Posted on 04/21/2016 5:43:42 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
We in Maryland heard some good news during the past week: due to conservation efforts and weather conditions, the Blue Crab population is going to be about 35% higher this year. This is good news for crab lovers, but especially good news for the watermen along the Chesapeake, who make their livings from the 'Beautiful Swimmers'.
The first time I encountered a crab, I was a teen, lying in bed asleep, when my brother came into the room, dangled a live crab in front of my face, and yelled, "Wake Up"!
He had come home from a friend's house with a bucket full of fresh crabs and got us all up, late at night, to cook and eat them. My Tidewater-born Granny steamed them, and our Dad showed us how to crack, pick and eat them. They were very nice, but I'm not sure I was really 'sold' (perhaps I was still groggy from sleep, and from the visual shock of arthropod anatomy wiggling in front of my startled-awake eyes!)
I WAS sold, however, on my first real Maryland crab cake, which came from the Phillips restaurant in Baltimore. Long before, I had read in some popular writing that 'ambrosia' (the 'Food of the Gods' in Greek mythology) MUST have been 'oysters and champagne'; but my first taste of a good Maryland crab cake decided for ME the meaning of 'ambrosia', and I have been an addict ever since. (I will even buy the frozen Phillips ones in the supermarket, in a pinch - which frankly don't measure up at all to the ones in the restaurant.)
Here is the recipe for the very Maryland Crab Cake that has been offered in the Phillips restaurants since 1956:
http://www.phillipsfoods.com/recipe/shirley-phillips-crab-cakes/
And here's a recipe for Crab Rangoon, or Crab Wonton - which, in the average Chinese restaurant, is made with surimi - or "krab with a 'K'" - but can be easily made at home with the Real Thing, even though this recipe calls for 'canned':
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/200657/crab-rangoon/
(My favorite books about the Chesapeake are James Michener's 'Chesapeake', and William Warner's 'Beautiful Swimmers', q.v.)
-JT
That sounds like a bit of British pronunciation - the ‘fk’ part. Brits swallow the second syllable of place names.
There’s a famous Jewish deli in Manhattan called ‘Russ & Daughters.’ The serve ‘appetizers’ - wonderful fish roe included. It’s beautifully set out in the refridgerated shelves according to color: red, orange, black. But we always go for the smoked salmon and HOMEMADE cream cheese which is the finest I’ve ever had.
CREAMY CRAB SOUP
METHOD Cook to simmer on med 2 c ea h/cream, HnH, cup milk. Add
cup ea fine-diced potatoes, carrots, 1/2 lb lump crabmeat, 1/2 c fresh corn
kernels, s/p; simmer/stir /softn veg on low 15 mins. Add cornstarch slurry,
cup clam broth; BTB. Stir/boil/thicken a min.
FINAL Just before serving, stir in minced scallions/dill, tbl Pernod.
SERVE w/ a dusting of paprika.
That looks very good!
I’ve always been curious about the Duke’s mystique. I’ve tried it and frankly don’t see why it’s supposed to be superior to Hellman’s. But then, I’m not much of a connoisseur of anything ;-)
-JT
Eat Bertha’s Mussels has been a while ago. Maybe 80’s?
QA Co here. Delmarva Peninsula knows a bit about crabs. Watermen here have learned to think like crabs.
Big DUH on me.
CRAB STUFFED PORTOBELLOS
METHOD Heat pan hot, add 6 Portabello caps, 1/4 c wh/wine. Turn heat
high; cook 2-3 min; flip caps; add 2 tbl butter;s/p. Fill w/ Stuffing. Top w/
Gouda slice. Broil/melt 2-3 min.
Arange on server w/ lemon wedges.
STUFFING Reheat pan hot; deglaze with White Wine; add 2 chp gar/cl,
2 tbl butter; add 1/4 c chp sun dried tomatoes; add 1/2 c cream/stir; add
1/2 lb crab meat. Reduce cream, stir/occa.
I’m going to tell my brother that. I bet an authentic stir fry would be amazing. I just found it a strange thing to use.....which is weird because I’m creative in the kitchen.
I need to go there. Mmmmmmmmmm do I love smoked salmon and cream cheese. I can’t digest bagels but I used to love them. I can digest the plain rye crackers so I will do my lox and schmear on them, with my Swiss side needing some capers on that cream cheese under the lox.
Adding this to the million reasons I need to go to NY.
Check out the Russ & Daughters website. You may be able to order stuff through the mails. They recently opened a café but I haven’t visited it yet.
I’ve done the Duke/Hellman’s bit with friends from North Carolina. The only difference for me was that Duke’s tasted a bit sweeter.
I only remember thinking that I liked Hellman’s better. But I was raised on it.
-JT
Me, too. They seem to have a north-south divide at least according to my NC friends.
Boiled peanuts are kind of an acquired taste. Three years ago I had my first, when my parents were moved to Charleston. I adore peanuts and peanut butter and Thai peanut sauce etc. so I was excited to taste the boiled ones. The consistency made them more like beans. But I like beans. They were weird and good and we ate them all. :)
I’ve never had or made a crab cake before.
Here’s a new recipe I just tried today. The muffins turned out so soft, not too sweet and delicious.
Strawberry Muffins
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup fresh strawberries, washed, de-stemmed and sliced
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the large egg and mix well. In a separate mixing bowl sift together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon.
Mid the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, alternating with the milk until everything is combined together. Fold-in the sliced strawberries by hand until they are blended throughout the muffin batter.
Lightly spray a muffin pan with non-stick baking spray or line the baking pan with paper liners. Fill the cups 2/3 of the way full. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-17 minutes or until done. Remove and let cool.
We prefer Blue Plate which has been difficult to get since we moved out of GA. Publix carries it and they have opened a store in Cary so we can get it now. lol Although we have to drive to Cary, but I like Publix and have missed it.
https://www.reilyproducts.com/site299.php
I’d never heard of ‘Blue Plate’.
I wish I could find bottled mayo and salad dressings that had some other oil than soybean. I was hopeful when Hellman’s came out with the Olive Oil mayo, but that’s full of soybean oil, too.
-JT
Same here. I am careful in my consumption of soy products. I wish there was a good mayo without soybean oil.
I haven’t looked at the ones in health-food stores; but I just did a search on “mayonnaise without soybean oil or canola oil”; some of them are pretty expensive. Here’s one of the ones that came up, but my husband says that sunflower oil isn’t that great an improvement (I’ll keep looking; eating largely low-carb in our home, we use a lot of mayo in recipes):
-JT.
Trillian, that looks good and very different. I’m going to try it for my crew at work.
-JT
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