Crab Cakes

 

Given that I live in the upper Midwest, I don't have a lot of experience with seafood that is not breaded and deep fried, and especially not when it comes to cooking seafood. However, when life hands you a can of crabmeat from dear friends who are moving across the country and don't want to move the contents of their pantry, and tricks your husband into buying a whole bunch of imitation crab sticks when you meant to get another kind of Asian fish cake, you get to experiment and try something new. I opted to try making crab cakes since the crab meat I had was the right texture and I heard they were good. I'm not sure about other parts of the US but crab cakes are considered fancy here, and I'm all about being fancy, or at least pretending to be fancy.

Notes:

• I used a mix of canned crab meat (4.5 oz) and imitation crab sticks (about 8.5 oz). The crab sticks were made of a finely shredded textured fish cake so when I cut the sticks into ~3/4 inch long pieces, they fell apart into skinny threads.
• I opted to pan fry them and was pleased with the result. They are admittedly a little hard to shape and they feel like they'll fall apart in the pan but they seem to solidify a bit as they cook and if you push any small bits that escape back onto the edge of one, they tend to stay there. You do have to handle them somewhat carefully when you flip them.
• I used a little less sriracha than the recipe calls for (maybe ~1/2 tsp) because I thought it might be too spicy. They had a slight kick to them that I could taste but there was no lingering burn.
• You might want to reduce the salt, particularly if you use imitation crab. I think I could have left out the added salt completely.
• This recipe made 10 patties around 2.5-3 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick.
• I served these with roasted potatoes but I think a simple green salad would also taste good with them.

RECIPE: Easy Crab Cakes

Lavender Apple Mint Syrup

When I was in Germany earlier this month, I went to the Frankfurt Kleinmarkthalle, an indoor marketplace selling both freshly prepared food and lots of hard-to-find, high quality cooking ingredients from around the world. I wish I'd gotten there sooner -- I was there right before it closed for the day and had just eaten so basically the worst time I could go. Of note were these really delicious looking deli sandwiches, a couple of stalls selling fancy coffee drinks, a chocolate shop where I bought acorn-shaped Belgian pralines, and a bunch of stalls on the upper floor that resembled an Italian butcher shop and deli. Again, I was kind of sad that I had eaten right before I went there.

One of the things I saw for sale while wandering the aisles was a bottle of lavender apple mint syrup. I didn't buy it because I wasn't sure I'd be allowed to bring it home in my carry-on luggage but the combination of those flavors sounded so good to me that I had to try making it for myself. Never mind that I didn't know what I was going to do with it. I could not find a recipe for it, so the below is based on my experiences developing a recipe for ginger syrup (mainly that an ingredient is going to impart a much stronger flavor if pureed rather than chopped) plus a couple of recipes that already existed for lavender mint syrup (without apple). I am pleased with my first crack at it and think I've got a good start here but I would make a couple of changes next time to make it even better.

Notes:

• I made this with a Honeycrisp apple but I think a sour apple (like Granny Smith) would taste even better.
• I am considering adding more lavender next time, maybe 1 1/2 tbsp instead of 1, because I could taste it but I wanted it to be a little more prominent. A sour apple might bring it out more.
• My syrup turned out a bit darker in color than the one at the Kleinmarkthalle (theirs was the color of apple flesh, a pale yellow, and a little bit cloudy) and I think this is due to the kind of apple used, and maybe because I left the skin on. Lavender can darken the mixture too, in my experience.
• My favorite way to enjoy this syrup so far is to mix it with plain sparkling water or green tea. I had the tea hot, but  think it would be even better iced. I tried it mixed with sparkling water and gin but I didn't like it. I am sure there's a way to make a good cocktail with it and I just haven't discovered it.

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RECIPE:

Lavender Apple Mint Syrup
by The Matcha Chronicles
Makes about 2 cups

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 large tart apple
1 tbsp dried culinary lavender buds
1/4 oz (7 g) fresh mint leaves (no stems)

Core and dice the apple, leaving skin on. Place sugar and water in a small saucepan and set on the stove. Add diced apple to the saucepan. Set heat to high and bring to a boil. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer contents to a blender. Blend on medium-high speed for about 20 seconds or until apple has broken down significantly. Return syrup mixture to the saucepan. Stir in dried lavender. Clap the mint leaves between your hands, then add to the pan and stir to combine. Cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain with a tea strainer and let cool. Transfer to a glass jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

This recipe is a common Southern breakfast dish and comes to me through my sister's boyfriend, Sam, who is not Southern but genuinely likes cooking. He cooks things on his own from scratch, not just when she invites him to cook together! Yay.

