Crab Cakes

In a large bowl, mix together:

A pound of crabmeat – picked free of shells as much as possible

1/3 cup of bread crumbs

1 shallot - minced

About ½ cup of minced red bell pepper

About ¼ cup of minced parsley

1 teaspoon of dry mustard

2 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)

In another bowl, whip together:

1 egg

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup mayonnaise

Juice from ½ of a lemon

Then, fold liquid mixture into the crab mixture. Shape into patties – should be about 10 to 12 of them and dust with flour.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add cooking oil to pan. When oil is ready, carefully place crab cakes in pan and fry until brown. This should take 2 – 4 minutes per side. May have to cook crab cakes in batches. They should be golden brown on both sides.

Serve warm with a sauce (could just squeeze the other half of the lemon all over them, or use that lemon juice to make a lemon-butter sauce.)

Poached Pears

I am not pleased with the picture of the final product. The sauce was overcooked and was not the right consistency. So, make it look better!

This is enough liquid for four pears.

Combine the following in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Then simmer for five minutes:

2 cups red wine – use a dark red like a cab or merlot. (Don’t use a Pinot. Want to have a rich color.)

5 Tablespoons sugar

1 strip of orange zest (about 1 inch by 3 inches)

About ½ cup of orange juice (that is about the amount of juice from an orange)

About 1 Tablespoon of fresh ginger thinly sliced

1 cinnamon stick

While liquid is coming to a boil and simmering, peel the pears. Leave the stem intact. Slice about ½-inch off the bottom of each pear to create a flat bottom.

Gently place pears in poaching liquid and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes to ensure even color. Pears should be cooked but still firm.

Remove the saucepan from the stove, uncover and cool with the pears upright in the pan. Once cool, cover and chill in refrigerator overnight or until ready to serve.

When ready, gently remove pears from liquid and allow to come to room temperature. Place the liquid back on medium-high heat for 15 – 20 minutes, reducing the liquid by at least a half, until liquid is thick and syrupy.

Slice the pears and drizzle each with a couple of Tablespoons of the syrup.

I like to serve with mascarpone. For a full container of mascarpone, whip in about 3 Tablespoons of sugar and a good dash of vanilla or rum. (taste and adjust) Crush up some pistachios and sprinkle that on top of rounded balls of mascarpone. Garnish with mint.

Red Snapper

 1 whole red snapper (have fishmonger gut it, cut the gills out and scale it)

4 -5 sprigs of fresh dill

1 lemon sliced thinly

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne pepper

Butter

Preheat an oven to 425 degrees.

Butter large sheet of aluminum foil, large enough to hold fish.

Salt the fish all over. Also, season with pepper and cayenne.

Stuff the fish with the dill.

Place lemon slices on fish. 

Cover loosely with the aluminum foil – want a vent to release the steam.

Place on a large baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes until fish easily falls away from the bone. 

Porterhouse Steak - Bobby Flay style

Want an aged steak, 1½ to 2 inches, room temperature.

Salt it aggressively on both sides. With a steak this thick, a little salt sprinkled on the outside won’t do it—make it rain.

Get a skillet really hot over medium-high heat. Add a dash of a neutral oil to get things going. Place steak in pan. Don’t touch it. After about 4 minutes, when it’s got a beautiful brown crust, move it to a cutting board, crust side up.

Cut the steak off the bone in two pieces—the strip on one side, the filet on the other. Cut straight down into thick slices perpendicular to the bone.

Place the bone back in the hot pan, and reassemble the sliced meat alongside it, crust side up. Top the steak with a few fat pats of butter and duck fat.

Heat broiler and place the pan underneath. Broil till sizzling and gorgeous and a perfect medium-rare, 4–6 minutes. (Since the steak is already sliced, you can peek to check doneness.)

Serve directly from the pan, and spoon the buttery pan sauces over each portion.

Grilled Oysters

Sauce

For every stick of butter, clarified, enough for 12 – 15 oysters, place the following along with the clarified butter into the Vitamix. Once blended, pour into squeeze bottle.

