Just got back from a musical shindig, I want to write about that but there’s been too much music lately, and I’m trying to avoid subjecting you to back to back business posts (the upcoming one is on usability testing, about as sexy as an old folks home huh?). But hell, after whipping this up a few days ago I think some epicurean sharing is overdue. Munch on this rebus:
I wanted to experiment with contrasts – textures and flavors. The panko bread crumb fried pickles’ salty / sour taste went well with the sticky sweet balsamic glaze. I threw the mozzarella and tomato in there to add some thickness to the dish. I won’t lie, the avocado was really a “fuck it why not” move, but it really ended up going nicely with the balsamic glaze & fried pickles. All right, without further ado!
Mozzarella Tomato & Fried Pickles w/ Balsamic Glaze Recipe
Ingredients:
Mozzarella
Tomato
Panko bread crumbs
3 Dill pickles
1/2 Avocado
Balsamic glaze
Directions:
1) Dice the pickles into half dollar size pieces, then lay them out on top of a paper towel and pat them until dry
2) In a bowl, lightly cover pickles with olive oil, and then generously cover them in panko crumbs. Let sit. Note: If you want you can make the pickles much better panko crumb magnets by coating them with egg whites instead of olive oil.
3) Cut tomato and mozzarella into thick, equal sized chunks, about 1/3 of an inch in thickness depending on how “meaty” you like your tom and mozz.
4) Dice avocado into small cubes, they’re being used for decorative purposes / to scoop up left over balsamic glaze.
5) Heat a frying pan on high, coating it with vegetable oil.
6) Drop into the frying pan your slices of tomato, lying flat, singe them on each side quickly as to heat and toast the tomato, don’t leave it on too long lest the tomato lose it’s structure and go all mushy. Plate tomatoes.
7) Simple, just place each slice of mozzarella on top of a slice of tomato.
8 ) Toss in the panko-encrusted pickles. Let them sit for about 3 minutes before flipping, long enough so that the panko crumbs look toasted. Many of the crumbs will come off, that’s part of the plan. If you wanted deep fried pickles you wouldn’t be reading this yuppie recipe.
9) Remove frying pan from heat, and haphazardly stack pickles on top of the mozzarella. Save the leftover crumbs.
10) Scatter the chunks of avocado around the base of the mozzarella-tomato-fried-pickle pyramid.
11) Drizzle the plate with the balsamic glaze, crisscrossing 4-5 times.
12) Sprinkle plate with remaining panko bread crumbs.
13) Eat!