My mom came to visit this weekend and stay overnight at my house. We normally cook breakfast together when we see each other, so we all convened in my kitchen to cook breakfast in the morning. My sister and Sam brought ingredients for biscuits and gravy, and I was excited when I heard Sam had made this recipe before. I tried biscuits and gravy one time and thought it was fine, but it is not something I grew up eating, and I was unmotivated to make it for myself because I didn't like it enough to go through the process of trying recipes until I found one I liked, and it seems like biscuits and gravy is something for which there would be a lot of dubious recipes.

I love biscuits as a food and have tried to make them from scratch at least 3 or 4 times, but I was never satisfied with the end result. Each time I was disappointed they didn't taste like the canned ones. They were all bitter and metallic tasting so I didn't try for a long time. Today was different. He handed me the recipe for the biscuits, and my sister and I worked on them while he made the gravy. They were pretty easy to make since I was familiar with the process. I got them out of the oven and they actually. tasted. good. Not bitter at all. I can make biscuits I like now!

Notes:

• The photos in this entry depict a doubled batch. We served it to 5 people and had a little less than half left over.
• Use aluminum free baking powder! The biscuits are less likely to be bitter that way.
• Sam sometimes makes these as drop biscuits, either as 8-10 small biscuits like the recipe calls for or 4 larger ones (you may need to bake them longer). I shaped the dough into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle and cut it into 12 pieces (for a single batch, cut into 6) with a chef's knife.
• Sam liked the flaky and layered texture of my batch. I attribute this to not overhandling the dough and cutting in the shortening with a pastry blender rather than a fork -- this keeps the fat in larger chunks.
• I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper instead of greasing it and it worked great.
• I baked the 12 biscuits for 13 minutes and it was perfect -- they were golden brown on top while being fully cooked but not dry in the middle.
• I'm considering making the biscuits with another fat sometime (butter in particular) and seeing how they go because I'm not a fan of shortening.
• If you end up with extra biscuits, they taste great warm with butter and/or jam.
• Sam usually uses Italian sausage for the gravy but I think breakfast sausage might also taste good.
• The leftover gravy can be refrigerated and reheated. It thickens more as it cools, so you will likely need additional milk or water to thin it out.

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RECIPE:

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

from Baker's Corner Baking Powder (biscuits), Betty Crocker (gravy)

Serves 4, up to 6 with additional meal items

Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup Crisco or other shortening
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp butter, melted (for brushing)

Sausage gravy
1/2 lb pork sausage meat (breakfast sausage or mild Italian sausage)
1 tbsp butter or canola oil
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup milk (we used 1%)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Prepare biscuits: Preheat oven to 475°F. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until the texture of coarse crumbs (around 1/8 inch / 3 mm pieces). Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the milk into the well. Stir with a fork until milk is just incorporated and dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured cutting board or other flat work surface and knead for approximately 30 seconds, or until the dough just comes together, taking care not to overwork it. Pat into a rectangle about 7 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick, then cut into 6 pieces (3x2). Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and brush the top of each piece with melted butter. Bake for 11-15 minutes or until golden brown. If there's any melted butter left over, brush the baked biscuits with it after removing them from the oven. Serve warm with gravy.

Prepare gravy: Heat a skillet or deep frying pan on the stove over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add sausage to the pan and fry until well browned. Remove browned meat from pan into a medium bowl, keeping the drippings in the pan, and set aside. Return pan to the heat and add butter or oil. When the butter is melted, sprinkle in the flour with a wooden spoon. Stir to combine, being sure to scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until mixture bubbles and has turned light brown. Whisk or stir in milk a little at a time, making sure mixture is smooth. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat until mixture boils and thickens slightly. If it gets too thick, stir in more milk, a little at a time, to thin it to the desired consistency. Stir in salt and pepper, then add cooked sausage back in, stirring gently to combine. Serve hot over biscuits.

No Bake Cookies

These were one of my favorite cookies as a kid, and easy for me to make too since they did not require the use of an oven so it was one of the first things I learned to make when I started cooking. This recipe comes from one of my mom's church cookbooks. They have chocolate, peanut butter, and oats in them.

Notes:

• Be sure to use old fashioned oats; if you use the instant kind they may dry out the mixture too much.

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RECIPE:

No Bake Cookies
Makes about 48

½ cup (4 oz) butter
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup milk
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups old fashioned oats

Place first four ingredients in a saucepan, and heat on medium heat until they melt and begin to boil. Boil the mixture for one minute, then remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and peanut butter until well blended, and mix in oats last. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper or press into a 9x13” pan, and let cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Puppy Chow

A friend of my mom's introduced my family to this treat when I was about 6 or 7 years old by having us help her make it. It gets its name from looking sort of like dog kibble. You may know it by another name, such as People Chow or Muddy Buddies. This is another thing that you only ever used to be able to get by making it yourself, but I have seen it fully prepared and for sale in some grocery stores. I have very recently found friends who also know what this is from their childhood and absolutely love it. If you love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter and you also like sweets, you'll probably love it too.

