East & West Crab Cakes

For an early Father's Day celebratory dinner, I made Mussels with White Wine and between my dad and my husband, they ate four pounds of mussels! Suffice to say, they love them some mussels! For my mom and me (the non-mussel lovers in the family), I prepared crab cakes and made two sauces to accompany them. One sauce was a basic East coast remoulade and the other sauce was based on a West coast citrus butter sauce, both of which were from my Neiman Marcus cookbook. Both sauces were delicious, but I think I preferred the light, buttery taste from the West coast sauce. I love sauces and condiments, so I had fun trying both!

East & West Coast Crab Cakes

adapted from the Neiman Marcus Cookbook by Kevin Garvin

for the crab cakes

1 lb jumbo lump crab meat

1 egg, beaten

1/4 c mayo

1 1/2 t Dijon mustard

1/3 c panko bread crumbs

1/4 c green onions, minced

2 T parsley, minced

1 T Old Bay seasoning

1 t worcestershire sauce

dash of Tabasco sauce

for the remoulade

1 red bell pepper, roasted, seeded and chopped

1 c mayo

1 T parsley, roughly chopped

1 T fresh tarragon

1 T capers, drained

2 T cornichons (or sour dill pickle), roughly chopped

1 small shallot, roughly chopped

for the citrus-butter sauce

1/2 c white wine

2 shallots, sliced

1 fresh thyme sprig

1/4 c heavy cream

1/2 orange, juiced

1/2 lime, juiced

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 c chilled butter, diced

1 t salt (or salt to taste)

dash of Tabasco

To prepare the remoulade, place bell pepper, mayo, parsley, tarragon, capers, cornichons and shallots in a food processor. Pulse several times until sauce is well combined. Transfer to an airtight container and store in refrigerator until ready to eat. (Make it early in the day, or even the night before, so the flavors have plenty of time to marry.)

To prepare the crab cakes, place egg, mayo, mustard, panko, green onions, parsley, Old Bay, worcestershire and Tabasco in a large bowl. Mix well. Add crab and gently mix together, being careful not to break up the lumps of crab meat. Mold into 8 to 12 patties and place on cookie sheet. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 7-10 minutes, flip and continue baking another 7-10 minutes.

While the crab cakes are baking, prepare the citrus-butter sauce. Pour the wine into a small saucepan and add shallots and thyme. Bring to a boil and continue to simmer until liquid is reduced by two-thirds. Add the cream and simmer 5 more minutes. Add orange, lime and lemon juices. Turn down heat to low and add butter, a little at a time, whisking constantly, until all the butter is incorporated. Do not let sauce boil or the sauce will become oily. Season with salt and Tabasco. Strain the sauce and keep warm until ready to serve.

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Not Audrey's Crab Casserole

{Audrey, Finley & Andrew, Christmas 2009}

My husband's beloved grandmother, Audrey, passed away last April. She was one of the kindest, most loving, humble and humorous women I ever met and I feel like I am a better person for having known her. Auj made it seem as though her husband was in charge, but anyone who knew her well, knew that she truly was the backbone, and the matriarch, of the entire family. I never saw her happier than when she was holding one of her great grandchildren, and boy, did the babies love her right back! We have so many sweet and treasured pictures of Audrey and Finley!

When I first met Auj she was already in her late eighties and didn't cook much anymore. But the one dish she would cook for every family gathering was her famed crab casserole. Andrew mentioned yesterday that he'd been craving it lately. The only problem was that I didn't have a copy of her recipe and wasn't able to track one down on short notice. At first I set out to try and recreate Audrey's recipe as best I could from memory, but I quickly realized that my imitation would never live up to the real thing. So since I didn't her actual recipe in hand, I decided to make my own, totally different version of a crab casserole, aptly named Not Audrey's Crab Casserole. It was a really warm, comforting dish that we all enjoyed. After my husband took his first bite, he said, "oh my gosh, this is so good...but it's not Audrey's crab casserole." I had big shoes to fill and I tried my best! At least I knew I picked the right name for this dish :-) And it may not have been Auj's crab casserole, but he did go back for seconds...

