Tag Archive | American Food

Recipe: Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Perhaps I should say “crab” stuffed mushrooms because I bought imitation crab but eh…no can really tell the difference. Also, I found the real looking ones at Sam’s Club. Check it out!

Gadré Surimi Snow Leg Style, 16 oz., 2 pk. | $10.88

I think if I served this up in a seafood boil or something, you would not notice the difference but since I chopped it up, you could tell. I followed a recipe that I’ll credit below but I definitely took a lot of liberties. I’ll share my own recipe and the link to the original and let you make your own decision!

Mushrooms de-stemmed and rinsed, hanging out on the baking pan to pre-bake. We are supposed to bake this for about 3 minutes to help get rid of the moisture. It didn’t really lol…maybe I had to put it in longer?

My version of the stuffing, I basically omitted the egg and didn’t do the panko crust. Didn’t feel like I needed it anyway!

Mushrooms stuffed and ready for the oven! Yummy! I served these up at a BBQ and it was nicely enjoyed! I also had some extra for the bros and boy did they like it too. I think you absolutely need to serve it up with lemon slices and tabasco…it needs a bit of the acid/vinegar kick to cut through the richness of the stuffing.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients

  • 2 – 24 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms (Sam’s Club)
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
  • 2 tablespoon salted butter
  • 1/4 cup shallot, small dice (1 big shallot from Safeway)
  • 6-8 cloves fresh garlic, minced
  • 16 ounces imitation crab (snow leg style from Sam’s Club)
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 1 cup Italian blend cheese (any combination of mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan)
  • 3 tablespoons fresh italian parsley, minced
  • 3 tablespoons fresh italian basil, minced
  • 2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, more to taste

EXTRAS/GARNISH:

  • lemon slices, for serving
  • Tabasco (or you hot sauce of choice), for serving

Instructions

  • SAUTE THE SHALLOTS AND GARLIC. Heat the pan over medium/high heat. Add the butter, and when it’s melted, sauté the shallots for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Set this mixture aside to cool.
  • COMBINE FILLING INGREDIENTS. The stuffed mushrooms with crab filling is best when it’s chilled for 1 to 24 hours, to allow the flavors to meld together. To a medium bowl, add the crab meat, cream cheese, Italian blend cheese, egg, fresh parsley, fresh basil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Mix well. Once the shallot/garlic mixture is cooled, fold that into the crab mixture.
  • PREPARE THE MUSHROOMS. Preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C). Remove the mushroom stems (any stems and pieces can be frozen to use for stock later). Thoroughly rinse the mushrooms under cold water then pat them dry. Place the mushrooms cap side down on a baking rack placed over a sheet baking pan. Prebake them in the oven for 3 minutes to remove most of the excess moisture. You can turn the oven off for now.
  • OIL THE MUSHROOMS. Pour some olive oil into a small bowl, and using a basting brush or your hands, lightly coat each mushroom cap with oil (inside and outside). Place the prepared mushrooms into the biggest baking dish you have (you may need to use two depending on the size, which is okay).
  • STUFF THE MUSHROOMS. Fill each mushroom with about a tablespoon of the filling (this small scoop makes it easy). Use more or less of the filling depending on the size of each mushroom.
  • Preheat the oven again to 375° F (190° C) then bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. The mushrooms should be tender, and the filling fully warmed through.
  • SERVE AND ENJOY! I recommend serving lemon slices and hot sauce (vinegar based) with stuffed mushrooms with crab. It adds a lot of flavor and acidity.

Recipe Inspiration/Original: Heavenly Spiced

Mixed Plate Friday

Trader Joe’s Shrimp Seafood Burgers

I didn’t have access to a grill or a pan with cooking oil so I just baked them. These were okay, edible but nothing great. I think it would definitely taste better on a grill!

Trader Joe’s Uncured Turkey Corn Dogs

My likes for sausages continue (please, no jokes). Wanted to try the turkey corn dogs, couldn’t taste the difference – it was good! Heated it up in the oven with our leftovers from night one (curly fries and long john silver’s).

Eggslut – Las Vegas, NV

Probably our only trip to the Vegas Strip this time around and it was to try Eggslut! This is my first time trying it and I wasn’t expecting much but it actually was quite good! They are located in the Cosmopolitan hotel. They have a super long line but don’t worry, it moves quite fast! They are more of a take out place but there is some hotel seating areas…and it does seem to clear up as you pick up your food!

Truffle Hashbrowns | $6.00
duck fat, truffle and rosemary salt

We got two sandwiches and two sides of hash browns! The hashbrowns were so good. How could they not be??

Fairfax Sandwich | $11.00
Add bacon | $3.00

cage-free soft scrambled eggs, chives, caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun

Chan super enjoyed this sandwich, but gotta add the protein. The person in front of us was actually telling us this one was a dud but Chan was happy he didn’t listen. He would definitely get it again!

