Winner, Winner, Crab Dinner

We went Snow Crab style for the Risotto

I think we may have a winner, folks.  The crab risotto experiment we tackled for the first time about a month or so ago was probably my favorite of all the different crab recipes we've been attempting over the last few months.  Definitely in the top 3.  We made it again last week because it was FABU, as my cousin Patty would say.

It was so creamy and delicious, no doubt one to add to the crab rotation.  The funny thing is, I think my favorite way to prepare crab is just straight steaming.  We've tip-toed into all kinds of crazy recipes lately, but you just can't go wrong with some simple steamed legs that you can crack into and dip into a little melted butter.  Add a baked potato and a salad, and it's the perfect meal.  That being said...holy Lord was this risotto good!

If you're a Food Network watcher, you'll probably be familiar with Robert Irvine, the Restaurant Impossible guy.  The risotto recipe we used was his - you can get it here if you're interested.  The only tweak I would recommend is cutting back on some of the chives.  The final result could have used a little less of that onion-y flavor.  Actually, we'll probably just cut out the chives altogether next time we make it.

Lots 'o stirring with the risotto - Not sure what he's looking at!

We veered from the recipe a little by adding peas to it.  According to the hubby, peas are a traditional risotto ingredient, so it was a non-negotiable tweak.

I'm all on board with a vegetable addition to any dish at any time!  I can't dispute the healthy-it-up factor, even though peas aren't on the short list of my preferred vegetables.  They totally worked in the risotto, though.  It was a nice sweetness among all the savory and rich flavors it had going on.

I think one of the reasons why this dish was so good was the truffle oil.  Truffle oil makes everything fancy and delicious.  We've added truffle oil to macaroni and cheese in the past, and it just bumps the dish up to that standout level.

And you really can't go wrong when you add Parmigiano-Reggiano.  I challenge you to find a savory dish that isn't complimented by the king of cheese.  I guess it helps that I'm a sucker for anything Italian. Perhaps it wouldn't go as well with...let's say tacos. 

Anyway, here's our final plated crab risotto, a la Robert Irvine:

No doubt, this one is one of my favorite crab experiments so far.  Robert Irvine ain't messing around!

Ta-ta for now.

Installment Number Three

I hope you're not sick of reading about crab recipes yet.  Because this is the third installment of the "How to Eat an Absurd Amount of Crab in About Six Months" recipe collection.  The sheer variety in how many ways you can prepare crab is pretty remarkable.  It's kind of like chicken.  You can do so many different things with it and there's lots of variety between each meal.

Basically, every weekend has become crab recipe weekend.  I snoop around online for unique ways to prepare it until I find a recipe that piques my interest. - And then it becomes the next weekend crab adventure.  We've experimented with a whole range of different recipes over the last few months.  This time, (which was probably sometime in February) we tried Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.  It was quite the tasty departure.

The left is the crab mixture before it's all blended together, and the
right is everything mixed and ready to go into some Portobellos

It's a Paula Deen recipe, you can get it HERE if you're interested.  We followed it exactly, except for two little differences in the bread crumb topping.  We added a touch of Old Bay to it, and used a little bit of butter instead of non-stick spray to get the crunchy, brown end result.

We managed to finish off the first 10 lb box of crab we got, and now we're working on the Snow Crab and second 10 lb box of King Crab.  For this mushroom dish, we used the Snow Crab.  Add a salad, and it was an easy little meal to pull together.  Easy when you have a stock pile of crab to pull from, anyway.  (But you could definitely make this and substitute the crab with vegetables, too)  I think our next crab undertaking will be crab risotto.  Why not, right?  Here's our final plated Crab Stuffed Portobello:

It's a short and sweet post this week!  Further installments in the Crab Challenge 2014 will be incoming.  Hope you're up for it!

Ta-ta for now.

Daddy Rapp's Crab Cakes...Alaska Style

Snow Crab ready to be steamed up, and one of my new
favorite Alaskan beers, Alaskan Amber

I warned you to be prepared for more posts about crab recipes, didn't I?  Consider this one the second of a series.  We'll call it the "How to Eat an Absurd Amount of Crab in About Six Months" recipe collection.  (if you're wondering why we have a ridiculous amount of crab, catch up on the rundown HERE)

I was chatting with a local fish guy, and he recommended we eat our stash of crab sooner rather than later.  Even though it's frozen, ideally you want to eat it before the 6 month mark so it still has that freshly caught quality.  I'll take that challenge.  By the time we polish it off, it'll be salmon season.  Works for me. 

So, we've continued to whittle away at our preposterous stock pile with all sorts of meals featuring crab as the main attraction.  I say "we", but this last one was all the hubby's doing. His dad's crab cake recipe is a throwback meal from his childhood that he's always raved about.

Unadulterated cab meat in
the top pic, & the crab cake
mixture in the bottom pic

There have been countless times when we've gone out to eat and he's ordered crab cakes, only to be disappointed.  And the disappointment was almost always followed by, "They weren't Daddy Rapp crab cakes, that's for sure."

So of course, I had to get more info on where this recipe he's always loved originated.  Turns out, when he lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with his family, they became acquainted with a woman named Mrs. Kitching, who was a native of Smith Island on the Eastern Shore.  She actually has a cook book published.  Apparently she had the goods on how to make legit crab cakes, so hubby's dad made some tweaks to the recipe and made it his own.  And a family tradition was born. 

