We finally had our first pinstrosity emailed to us!
Pinterest Pal (what are Pinterest users called? Pinsters?) Diedre sent over her Pinstrosity, Caprese Salad Skewers.
The Original Pin
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| http://terristable.blogspot.com/2010/06/apps-and-im-not-talkin-iphone.html |
The Pinstrosity
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| http://mowercooking.blogspot.com/2012/02/caprese-salad-skewers.html |
What Went Wrong:
Diedre says, "It wasn't a disaster, but could've used some improvements."
- They were too big to eat all in one bite
- The whole basil leaf was too overpowering.
- The texture.
- She says "I found the texture of the fresh mozzarella to be too slimy for my liking, but I tend to be overly sensitive to textures, so that may have just been me."
How to Fix This:
Diedre went the extra mile and looked up an idea on what could be done to improve on this. She suggests doing something like this instead:
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| http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mini-caprese-bites-10000001731442/ |
"I think this idea would've been better. You could use a stick of string cheese to get a firmer cheese texture, and the shredded basil would be much less overpowering. And you could fit it all into one bite."
I made the original recipe for a party and it was a success. Most of the gals at the party were following the Weight Watchers plan so it was a hit. I used mozzarella pearls and small-ish basil leaves. It is now my go-to appetizer recipe.
ReplyDeleteI made this for my daughter's birthday party, but I halved campari tomatoes and rolled a small (1 cm) chunk of string cheese in a basil leaf, then put that inside the tomato half and skewered the whole thing with a tooth pick. A pretty colored one. Then I drizzled all of them at once with a little balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil. They were AMAZING.
ReplyDeleteUse mini mozzarella balls from Trader Joes. I've done this and it's great.
ReplyDeleteI made this for my sisters party. Big hit among those who actually like caprese salad. It took me a minute to cut off the biggest leaves of basil so I could make a "cradle" for the mozzarella and tomatoes. I used half slices because I couldn't find any balls. Like I said it worked perfect for those who liked caprese salad, some people tried it and ended up picking it all off the skewer and just eating the tomato and/or cheese.
ReplyDeleteIf you can get super fresh mozzarella pearls from your local grocery (they have them at the antipasto bar sometimes) they taste way better than the ones that come in the little tubs of water which are often slimy and kind of flavorless. Fresh mozzarella should be springy and slightly chewy, not slimy or pasty or grainy.
ReplyDeleteOne possibly nitpicky thing I'm noticing is in the original pin, the basil leaves are cradling the mozz&tomato on the "front" surface of the leaf, but in the attempt they're on the back of the leaf (see how the big vein in particular is really prominent?). So to get that effect of the basil being right up against the tomato and mozzarella just place them on the front of the leaf, which should naturally curve along the mozz pearl and tomato.
ReplyDelete