All about food!

Yesterday I made Crab Stuffed Mushrooms and Chicken Souvlaki as our appetizers. I had to tweak the recipes a little bit but they both worked really well.

The mushrooms were great. I had to use a bit more butter because if the altitude and propensity for loss of moisture, but the flavor was great. I actually doubled the batch of stuffing and am going to make crabcakes with the leftover today. It was quick prep time and baked for 20 minutes, so it made a really nice, really quick starter.

Probably I made the most changes to the Souvlaki recipe. First, no skewers. I’m a fan of finger food but I’ve never had a meal on skewers that wasn’t a pain in the ass to get off the skewer, and I’m the kind of person who would end up launching a chunk of chicken across the room and into someone’s lap or drink. So no skewers. I cooked it in a saucepan with a bit of the marinade. I also marinated the chicken for about 6 hours (because I could).

The grocery I went to did not have Greek yogurt, so I got Bulgarian. It was a thinner consistency and slightly more sour, so I added some sugar to the sauce (about a teaspoon) and used Garam Masala instead of cumin (because I was out). I also added a dash of Asti because the sauce had a slightly bitter taste (even after the sugar) and then refridgerated it for about an hour. Letting the yogurt sauce set is VERY IMPORTANT. It has been with every tzadziki I’ve ever made and this was no exception. When I got it out of the fridge, it was still a thinner consistency (more like soup than yogurt) but super delicious.

I cut several pita into four pieces and we just used the pita as an accompaniment to the chicken rather than trying to make a sandwich.

Everything was very tasty and I’ll definitely use the recipes (or some variation of them) again. I’m on the lookout for the best souvlaki marinade. I had souvlaki in Greece when I was in college and have never found a comparable recipe. 

Today I’ll probably make crab cakes and I’m going to attempt vegetable samosas with a hari chutney.