Love Those Crabs!

It's crab time and I've got three different preparations for crabs today - 

crab meat boule, crab salad, and soft shell crabs.

Take your pick and enjoy!

First up is my crab meat boule.

I made my own bread bowls, but if you don't want to bother with making your own bread,

just buy a boule at the market.

Alternatively, if you didn't want to make the crab meat boules, this crab preparation makes a terrific dip.  Just heat through and serve with your favorite crackers.  Perfect for a party appetizer.

Bread Boules

Makes 4 bread bowls.

1/2 cup warm water

1 package yeast

sprinkle of sugar

1 cup + bread flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Pour warm water into a bowl and pour yeast in.  Sprinkle with a little sugar (a teaspoon or two) and let it sit until the mixture gets poofy and bubbly.  This is called "proofing" the yeast.  The yeast needs to "prove" its alive by eating the sugar and creating carbon dioxide and alcohol by-products.  In other words, it gets foamy.  If it doesn't get foamy, then your yeast is not alive and is no good.  Throw it out and start over with fresh yeast.

When the yeast has proofed, pour in a cup of the flour.  Fork the flour in until you get a shaggy, cohesive mass, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for 5 minutes or so until it's a pliable, elastic, smooth mass.  (If it's too sticky, add in a bit more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough is workable.)

Place in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat the dough, then cover with plastic and let rise until doubled in bulk.

After dough rises, punch down, knead again, and divide into 4 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball and place in oiled 1-cup ramekins.  Let rise again, until doubled.  

Bake at 350° about 20 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Remove from oven and let rest about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and let cool.

 Here are my little boules, waiting to be filled with a lovely crab meat mixture.
 

Slice off the top of the boule and scoop out the interior, being careful not to break through the bottom or sides.  Tear the scooped out bread into bite-sized pieces.

Fill the boule with the crab meat mixture and bake at 350° until the crab meat is heated through and the torn bread pieces are lightly toasted.

Now, for the crab meat mixture.

Rosie's Crab Dip

1/2 pound crab meat, picked through to get rid of any shells

3 TB unsalted butter

2 oz. brie cheese

1 oz. cream cheese

juice of 1 lemon

2 TB minced red bell pepper

1 small shallot, minced 

splash of sherry (optional)

In a small pan over low heat, melt butter with brie and cream cheeses.

Stir in lemon juice, red pepper, and shallot.

Add in crab meat and incorporate.  Try not to break up the meat too much.

Heat through.  Add sherry, to taste.

Spoon mixture into boules and bake at 350° until bread pieces are toasted.

And here ya go!

I love an edible container.

Next, I have a cool crab salad for you, perfect for a light luncheon.

Not long ago, the Hawthornes attended another seafood class at the North Carolina Aquarium in Manteo.  This is an on-going series the aquarium offers during fall and winter - the off months.  Each class has a different chef working their magic.

Chef Randolph Sprinkle, of The Saltbox Café on Colington Road, was our guest chef for the last class of this season.  For the class, see here.  One of Chef Randolph's dishes was a crab meat salad served in a delicate sliced tomato bowl.  I admit I shamelessly ripped off his creation and made my own version.  (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.) 

 For the tomato bowl, I thinly sliced a tomato and overlapped the slices, forming a bowl.  Again, an edible serving container!  I tossed some mixed salad greens with a homemade vinaigrette and made a green nest for the crab meat salad.

Vinaigrette

1 TB rice vinegar

1 tsp lemon juice

pinch sugar

sprinkle of dried oregano and basil

1/4 cup olive oil (Use your favorite.)

pinch kosher salt, or to taste

Mix all together.

Crab Meat Salad

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 TB rice vinegar

1 TB lemon juice

1 TB minced fresh basil

1 tsp Dijon mustard

freshly ground pepper

1/2 pound crab meat, picked through

Mix first 6 ingredients until well combined.  Gently stir in crab meat.  Chill, then scoop onto salad greens in tomato cup. 

 

For the record, I use Grey Poupon Dijon mustard.  This is one of those occasions when the Foodlion brand is NOT a viable substitute.  Don't use that stuff.  It's nasty.  And FYI, don't use Foodlion brand chocolate chips either.  Nowhere close to Nestles.  I can't tell you my disappointment when I used Foodlion chips in my chocolate chip cookies one time.  Live and learn.  And now, you know.

Lastly, we have soft shell crabs.  Serve with a mixed green salad and vinaigrette and a dill dipping sauce.

For the soft shells:

Prepare the crabs by cutting off the face and I like to scrape out the mustard.  Not a fan of the mustard, although I know a lot of people are.  Different strokes...

Soak the soft shells in buttermilk for about 20 minutes, then toss in a coating of 2 parts each flour and panko to one part corn starch with a sprinkling of Old Bay Seasoning.  Shake off excess coating and then fry in 350° peanut oil until golden brown - 2-3 minutes each side.  Drain and serve with Dill Dip.

Rosie's Dill Dip

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tsp Grey Poupon Dijon mustard

1 tsp lemon juice

1 TB chopped fresh dill

Mix all ingredients.

Enjoy!

Rosie Makes Her Special Cornbread, Scallops With A Twist, And Mr. Hawthorne Grills Softshells.

For dinner tonight,

I'm making my special cornbread

with toppings of jalapeno, tomato, and onion.

We've bought more softshells,

some to eat tonight, and others to freeze for later,

since the softshell season this spring

has been cut short due to climactic conditions.

I believe some strong winds blew the little critters back out.

And instead of battering and frying our softshells

as we usually do,

we're going to grill them

for a bit of a change.

I've never grilled them before,

so I'm looking forward to trying them this way.

Also, I'll be cooking some scallop and proscuitto roll-ups.

So, let's get started.

First, my cornbread.