{Not Audrey's Crab Casserole}

Not Audrey's Crab Casserole

4 T butter

4 green onions, sliced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped

2 celery ribs, finely chopped

8 oz mushrooms, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 t Old Bay seasoning

1/2 t Creole seasoning

1/3 c white wine

8 oz cream cheese

4 oz Colby-Jack cheese, shredded

1 lb. lump crab meat

2/3 c seasoned croutons, crushed

salt & pepper, to taste

parsley, for garnish

mashed potatoes, for serving (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add green onions, bell pepper, celery, mushrooms and garlic. Saute until vegetables are softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add Old Bay and Creole seasonings and white wine. Allow vegetables to simmer until liquid is reduced by half.

Reduce heat to low and stir in cream cheese until it has fully melted. Stir in colby-jack cheese. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper, if needed. Gently fold in crab, being careful not to break up the lumps. Pour mixture into a greased casserole pan. Top with seasoned crouton crumbs.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until bubbly. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve over mashed potatoes.

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Cajun Potluck - June

We have a rotating monthly potluck dinner with our friends and when it's your turn to host, you get to pick the theme. We've been doing this for about three years and it's amazing to think how much everyone's lives have changed during that time - weddings, pregnancies, babies, new homes, new jobs, etc. We decided that we're going to start taking pictures every month so that we can have them as a reminder of all the fun times we always have at potluck. That idea got me thinking that it would be fun to start doing a monthly post with pictures and recipes for all the dishes we bring each month. So this will be the first of many potluck posts, I hope!

This month Candace and Craig chose to do a Cajun theme. They made a magnificent Shrimp Creole for the main course, which I ate (and thoroughly enjoyed) over Hunter's dirty rice. I've never eaten a lot of Cajun/Creole food, so I had no idea what to bring. After giving it some thought, I decided grilled corn on the cob would work just fine. In order to make it fit with our theme, I decided to serve it with a compound butter full of Cajun flavors. Easy-peasy, a lot more fun than plain ole butter, and it really gave the corn a great flavor; however, the butter was far from attractive. Because I made the unfortunate decision to roll into a log shape, there were quite a few comments about it looking phallic or poop-like. I think next time, I'll just put it in a ramekin! Also, grilling the corn with the beer in the foil packets really added a great dimension to the flavor that I highly recommend!

Recipes will either have a link under the picture or the full recipe will be found at the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy the recipes as much as we did!

{Lora's cajun crab stuffed mushrooms}

These were so good, and boy, did they go fast! I'm not sure everyone even got to try one before the entire platter was devoured!

{Candace's shrimp creole}

{Hunter's dirty rice}

{Robyn's cajun corn pudding}

I've never had a corn pudding with bacon before, and it added such a great smoky flavor that everyone loved. I know at least one person went back for seconds but I'm not saying who!

{my creole compound butter}

See what I mean about it looking dirty?!? Even extra herbs and tabasco sauce couldn't help it at all - may have even made it look worse!

{my corn on the cob}

{Candace's tres leches cake - not cajun but it was Jennie's birthday and it's her favorite}

I'm not a fan of tres leches cake because I find that so many of them are verging on completely mushy and way too sweet! But I loved this one though - it was moist without being soggy!

{bourbon cake}

This was sooo good! The bourbon added a really nice flavor without being overpowering. Plus I thought it was really cute spin on the cajun theme - a bourbon cake for Bourbon Street!

{banana pudding}

{my dessert plate - why choose just 1 when you can have all 3?!}

Shrimp Creole

adapted by Candace from Southern Living

2 (14 1/2-oz) cans stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 (28-oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 c chopped celery (about 2 ribs)

1 T olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

2-3 t hot sauce - depending on how spicy you like it

1-2 t Creole seasoning

1 lb peeled large fresh shrimp

white rice, for serving (I prefer to use long grain rice, but you can easily use Minute Rice to speed things up)

Prepare rice according to package directions; keep warm.

Pulse stewed tomatoes in a food processor 3 or 4 times or until chopped.

Saute green pepper, onion and celery in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet for 8 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and saute 1 minute. Stir in chopped tomatoes, diced tomatoes, hot sauce and Creole seasoning. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Stir in shrimp, cover, and simmer 3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Serve over hot cooked rice.