He's right - sheer force of will!

The hubby likes to joke that crab cakes are held together by sheer force of will.  It seems that way when I'm watching him cook them up!

We ended up going with classic homemade mac and cheese along with the crab cakes.  Turned out pretty damn good.  Crab cakes and mac and cheese are kind of like bacon and eggs or chocolate and peanut butter.  Just made to go together.  And now I have Peter Brady in my head saying, "Pork Chaaawps and applesauce!"  There I go dating myself, again.  Anyway, there's something about the combination of crispy crab cakes and creamy mac and cheese - it's the perfect pairing.

While the hubby was mixing together the ingredients, he commented on how the smell of the Worcestershire and Old Bay takes him back.  Isn't it funny how powerfully linked our sense of smell is to memory?  One little hint of a distinct scent, and it can immediately trigger nostalgia.

I feel the same way about my mom's clam sauce recipe.  Whenever I make it and smell that familiar combination of briny clams, garlic, & tomato, I'm immediately taken back to bursting into the house after school on those dark NY winter days.  Once I got a whiff of that sauce simmering, I couldn't wait to pile my plate with spaghetti and clam sauce and dig in.  It's such a strong association.

That and lilacs.  We had a huge lilac bush in the backyard that was so full & fragrant in the springtime.  My mom would cut fresh stalks from the bush and arrange them in a vase on the kitchen table all the time.  The scent of lilacs equals 12 Abbey Street for me.

Here's our final plated crab cakes and mac and cheese.  Not too shabby:

I think the Snow Crab worked well as a substitute for the traditional blue crab that would normally be used.  I'm predicting this is only the first foray into Daddy Rapp's crab cakes, Alaska style!  Sounds like a plan to me.

Ta-ta for now.

Macaroni and Cheese time.  By the way, I highly recommend marrying a cook!

Overkill.

This is the King Crab before we broke it up into
manageable pieces.  Looks like the damn Kraken!

It might be a tad much.  Crab, that is.  Since I started working for one of the local tribes here in Kodiak, I've been able to get in on wholesale pricing with the seafood branch of their organization, called Wildsource.  Pretty sweet.

At the same time, the hubby got in on an order of crab from St. Paul that one of the Coast Guard crews was bringing in after a flight.  The translation is that I ordered 10 lbs of Alaskan King Crab from Wildsource, and he ordered Snow Crab from the incoming CG crew...which he neglected to get the details about as far as amounts.  Not 10 lbs.  FORTY.  It's absurd.

Basically, our tiny little garage freezer is currently stocked and overflowing with over 50 lbs of Alaskan King and Snow Crab at this moment.  Holy crap, right?  Waaaaay too much crab!  Not a bad problem to have, though.  I know - "Whoa is me, we have too much crab to eat!"

This is the Snow Crab - it's more delicate
and has a lighter flavor than the King Crab

So the result of all this crab overload is the obvious scouring of the internet for recipes that involve crab in some way.  On the upcoming menu is any number of the following:  crab cakes, crab fettuccine, seafood chowder, crab mac and cheese, steamed crab, crab bisque, etc.  Anyone have any good crab recipes they want to share?  Have at it in the comments.

The first of the list we attempted was crab bisque a few weeks ago.  Holy Lord was it good. We used THIS recipe for Lobster Bisque, but tweaked it a little.  Obviously instead of lobster, we used a combination of Snow and King Crab, & instead of heavy whipping cream, we substituted with low fat cream cheese and used a stick blender to blend it all together.

Started with sautéing some shallots, blending the
cream cheese into the stock & then adding the crabby love

It's always nice to find a substitute that doesn't take away from the overall flavor of a dish.  And it helps that it's less heart attack-y with the low fat cream cheese.  Bisque isn't the healthiest choice for soup!

Another (not as healthy) tweak we did was serving it in bread bowls.  Probably not necessary, but this isn't about need.  Might as well take it up to the next level.  Especially when the next level involves bread bowls.  You really can't go wrong.

We picked up one round sourdough loaf and cut it in half instead of having one bread bowl per person. - Because that's way more bread than anyone needs in one sitting.  The sourdough was a really nice counterpoint to the bisque.

Even cutting the loaf in half still equaled a pretty big serving, but it's not like this is our weekly routine...yet.  Just kidding.  We'll keep the bisque indulgence to a minimum.  The end result was nothing short of fabulous.

Running my spoon along the inside edge of the bread bowl, where the soup makes the bread all soft and gooey and you get that bisque-y, bread-y combination?  Heaven.    Check out this crabtacular soup:

This ain't no straight creamy bisque - we've got chunks of crab going on.  Eff tradition, this is the the way to do it!

So, you should expect future posts involving crab meals.  And again - if anyone has a good crab themed dish to share, comment away at the bottom of the post.  I'd love any suggestions.  We do have 50 plus pounds to hoover through.  Damn.

Ta-ta for now.


P.S. - By the way, the Pugbull was incredulous over the fact that he was not involved with the crab preparation:

"I'll take that crab off your hands, if you need me to."

"Wait - not all dogs have a bed in the kitchen?  Now about that crab....."  Spoiled.