Gaucho Sandwich | $16.50
seared prime tri-tip steak, cage-free over medium egg, chimichurri sauce, red onions and dressed arugula in a warm brioche bun

Of course I had to go bougie on my choice, no can even tell an egg was in this sandwich – was too focused on the meat. It was delicious!

Sparrow + Wolf – Las Vegas, Nevada

Another visit to Vegas, another success. This is one of the meals Chan and I look forward to most. I lose out the most because we are helped by an awesome sommelier – unfortunately I don’t drink. He did try to include me by giving me a non-alcoholic drink which I enjoyed a lot! It was like a tea infused champagne. Don’t worry, I still got my mocktail! Second visit to Sparrow + Wolf, this restaurant will be a forever visit as long as Nick the sommelier works there. For my first visit, go here. Let’s get to it!

Sage Me From Myself (proofless) | $12.00
cold pressed blueberry, raspberry, pineapple, and fennel bulb
scented with sage and lemon

Delicious as always. $2 more this year but what can you do. Still good!

Peruvian Steelhead Trout | $23.00
ikura roe, koji mango, ninja radish

Nick basically takes care of us all night and orders all the food for us to pair with various drinks. I thought this was salmon but as you can see it is trout! This was good! Such interesting ingredients…

Oysters on the Half Shell | $27.00
cold pressed rhubarb, strawberry, opal basil flower

They really mix the most interesting ingredients to create one dish, and I think I would not order these dishes if I saw it myself on the menu. Good thing Nick knows what he’s doing. I haven’t had a bad dish yet!

Hearts of Palm | $21.00
spring peas, kizami wasabi, cucumber blossom

This was good, very pretty but nothing super special.

Grass Fed Beef Tartare | $22.00
confit egg yolk, grilled ciabatta

Mmm beef tartare, one of my favorites as you know. Good dish!

Steamed Clams | $26.00
green curry, peanuts, thai chili preserve

Oh this was so nice. Nice spicy curry – wish I had a big bowl of rice to sop up all the clams and sauce!

Foie Gras | $28.00
milk bread, pineapple, onion chili compote, mole blanco

Okay, this wasn’t quite as memorable since I had foie gras the day before. But the grilled pineapple added a nice acid to the rich foie gras!

BÁNH CUÔN | $20.00
ground duck, wood ear mushroom, habanero, coconut

Another great dish that I wish I had a bowl of rice for! Nice and spicy, so good!

Lumina Farms Lamb | $46.00
artichoke, saffron, matbucha, almond, vaduovan, lamb jus

I love lamb and this was good, but there was a protein that blew my socks more so below

Charred Broccolini | $16.00
green goddess, black garlic, fines herbes crumb

What a wonderful way to eat broccolini! I loved it! Yet another dish I probably wouldn’t order on my own.

Black Pepper Honey Pork Secreto | $38.00
sweet potato banana puree, peanut nuoc cham

Here’s one of the best dishes of the night! A humble pork dish but the flavors were amazing, still waiting on that bowl of rice lol

Vietnamese Coffee
maracaibo cremeux, coffee ice cream, black okinawa sugar, condensed milk espuma

Yes, we had some room for dessert at the end. Don’t worry, the three of us shared this. It was very nice, I enjoyed this deconstructed take on vietnamese coffee!

Mixed Plate Friday – Trader Joe’s Edition

Peanut Udon Noodle Salad

Meh. Just okay, not great.

Lemon Basil Pasta Salad

Not good.

Truffle Mousse Pate

Yes. A million times yes. This one is made with chicken. Since Chan was not feeling well, I ate this entire thing over the course of the trip. Yeah. I did. Ate it with some golden round crackers (think Ritz Crackers). No regrets here. Chan told me probably get this kine in Hawaii but I haven’t tried it locally yet. IT WAS GOOD AND A GOOD PRICE AND I LOVED IT.

In-N-Out – Las Vegas, NV

Been back from Vegas for about a week, it was nice to take a breather. I pre-scheduled 3 weeks worth of blogs and it worked out very nicely. I was super looking forward to this trip, not just for the eating and gambling – but just to get away. I’ve been working non-stop with no vacation since early November. I know that sounds like a spoiled statement but especially after my dad’s health scare, I was just deflated.

Unfortunately, poor Chan came down with food poisoning on this trip. I felt so bad for him! That’s awful enough to go through but for him to go through it during travel…awful. No worries, I played nurse and even drove out on my own in Vegas to get nourishment for us. Gotta love navigation on phones – and thankfully the places I had to go didn’t require jumping onto a freeway lol. I enjoy driving but I guess I feel more comfortable with someone if I’m driving around some place unfamiliar. Vegas is pretty good to drive around – anywhere is better than Hawaii to drive around.

Anyway! The night of our arrival, of course gotta go In-N-Out! Just a short post today.

Double-Double!

Animal Style Fries

Long John Silver’s

LOL – yup we went to Long John Silver’s. I had a hankering for some fried seafood. Namely fried fish and shrimp. This didn’t disappoint! I enjoyed it a lot! Yummy…! Too bad we don’t have this here anymore.