Dirty Rice

recipe from cooks.com

1 lb. sausage

1/2 lb ground beef

3 stalks celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 c parsley, chopped

3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp black pepper

4 c cooked white rice

2-3 green onions, chopped

Cook sausage and beef in large skillet until almost browned. Drain all but 1-2 tablespoons drippings. Add celery, pepper, onion, garlic and spices. Cook until meat is browned and veggies are softened, about 5 minutes. Drain any excess grease. Combine veggie mixture with rice and mix well. Stir in parsley and garnish with green onions.

Grilled Corn with Creole Compound Butter

12 ears of corn, husked

1 bottle dark beer (I used Shiner Bock)

1 stick butter, softened

1 garlic clove, grated

1 lime, zested

2 t chili powder

1/2 t celery salt

1/2 t onion powder

5 - 10 dashes Tabasco sauce, depending on how spicy you want it

2 t fresh chives, snipped

To make the butter, in a small bowl, combine butter, garlic, lime zest, chili powder, celery salt, onion powder, Tabasco and chives. Place softened butter mixture into small ramekin and smooth top. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Wrap each ear of corn in foil and add 2 T beer to each foil packet. Wrap it up carefully so the beer doesn't leak out. Grill for 10-15 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before eating. Serve with compound butter.

Candace's Tres Leches Cake

a Candace original!

for the cake

1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix

1 1/4 c water

1 T vegetable oil

2 t vanilla

4 eggs

1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 c whole milk or evaporated milk

1 c whipping cream

for the frosting

3/4 c whipping cream

1/3 c sugar

1 t vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pans). Grease and flour or spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

Bake 29 to 35 minutes or until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes. Poke top of hot cake every 1/2 inch with long-tined fork, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking. (Don't hold back on the holes - the more, the better :-)

In a large bowl, stir together sweetened condensed milk, whole milk and whipping cream. Carefully pour evenly over top of cake. Cover; refrigerate about 1 hour or until mixture is absorbed into cake. Frost with frosting and store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

For the frosting, place the whipping cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using whisk attachment, whisk together on medium/high speed until stiff peaks are formed.

Banana Pudding

recipe from the Jell-O box

2 pkg (3.4-oz) Banana Cream flavor instant pudding

2 1/2 c cold milk

1 box mini Nilla Wafers

3 bananas, sliced

1 tub (8-oz) Cool Whip Lite, thawed

Beat pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Arrange layer of wafers on bottom and up sides of a 2-quart bowl; top with layers of half each banana, wafers and pudding. Repeat layers; cover with Cool Whip. Refrigerate 3 hours.

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Crab Salad with Avocado and Grapefruit

So fresh and delightful! I used a recipe from Gourmet magazine that I found on Epicurious to make this but I made a couple of changes. Here is what I did:

Crab Salad with Avocado and Grapefruit

1 large shallot, finely chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
2 pink or ruby-red grapefruit
2 firm-ripe California avocado
Coarse sea salt to taste

Freshly cracked black pepper

16 oz fresh cooked lump crab meat

2-3 chives, snipped

In a small bowl, stir together shallot, lemon juice, and table salt in a small bowl and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Add oil in a stream, whisking to emulsify.

Cut peel, including all white pith, from grapefruit with a sharp knife. Cut segments free from membranes and transfer segments to paper towels to drain.

Halve each avocado lengthwise, discarding pit. Cut crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick slices and remove from skin with a large spoon.

On a large platter, place avocado slices and grapefruit segments in an alternating pattern, leaving some open space in the middle. Squeeze grapefruit juice from the grapefruitmembranes over the avocado slices to prevent browning. Sprinkle sea salt and pepper over avocado and grapefruit. Combine crab and dressing and toss gently. Place crab mixture in center of platter and garnish with chives. Serve immediately.

Here is a link to the original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lobster-Avocado-and-Grapefruit-Salad-109004

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Wolfgang Puck's Crab Cakes

I always make the same crab cakes recipe, which is pretty good, but I wanted to try something new for variety. These weren't any more difficult than other crab cake recipes and they were really delicious. I loved the ground almonds in the breading, which helped make them nice and crispy. Of course, these aren't very healthy but they're worth it when you want to have a caloric splurge! Wolfgang Puck has a sweet red bell pepper sauce to accompany them but I found spicy remoulade sauce at Central Market and used it instead. Don't judge - I have a nine month old to take care of in addition to cooking dinner every night! (I halved the recipe and it still made seven large crab cakes. Also, to save some money, I substituted dried herbs for fresh.)

