can do a reheat in the microwave, but I don’t recommend it. In fact I don’t recommend that any meat go in the microwave for a reheat, EVER! I’ll get into that at later time.

King Crab Legs and Santolla Reds

Now, the crab legs that I’m introducing are not your traditional King Crab Legs. These are called Santolla Reds. The reason I’m using these instead of the other is they are practically the same thing. First off, they are almost exactly the same size; same look and everything that way. The only difference that I’ve noticed is they are a little bit saltier, so I just use unsalted butter. Second, it’s about the cost. I wouldn’t be living up to my reputation as the Poor Man’s Gourmet Kitchen showing you recipes at “A Low Budget Wonder”, if I was showing off recipes that aren’t affordable. Santolla Reds, if you can find them, are usually at least half the price of regular King Crab Legs. I can pick them up at Smith’s right now, for $6.99 a pound, and that’s year ‘round! Try getting more than a pound and a half of king crab legs at any restaurant these days for under $26 bucks! It’s worth doing it at home, and worth knowing a few tricks to cooking King Crab Legs and other gourmet meals at a low budget wonder.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

The Best Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

I love Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms. I order them every time I see them on the menu, which is rare, but I love how these things just sit in melted butter, begging to be plucked from their assortment. I stuff them with the chopped stems, green onion, bell pepper, parsley, bacon and seasoned breadcrumbs. I find that dressing breadcrumbs work the best and I saute everything in butter, so it’s really moist before I fill the caps.

My Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

I was baffled by these years ago. The flavors were confusing to me and I wasn’t quite sure, a) What was in them, and obviously b) How to make them because of it. However, snooping around on Pinterest, recently, I ran into a photo that someone had posted and it hit me! So I figure that maybe there’s a few of you out there that have felt the same way I’ve felt about this recipe and I thought I better crank out my theory about how they’re made. Very often I challenge myself this way without sourcing any written recipe, just to see if I can do it. Well, I can and I did. So I reworked the recipe for everyone here to enjoy for themselves, and I’ve got to tell ya, I’m really proud of this one. Not only because it’s a fabulous wow factor dish, but because it’s ridiculously easy. That being said, make sure that you crank out this recipe next time you’re craving Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, it’s a Winner!

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms Ingredients:

6 Small or 2 Large Portobello Mushrooms
1 Piece Bacon, cooked and chopped
1/4 Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Green Onion, chopped
2 tbsp Fresh Parsley, chopped
1 cup Seasoned Bread Crumbs (Dressing works GREAT)
1 cube Butter, melted
½ cup Water
1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Bake at 425 degrees f for 15 minutes then top with Mozzarella and Broil for 1 to 2 minutes and let them cool before serving.

Watch the short video for this Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms recipe and I’ll show you just how easy these are to make.