Shallot Surprise: Raspberry Basil Caprese
Sep 1st, 2009 by Marilyn
And we’re back. I know the bugs appear to be fixed, but behind the scenes, a parade of tangled code is still making things blurry. At least the blog wheels are turning, and that’s more than I can say for those in my head which, after this technology go-around, nearly stopped.
And speaking of blurry, I only wish I had a coded excuse for what happened the other day – but I don’t. It was late afternoon and I was alone in the kitchen, putting away produce. Cucumbers here, tomatoes there, bananas in the bowl, onions and shallots over there. Done. Wearing a spit-spot Mary Poppins smile, I turned around and saw this:
And then I screamed like a banshee, and ran in circles and waved my arms and swore and just about died.
It took me a full 30 seconds (plus a few cautious paring knife pokes) to realize I was screaming at a shallot. With a tail. What can I say? I was up late the night before, my glasses were in my purse, and, well – I do have a rather well-documented thing about mice. Luckily this was a fake, a mirage created by my poor vision and, quite possibly, one sick-in-the-head shallot farmer.
Once I recovered, the thing had to go. I immediately chopped that squeaky shallot into a variation on Caprese Salad, substituting a savory, chunky berry dressing for traditional tomatoes. These are strong flavors, they are – wine vinegar, cracked pepper, charred shallots and juiced berries make for seriously tart bites between creamy mozzarella. Of course, you can add or reduce vinegar/pepper to scale the flavor up or down, but whatever you do, be vigilant: in shallot season, you just might need a vinaigrette trap.
Raspberry Basil Caprese
1 shallot
1 teaspoon olive oil
6 oz fresh raspberries
1 tablespoon honey
3 oz red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons roughly cracked or ground black pepper
dash sea salt
1 lb fresh mozzarella cheese
5 large basil leaves (4 for assembly, 1 to chop for garnish)
Make Raspberry-Shallot Dressing
Peel the shallot and slice thin, forming rings. Heat olive oil in small frying pan to hot, but not sizzling; add shallot rings and saute 1 – 2 minutes, until barely softened and edges are lightly charred. Remove from heat and set aside.
Place 4 oz of raspberries in medium mixing bowl, and save remaining 2 oz for garnish. Use a spatula to lightly press berries and release juices, leaving several whole and half berries in mix. Add honey, red wine vinegar, cracked pepper and cooked shallots. Gently stir with spatula to blend. Test flavor, and adjust to your taste with sea salt, or more pepper. Dressing can be made up to 24 hours before serving; flavors will intensify as it rests.
Assemble Raspberry Basil Caprese
Slice thick pieces of fresh mozzarella, 2 per person (8 slices to serve 4).
Lay one slice of mozzarella on plate. Top cheese with 1 teaspoon Raspberry-Shallot Dressing, then one large basil leaf. Lay second slice of mozzarella over the basil, and finish with another heaping teaspoon of dressing. Garnish plates with a few fresh raspberries, chopped basil, and a small extra splash of dressing, if desired.
Serves 4 as a first course.
I’m so loving your blog! This has me laughing out loud (plus I so have a thing about mice – once I opened a cabinet and something moved. I screeched and slammed the cabinet closed. Closed that damn mouse right in the door. Roommate came home, slipped on gardening gloves and grabbed the thing by the tail. Poor thing was still alive but irreparably bent in 2. Roomy carried it to the little park all the way down the street).
Gorgeous caprese! Wow! Those flavors are amazing!
I typed , Yum…. , then I received an error message that my comment was too short.
I thought that to be funny…. Chatty blog.
It’s so cute- how could you ever cut into it?? LOL- I would have flipped too. I flip when I see them outside scurrying by the back door!
What a neat take on the Caprese. Never in a million years would I think to replace the tomato with raspberry. Looks delicious.
Too funny, Marilyn.
Snarf! I can not buy the fake mice for the kitties to play with, I don’t need the stress.
Raspberries…hmmm…YUM!
I truly enjoy reading your blog! I’m very inspired to cook/bake and I’ll be sure to send you photos when I do try some of your delicious recipes!
I know that you shifted from a house blog to a food blog, but have there been any updates to your home that you could share? I really loved reading about the building process. It’s great that you were so involved.
This is an incredible concept. I have paired basil with berries plenty of times in my life. But I WISH I had thought of this! Fabulous…GREG
Shannon: I’ll think about a few house updates. Because there is always house going on. Always.
sippitysup Greg: Welcome, and thanks. Strong and unusual flavors, just one more delivery system for fresh mozzarella!
As delicious as your photos are…the last one if my absolute faaaavvvorite! I can not believe the mouse shallot. It’s so fabulous.
I can not WAIT to try this for our weekend guests! I’ll let you know how it goes.
Ha ha ha ha ha. Cooking without glasses might be a great title for a book on kitchen mishaps. Or life. I loved this, especially since the tale ends with the breathtaking combo of fruit and shallots. I have never met a shallot I didn’t like. In fact, I make a shallot pudding (yup, I do), and will rustle up the recipe, but first had to say how much I adore this post.
Ha! I am late to the shallot party – took me two decades plus to meet my first but since then I’ll agree with Marion – never met one I didn’t like. Or raspberry either. Now you’ve introduced such a simpatico duet I can’t wait to try this out. I’ll be smiling all along keeping an eye out for other shallot mice to show.
Eeek…a mince!
What a funny (but delicious) post!
By the way, I’ll be retweeting this tomorrow (@huggingthecoast on Twitter) as part of a special Labor Day Weekend Twitter Marathon.
I can confidently say, that is the absolute cutest picture of a shallot I have ever seen.
And I’ve seen some cute shallots in my day. Oh yes.
Ha ha ha, I once thought I had a bat on my shoulder, but when I got into better light, it was only the flower print on my shirt. I had been watching bats, so it could have happened.
OK that was hilarious! Thanks, I needed that.