Mixed Plate Friday

Straub Benioff | Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi

Shucks, I forgot the price! I got this plate during my Dad’s stay and it was a pretty good deal! I think like $14? They give you two big pieces of mahi and you get to choose two sides. The fish had a mayo sauce drizzled on top which helped to combat any dryness. The cafeteria isn’t too bad! Too bad they don’t post menus online.

Kotetsu Chaya Chicken Karaage Plate | $15.50

My brother felt like chicken karaage (random) so one of their dinners consisted of chicken karaage from Kotetsu Chaya, I never tried them myself but I have heard good things. A small Japanese shop run by a sweet couple. I would call in an order early if you can, if not, you gotta wait like 20-30 minutes. Also, they don’t seem to understand the concept of all rice because I tried to get one plate like that for the bro who doesn’t eat mac salad and all three plates were rice and mac salad. Also, they give super manani amount of mac salad! It was kind of wild. They ate it but I don’t think they consider chicken karaage a main meal you know? I also see it as more of an appetizer.

Kotetsu Chaya Garlic French Fries | $6.00

Like I am pretty sure they just gave them a small container of garlic powder to shake into the fries. LOL, so don’t expect nice garlic butter on their garlic fries okay?

Mixed Plate Friday

Chicken Katsu Curry | $6.99

Don’t get to frequent 7-eleven too much now but was excited to see this on my last visit so I had to try it! Not going to be a good judge because I had to microwave it myself and timed it wrong so it was still kind of cold when I was eating it but was too lazy to continue heating it after I already opened it up. They have a transparent sheet that separates the chicken katsu from the curry that you pull out when you dig in. Interesting way to keep the chicken “crispy” but let’s be real, it’s not crispy when we are grabbing this from the fridge lol. This was okay but the chicken portion is small, would rather just go L&L to grab a freshly made one.

Homemade Udon Salad

Made a variation of the Japanese Udon Salad I usually make, linked above. Same concept, I just varied up the ingredients a bit! The biggest main stay for me is the goma dressing and fresh cilantro. Other than that, you can do whatever you like! I even made Japanese styled seasoned shiitake mushrooms for the first time. Yum!

Corned Beef

Happy Belated Saint Patrick’s Day! This kine food is more Chan’s style but we bought some corned beef so we made it the other week. Threw in some potatoes, cabbage and carrots. He sous-vide the beef and then we threw it in with the vegetables into his pressure cooker insta-pot. It was spewing things out like a volcano when I released the vent. I don’t use these contraptions like ever. Anyway, have a nice weekend!

Mixed Plate Friday

Sunday Breakfast

This is me trying to take a bougie picture of breakfast I made for Chan one Sunday morning. I made this pesto tomato mozzarella salad that I served up with toasted french bread. I put a bit of olive oil on the bread and put it in the air fryer to toast. I then rubbed raw garlic onto the toasted bread immediately while it was still warm so the garlic would melt into the bread. Smart yeah? I also fried up two eggs for each of us (in this economy??) and it was good. Well I don’t know the dosage of his salt grinder so I went a bit too heavy handed – he didn’t say anything but mine was salty lol. Good breakfast!

Sausage, Egg & Cheese English Muffin

Seasoned Potatoes

Did you know Wendy’s served breakfast? I didn’t! I saw it on one of Chan’s YouTuber videos and the guy was trying all the fast food breakfast joints. I decided to pick some up for us for a weekend breakfast. The sausage english muffin was just alright. Not great, I prefer McDonald’s. The seasoned potatoes were good! Not what you would expect from the name of it, and they look like potato wedges but they are actually sliced quite thin length wise. They were good!

YogurStory – Honolulu, HI

YogurStory has been around for a very long time – I think the last time I came here was in their old location. They are now located where the old Like Like Drive Inn is. They are a trendy breakfast/brunch place so if you’re into that, go for it! I’m not into ube so that would be wasted on me. This is a quick post because we both ate the same thing lol. We came at 7AM on a weekday and it was empty, nice to beat the crowd.

Fat Pig Fried Rice | $10.95
bacon, kalua pig, portuguese sausage, scrambled egg

This is the second time I ordered this, I think the first time I ordered it – I was disappointed because I thought those meats would be served on the side of the fried rice! I learned very quickly that it’s just the meats chopped up and fried up with the rice! $11 bucks for this dish is actually quite a steal, I think it tastes great! So much flavor, it’s like a local style omurice (sorta). I really enjoyed it!

Aloha Pancake | $16.95
buttermilk pancakes with macadamia nuts, strawberry, blueberry, banana, maple syrup and butter

I wish they had version of this for waffles because I wanted all the berries and bananas on top so we settled to share the pancakes. They were good! Then again, I’m not a huge pancake fan so I just had half my serving. But can’t go wrong with all that butter and maple syrup! Tasted great!