Pinch of salt

Teaspoon of ground black pepper

Tablespoon of minced garlic

4 Tablespoons Pecorino Romano

Pinch of cayenne

Pinch of white pepper

Spritz of Lemon Juice

About a ½ teaspoon of dried basil

Also have on hand

Pecorino Romano to finish (1 Tablespoon on each oyster)

Dried basil to sprinkle on each oyster (pinch per oyster)

Minced Italian Parsley for garnish

Scrub the oysters to get all the mud and grit off the shells.

 

Very hot grill.

Cook oysters in own juices for two minutes to open up and liquid bubbles and edges of oysters curl.

 

Remove oyster tops if you have not already shucked.

 Fill up the shell with the sauce.

 

When sauce starts to bubble and sizzle, sprinkle about 1 Tablespoon of Pecorino Romano on top.

Let oysters cook until sauce on the edges of the shells get brown.

Garnish with minced parsley.

Roasted Cauliflower with Olives

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Cut a head of cauliflower into slices about 3/4 inches thick.

Place cauliflower slices in a single layer on a roasting pan. Be sure that there is good space between them.

Drizzle both sides of the cauliflower with olive oil and season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Use a fair amount of pepper, but hold back a wee bit on the salt since the olives are salty.

Roast cauliflower in oven for a total of 25 – 30 minutes, turning after the first 15 minutes. Roast until it is the way you like it.

While the cauliflower roasts, mash 1/2 tsp. minced garlic with some salt.

Dice up 1/4 cup Kalamata olives into fairly small pieces.

Add about 2 Tablespoons lemon juice to the garlic/salt, then whisk in 2 Tablespoons olive oil, whisking until the vinaigrette is emulsified. (Try other acids as well. I used a champagne vinegar. The amount of acid should be adjusted based on your personal taste.)

Then mix in the chopped olives and let dressing sit so the flavors blend while the cauliflower finishes roasting.

When the cauliflower is done roasting, you may trim out the core section of the cauliflower (or leave it – your preference) and place on serving dish. Spoon the olive/garlic vinaigrette over the cauliflower pieces and serve hot.

Monkfish, peppers and an onion

A friend of ours, Lonnie, told me about a seafood market that I had to check out. Sure enough, they had monkfish! Thanks, Lonnie!

What you will need:

A bunch of mixed peppers (I don’t use green)

1 onion

Some oil or clarified butter or both

1 tsp of so of mixed herbs

4 or so cloves of garlic, pureed

Salt

Fresh pepper

A monkfish tail

More salt and pepper

Flour for dredging

More oil or clarified butter or both

1 cup of dry white wine

1 cup of chicken stock

Wash, remove the seeds, etc. the peppers and cut into very fine long thin slices.

Peel the onion, cut it in half and cut into thin slices.

Strip the skin off the monkfish.

 

Take the long bone out by cutting closely against each side of it.

Remove any grey membrane from the monkfish. Want nice, white, firm flesh.

Cut the fish into good size chunks.

Heat up the frying pan over medium high heat, add some oil/clarified butter to coat the pan, when ready add the veggies and cook for 4 minutes. Add the mixed herbs, add the garlic. Total cook time should be about 5 minutes with the garlic getting about 30 seconds. Then, empty the veggies into a bowl.

Now it is time to do a preliminary sautéing of the fish!

Add some more oil/clarified butter to the hot pan. While that is warming, season all the chunks of fish on all sides with salt and pepper then dredge them in the flour and shake off the excess.

When the oil/butter is very hot but not smoking, add the fish in one layer. Sauté for 2 minutes, turn and sauté for 2 minutes on the other side. Want to stiffen the fish, not necessarily brown it.

Spread the cooked vegetables over the fish.

 

Pour in the wine and broth. Should be enough to come halfway up the fish.

Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Fish is done when it has turned from springy to gently soft. If it overcooks it will fall apart.

Arrange fish and veggies on a hot platter and cover. Then boil down the liquid in the pan until syrupy or there abouts and pour this over the fish.