Crab Cakes

Adapted from Live, Love, Eat! The Best of Wolfgang Puck

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely diced

1/2 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely diced

1/2 red onion, finely diced

1 c heavy cream

1/2 t jalapeno, finely chopped

2 t chopped fresh chives

2 t chopped fresh dill

2 t chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

leaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 t salt

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 c fresh bread crumbs

1 c finely ground almonds

1 1/4 lb fresh crabmeat

2 T unsalted butter

2 T vegetable oil

In a 10-inch skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Saute the red and yellow peppers and onion until onion is translucent and peppers are tender, about 8-10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer veggies to a large bowl. Let cool.

To the skillet, add cream and jalapeno and simmer until 1/2 c cream remains. Transfer cream mixture to veggie bowl to cool. Stir in the herbs and spices. Stir in the egg and 1/2 c each of breadcrumbs and almonds. Gently fold in crabmeat. On a plate, stir together remaining breadcrumbs and almonds.

With your hands, shape crab mixture into cakes. Dip both sides into crumb mixture to coat it well. Place cakes on a tray, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. In a large skillet, heat butter and oil together over medium heat. Place half the crab cakes in the skillet and cook them until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels to drain, then to a covered baking dish in oven to keep warm.

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Crab Crepes

This is an old family recipe from my mom's cousin Anita and it has been served at many family gatherings. I had been wanting to cook something with crab and this recipe popped into my head because my mom made it for my birthday dinner last month. It's a little time-consuming because you have to make the crepes but it's well worth it, if you ask me! For the crepes, I just use a basic crepe recipe and then add about 3-4 sliced green onions (or 6-8 snipped chives) to the batter.

For the filling
1 T butter
2 T onion, minced
6 oz fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 t rosemary
1/4 c white wine
1/4 c flour
1 1/2 c chicken broth
1 c sour cream
1 lb crab
2 T parsley
1 c Swiss cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large saucepan, melt butter and saute mushrooms and onions for a minute or two. Add wine and rosemary and cook an additional 3-5 minutes or until onions soften. Stir in flour. Slowly add chicken broth and stir until it is all incorporated. Cook 2 minutes or until sauce thickens. Turn off the heat and add sour cream, crab and parsley. Stuff each crepe with about three heaping tablespoons of filling and roll up. Place crepes into a greased dish and top with Swiss cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.

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Crab Bisque

I've been craving a good seafood bisque for a few weeks but it's a hassle to go out to eat now that Finley's here. So I set out to make seafood crab bisqueat home - who needs Eddie V's?! I went through a couple of different recipes and finally decided to throw caution to the wind and come up with my own recipe since I couldn't find one that seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. It turned out excellent! I served it with my favorite salad (described in the previous post) and fresh sourdough bread for sopping up the remains of the soup. While the recipe is definitely not low-calorie, every now and then we all deserve a splurge!

Erin's Crab Bisque

7 T butter, divided

1/2 white onion, chopped

6 oz mushrooms, coarsely chopped

3/4 c white wine, divided

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 T flour

1/2 c chicken broth

2 c milk

2 T tomato paste

7 chives, snipped

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1/2 lb crab meat, divided

chives to garnish

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 T butter. Add onion, mushrooms and 1/4 c white wine. Saute for a few minutes until the onion starts to turn translucent. Add garlic and continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 7 more minutes. Set aside.

In a large pot over medium heat, melt 4 T butter. Whisk in flour and cook for about a minute. Add in the chicken broth and stir well to combine. Cook 1 minute until thickened slightly. Stir in 1/2 c white wine. Stir to combine, cook 1 minute and let thicken. Add in milk, mushroom mixture, tomato paste and chives. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Stir well and simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup so it's velvety smooth and thick. (If you don't have an immersion blender, puree it in a blender in batches.) Stir in most of the crab but reserve a few tablespoons crab meat for garnish. Cook for about 5 minutes to heat crab thoroughly.

To serve, spoon into bowls. Top with a heaping tablespoon of crab meat and snipped chives.

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