My ingredients:

yellow cornmeal

Crisco

milk

buttermilk

eggs

tomatoes

onions

cumin

coriander

Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses

jalapenos

green olives

fresh cilantro

(And I forgot to put in the baking powder,

salt, and pepper.)

Here are 1 1/2 cups cornmeal

to which I added 1 tsp. baking powder,

1 1/2tsps. salt,

and 1 tsp. pepper.

I mixed the dry ingredients, then added in 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup buttermilk, for a bit of a tang. If you don't have buttermilk, just use all milk.

I had heated my oven to 350, put 3 TB of Crisco in my 8" baking dish, melted it, then whisked the melted shortening into the cornbread batter.The texture immediately changes to an almost clumpy messy thing.

Two eggs got whisked in next.

I had an ear of corn left over from the corn porn from our meal the other day, so I cut off the kernels of the ear and added that to the cornbread batter.

If you don't have fresh corn, use a can of drained corn. Pour the cornbread batter into the baking dish.

Add sliced tomatoes to the adult side of the cornbread.

Next some sliced onions went on.

And some jalapeno slices and sliced green olives.

I sprinkled a little cumin and coriander over top.

And now the cornbread is ready for the grated cheese and the oven.

Except ...

Mr. Hawthorne had bought pork cracklin's the other day.

I think he'd seen Tyler Florence use pork cracklin's

in cornbread, so he wanted to try this.

So darn if he didn't pick up all my carefully

arranged toppings, so I could put the pork cracklin's in there.

I sprinkled the cracklin's on and Mr. Hawthorne pressed

them down in the batter.

Then he haphazardly threw my toppings back on. Sheesh.

Next, I sprinkled grated Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheeses

over top, along with some fresh cilantro.

The cornbread went in the 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

Tip #178:

To use up leftover cornbread,

thinly slice and saute in butter until nicely browned

and serve for breakfast.

You'll never have leftover cornbread.

My children love this.

Now, on to my scallops.

What I wanted to do,

was slice my scallop into a ribbon by

slowly rolling the scallop

with my knife poised parallel to the cutting surface.

I started my slice at the base of the scallop,

making about a 1/8 inch thick slice.

I pulled the scallop back and pressed in with my knife,

trying to make a slice as evenly as I could.

I kept rolling out my scallop and slicing through ...

... until I got to the very end of the scallop

and had a nice, thin scallop ribbon.

I placed a thin slice of proscuitto over my scallop ribbon.

Then I rolled my scallop/proscuitto up.

Rolled it up all the way and secured with a toothpick.

Now, if you missed it the first time,

I'm doing it again.

And notice,

practice does make perfect.

Start with your knife parallel to the cutting surface,

1/8 - 1/16 thick,

and slowly roll the scallop back

as you press your knife into the flesh.

Whoot!

That's a nice scallop ribbon.

Place a slice of proscuitto over top.

And roll up.

Secure with toothpick.

And here are all my little scallop/proscuitto roll-ups.

It looks like a little scallop rose.

Here's my seasoning mixture:

1 part black sesame seeds

1 part white sesame seeds 1/2 part red chili flakes

I lightly toasted this mixture in a dry skillet.

I sprinkled the scallop rolls with the sesame/chili mixture.

The smaller scallops, I seasoned with freshly ground pepper and lemon zest.

And my scallops are ready to cook. I heated my cast iron pan, added vegetable oil with a bit of Land o' Lakes butter, heated the butter mixture to almost browning,

then added the larger scallops with the proscuitto.

I cooked the proscuitto scallops for about 3 minutes on each side.

The smaller scallops without the proscuitto, I added later and cooked for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes each side. Now on to the softshells.

As I said, we're going to grill these soft shells tonight.

I've never grilled soft shells before.

I've always fried them.

But our dear friends, Ian and Annette Bloomfield,

introduced us to this method.

(And that would be Ian with a long I.

Eye-un, not Ee-un.)

I must admit,

I was a bit apprehensive,

but I'm always up to trying something new.

Here are Mr. Hawthorne's cleaned soft shells.

He likes a bit of the mustard left on them.

I do not.

So when he wasn't watching, I rinsed all the yellow gunk out.

Now, my basting sauce for the softshells.

Here's melted butter and lemon juice with freshly ground pepper to which I added minced garlic ...

... and some Chardonnay.

I sprinkled a tiny bit of Montreal Steak Seasoning over the crabs.

And brushed them with the butter mixture.

Mr. Hawthorne placed them on the grill

and basted.

After about 4 minutes on the grill,

here are the soft shells.

Grilled softshell, seasoned scallop/proscuitto rollup with candied grapefruit zest,

and cornbread.

I must say, the grilled soft shells were very good.

I could taste the sweetness of the crab

along with the crunch of the crab,

and the flavors of the butter, garlic, wine,

and the slight spice of the Montreal seasoning.

I was very happily surprised,

so I thank you Ian and Annette

for this new way to prepare soft shells.

I will certainly grill soft shells again,

but next time I'll peel off that top layer of shell.

Ian told Mr. Hawthorne to do that,

but Mr. H. thinks he knows it all,

so he didn't do it.

A grilled layer of soft shell is like eating paper.

Not a good thing.

But the rest of the crab was wonderful

and the grilled flavor just gave it a whole different layer of goodness.

The scallops rolled with the proscuitto were lovely.

The light taste of the proscuitto gave the scallops

just a hint of saltiness and smokiness.

The seasoning with the toasted sesame seeds and pepper flakes

gave it just the right amount of boost.

The candied grapefruit rind was a perfect complement.

The cornmeal was corny and spicy with the jalapenos.

And the pork cracklin's gave it an underlying smoky, porkiness.

Not overpowering.

But another layer of flavor.

Another winning meal.