Dungeness Crab-Asparagus Soup

You will find variations of this soup at many Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants. Here in Northern California, winter is Dungeness crab season, and there is nothing better on a cold day than a hot bowl of crab soup! Other types of crab can be used, but the Dungeness are in my opinion, some of the best crab one can find when they are in season, and are perfect for this recipe. Be very careful not to overcook the asparagus – you do not want to end up with mushy over cooked green globs of gunk when you are finished.

Serving Size:  2 people as a main dish, 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:
*One whole large Dungeness crab, cleaned, with all the meat removed.  Usually a whole Dungeness is around 1.5-2 lbs in the shell and will yield between 3/4ths -1 lb of lump meat.  You can use 3/4ths – 1 lb of store bought lumb crab meat instead to save time.

*Half a pound of asparagus, usually about half a bundle.

*One shallot, about 2 tbsp

*Two cloves of garlic, about 1 tbsp

*Two eggs, well beaten

*One tbsp corn starch

*One bundle of green onions (usually about 6) trimmed, and thinly sliced

*One tbsp sesame or vegetable oil

*Four cups low sodium or sodium-free chicken broth

*Two tbsp timari

Preparation:

1)  If using a whole crab, crack and remove meat from shell and set aside.  Chop and peel shallots and garlic, trim and thinly slice green onions, beat both eggs, and set aside.

2)  Wash asparagus.  Snap off the tough bottoms.  Cut off the tops and then cut the stems into 1-1.5 inch sections.

3)  Heat oil on medium-high heat.  Once a piece of shallot sizzles, add shallots and garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.

4)  Add asparagus and cook for about 1 minute more, or until it starts to turn bright green.

5)  Add broth, turn heat up all the way and bring to a boil as fast as possible.
6)  Drizzle the egg into the soup once it is boiling to form thin, lacy strips of egg.
7)  Add crab and green onion and cook for another minute or two, then remove from heat and serve immediately.


optional:  For a thicker soup, corn starch can be added once the broth is boiling to thicken to desired consistency.

South East Asian Style Spinach

This is a quick and easy side dish that goes well with Thai, Vietnamese and other South East Asian dishes. A more authentic way of making it is to use fish sauce instead of timari, but due to the very high salt content of fish sauce I personally use it sparingly.  The original recipe this was based off of comes from Quick and Easy Thai:  70 Everyday Recipes by Nancy McDermott. 

Serving Size:  2 people as a vegetable side dish.

Ingredients:

*One bundle of fresh spinach, about x oz's.

*2 tbsp of coarsely chopped garlic, about 3 cloves

*2 tbsp of low sodium timari or fish sauce

*1/2 tsp or more black pepper

*2 tbsp veg or sesame oil or a mix of the two

Preparation:

1)  Wash spinach and trim off most of the stems, allow to drip dry.  Peel and chop the garlic.

2)  Heat oil in a wok or large a large, deep frying pan on medium-high heat.

3)  When a bit of garlic sizzles, add the rest of the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant and barely browned.  You want the garlic cooked and tender but not burnt by the time the dish is finished cooking, so be sure not to brown or over-cook it at this point.

4)  Add spinach, timari and black pepper.  As the spinach cooks down, begin to stir and mix it.

5)  Cook for a few more minutes until the spinach is lightly wilted and remove from heat.  It should only take 1-3 minutes at this point to finish cooking.  Drain any excess liquid out of pan.  Adjust timari and black pepper to taste and serve while hot.

Cran-Pecan Salad with Radishes

This is a simple salad that works well for any occasion and one of my favorite original recipes.  I recommend serving it with just some good oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar for the dressing.  To me, ranch, house, and other intensely flavored dressings are what you put on bland, boring salads that do not have much going on flavor-wise.  The overly-powerful flavor of something like ranch dressing ruins the delicately balanced flavors of a good gourmet salad in my opinion.  If the flavors of the ingredients of the salad are to shine through, such as with this recipe, something light like oil and vinegar must be used.

Serving Size:  4 people as a main vegetable dish, 8 people as a small side.

Ingredients:

*About 4 quarts of Salad greens, either spring mix or red of green leaf lettuce.  Do not use ice-beg.

*1/2 a Red Onion, thinly sliced 

*6 or so Radishes, thinly sliced

*1/2 cup chopped Pecans

*1/2 cup dried Cranberries

*8 strips of Bacon or 8 pieces of Prosciutto

*Vinegar to taste - either red wine or balsamic

*Olive Oil to taste - be sure it is oil of good quality an has a good flavor

*Blue Cheese or Gorgonzola to taste (optional)

Preparation:

1)  If using whole heads of lettuce, tear into bite sized pieces.  Wash lettuce and allow to drip dry.