If you want to be extra (gross), you can put it in a bowl, pour milk over it and eat it like cereal, like I did very occasionally when I was a kid. Yikes! Seriously, it tastes better all by itself.

Notes:

• Instead of shaking it in a bag to coat it with powdered sugar, my mom used to leave the cereal in the bowl, sift the powdered sugar over the chocolate coated cereal, and mix until it was coated. This way tends to coat the pieces less evenly but might potentially be less messy and involve fewer containers.

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RECIPE:

Puppy Chow
Makes about 8 cups, serves 8-12 as a snack

6 cups Crispix cereal (about 1 12 oz box)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup (4 oz, 1 stick) butter
2 cups powdered sugar

Place cereal in large mixing bowl and set aside. Melt together chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter on stove or in the microwave on high power in 30 second increments, and mix until fully combined. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir gently until coated. Place 1 cup powdered sugar in a large, clean paper or plastic bag; add half of the cereal, close the bag and shake until coated. Repeat with second cup of powdered sugar and other half of cereal mixture. Store in an airtight container.

Turtle Cheesecake

My family was asked to make two desserts for my brother's wedding, and my new sister-in-law requested a turtle cheesecake. Neither my mom nor I had made a cheesecake before and we settled on this recipe because it looked relatively simple compared to others we found.

NOTES

• We used regular vanilla extract instead of clear imitation vanilla. (The clear stuff is only for looks, so that your cream cheese filling stays as white as possible.)
• Be sure your cookie crumbs are ground very finely and evenly. It will help the crust stay together. Definitely use a blender or food processor, and not just a rolling pin.
• We skipped the hot fudge sauce and used chocolate pieces to decorate the top instead.
• Our cake got a big crack in the top but we just filled it with caramel sauce since we were flooding the top of the cake.
• I think a from-scratch caramel sauce would really bring this to another level for just a small bit of extra effort. If you've never made your own, there is something incredible about how much flavor can result from something as simple as browning sugar. You could make it while the cheesecake bakes. I recommend this one, with or without the bourbon!

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RECIPE: Turtle Cheesecake

Pistachio Dessert

My family has always touted this as a very special treat fit for the likes of winter holidays. I think it's because of the bright green pistachio pudding layer and lots of nuts. Pistachio pudding was one of my favorite desserts growing up so I always enjoyed eating this very fancy version when it appeared in our house.

For my brother's wedding today, he requested that we make this and bring it to the dinner celebration, a perfectly reasonable feat given that the entire party was less than 20 people. I learned later that his wife's family also made this very same pistachio dessert for holidays growing up (a huge surprise to me since I had never met anyone else before who knew of it), so it was an especially fitting dessert to celebrate their marriage.

Notes:

• My mom prefers to make this with walnuts but you can also use pecans or even pistachios. Toast the nuts before using them if you can to deepen their flavor.
• If you are skeeved out by Cool Whip and want a more natural alternative, you would likely be able to use an equivalent volume of sweetened stabilized whipped cream (about 6 cups whipped, from 3 cups liquid heavy cream) instead. Most stabilized whipped cream recipes seem to involve gelatin but you can also use cornstarch or cream of tartar. Please note that I have not yet personally tried this substitution so I am not sure how well it will work.
• My mom most recently made this with 3 packages of pudding mix and 3 3/4 cups milk and she liked the larger volume of pudding in the dessert.
• Do not use non-dairy milk; the pudding will not set.
• You can also make this in individual servings in plastic wine cups as we did for the wedding, or glasses or jars (for "jarfaits" as a friend termed them once) if you want the containers to be reusable. My mom was making them big enough to fill the cups to the top so we ended up with 13, but I feel like that serving size was just a little too large. I would aim for 16 servings. If serving them in 8 oz/1 cup jars you could probably make 18-20. Bake the crust in the pan and then break it into crumbles after it has cooled, then layer the ingredients in the smaller containers as described.

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RECIPE:

Pistachio Dessert
Makes 1 9x13 pan; serves 16-20

4 oz (1/2 cup, 1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3/4 cup finely ground walnuts or pistachios
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
16 oz (1 large package) Cool Whip, divided
2 small packages (3.4 oz each) instant pistachio pudding mix
2 1/2 cups milk
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pistachios

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl combine butter, flour, granulated sugar, and 3/4 cup ground nuts until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of a 9 x 13 x 2 in rectangular pan and bake for 10 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar together until well blended, then incorporate half of the Cool Whip in several additions until creamy. Spread over the cooled crust and place in the refrigerator to stay chilled. In a third medium bowl, beat the dry pudding mix and milk on low speed or stir with a whisk until thickened and well blended, about 3-5 minutes. Spread the pudding mixture evenly over the cream cheese layer in the pan. Spread the remaining Cool Whip evenly over the pistachio pudding layer and garnish with 1/4 cup chopped nuts. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until all layers are well chilled, then it is ready to serve. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.