2)  Wash radishes and slice into thin circles.

3)  Slice red onion into thin, bite sized pieces.  Do not cut them too small or they will not rest on a fork properly.

4)  Chop pecans if they did not come pre-chopped.

5)  If using bacon, cook bacon, crumble, and set aside.  If using prosciutto, tear into bite sized pieces.

5)  Top salad with onion, radish, pecan, cranberry, and bacon or prosciutto, and blue cheese, if using.  Toss with oil and vinegar and serve.

Baked Brie with Berries and Nuts

The combination of honey, nuts, cheese and fruit is a classic one, and this recipe combines those four simple ingredients amazingly well.  This dish works great when you want to bring something to a party due to the long cool-down period (45 minutes to an hour).  You can bake the brie, stick it in your car, and by the time  you get to where you are going, it will have cooled off enough to be served.  Almost any combination of dried fruits and nuts can be used, and maple syrup or even jelly can be substituted instead of honey.  The combination of dried cranberry and walnuts works great for a holiday version of this recipe as well.  For a fun twist try it with chutney.  There are many variations of this recipe; baked brie is not a new concept.  However this specific combination and quantity of the ingredients are what I have found to be my personal favorite version.

Serving Size:  12+ people as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

*2 sheets of frozen instant puff pastry

*1 round of brie cheese (about x oz)

*2/3rd cup dried tart cherries

*2/3rd cup chopped pecans

*1/2 cup honey

*About 2 tbsp of melted butter (optional)

*Good crackers or bread 

 Preparation:

1)  Pull the sheets of puff pastry out of the freezer and allow to thaw for 40 minutes before trying to use them.

2)  Mix together dried cherries, chopped pecans, and honey in a bowl.  Set aside.

3)  Spray a cookie sheet with Pam and place one of the sheets of puff pastry on it

4)  Using the top of the container that the brie cheese came in as a guide, cut out two circles of puff pastry out of the second sheet.  By doing this you will end up with two circles of puff pastry that are the same size and diameter as the round of brie.  Cut the remaining pastry from the sheet that you cut the two circles out of into at least 6 long thin strips and set aside.

5)  Place one of the circles of dough in the center of the first piece of puff pastry that is on the baking sheet. 

6)  Spoon half of the honey, cherry, and pecan mixture on top of the circle of dough.  Be sure none is spilling out past the edges of the circle.  

7)  Place the wheel of brie on top of the honey, cherry, and pecan mixture.  Top with the other half of the honey, cherry and pecan mixture.

8)  Place the second circle of pastry dough on top of this  You now should have a “cheese tower” with  the layer set up like this:  Bottom sheet of puff pastry, circle of pastry dough, honey, cherry and pecan mixture, wheel of brie cheese, honey cherry and pecan mixture, circle of pastry dough.

8)  Fold the four corners of the first sheet of puff pastry into the center of the cheese "tower".  Using your fingers, pinch closed the 4 seams that get created.

8)  Fold the 4 extra points of dough to the side in one continuous direction, creating 4 triangles of dough on the sides of the cheese tower.  Press all the edges together to seal the pastry dough.  It is important to get a tight seal, or the honey and cheese will leak out as it cooks.  If the pastry dough does not want to seal use a small amount of water or egg white on the seam to get it to stick closed.

9)  Using the extra strips of dough that was set aside earlier to create a simple lattice pattern on top like you would for a pie.

10)  For that shiny looks professional baked good have, brush it with butter before baking it.

11)  Bake for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees or until the puff pastry cooks to a nice golden-brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 45 minutes.  If you cut into it too early, the molten cheese will all drain out so it is important to not get impatient.  Serve with crackers and/or good bread.

Welcome and Hello!

At the request of some friends I have decided to finally start recording and writing down my recipes in order to share them with those who are interested.  I figure this will be a good way to start to document my culinary adventures and experiments for future reference.  I have no idea if anyone aside from myself will even read this, but what the heck, I guess you never know.   At the very least I will finally being to have all my favorite recipes in one place that can be easily accessed from anywhere.

Variety truly is the spice of life, and that is even more so when cooking!  There is nothing more satisfying that discovering some amazing new flavor combination that you have never tasted, or even heard of before.  To me, trying a new recipe, or a new dish at a restaurant, is exciting, stimulating and intriguing.  Constantly expanding one's horizons and savoring the amazingly diverse and unique world we live in, even in something as simple and basic as food, really is what life is all about.  So, if anyone actually made it to the end of my ramblings, enjoy and good luck in the kitchen!