as promised

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blogging

There was a time I cooked or baked something different every day. Then, life, school, work, eventually a wedding happened, and the food blog was repeatedly neglected. But I refuse to retire it.

A few months back, while still completely devoted to wedding planning, I asked Steven what he thought about starting a blog together. Understandably, he was skeptical. I mean, I can’t even keep my food blog running, how could I start a second blog? But he didn’t dissuade me either. Maybe he was enticed by the prospect of writing about craft cocktails.

The truth is, blogging is hard work. Kudos to the people who are able to make a living blogging full time. I am not a chef or photographer and certainly not a writer. Cooking and snapping a few pictures is easy, taking a good picture is hard, using photoshop with nonexistent photoshop skills is ridiculous, and the writing, oh man the writing, would easily take hours. That is how blogging became tedious. This time around, the pictures with be straight out of the camera and there will be typos. If you want stunning photos or witty prose, I can recommend some other food blogs, but chances are you’re already reading them.

My blogging will return to being my creative outlet. Now is a time of change; a new job, new city, new place, and a new blog with just a little bit of everything.

Guide to Crabs: how to clean and pick meat from a crab

Seattle is best known for salmon but my favorite local seafood is the Dungeness crab. Eating crab is messy and time consuming so the puny guys are not worth the time. Dungeness crab, on the other hand, are sweet, meaty, and easily two to three pounds. Whenever it was Dungeness crab season, that is, when they were cheap, my family would buy a few live ones from the Asian market, steamed them at home, and make a rice noodle soup with the flavorful liver. Because of this, I've become quite adept at extracting meat from a crab.

For the freshest possible product (barring catching the crab yourself), you would buy a live crab and steam it yourself. If you do buy a fresh crab, don't boil it. Boiling it will cause all the flavors to leech out into the water. What a waste.

Unfortunately, the seafood vendors at Pike Place do not sell live crab. It was either Dungeness crab meat for $40/lb or whole cooked crab for $10/lb. Being the cost-obsessed, poor student that I am, I figured with the average whole crab at the market being 2 pounds or $20, I would have to get at least 8 ounces of crab meat to be worth the trouble. There is the added benefit that a whole crab comes with the flavorful liver, which is I wanted for my recipe, and the meat might be fresher than the meat in the case. So we bought the whole crab and hoped it was worth it.

If you have a live crab, steam it for about 6 - 7 minutes per pound. When you place the crab in the steamer, it will undoubtedly try to escape. Show no mercy and hold down the lid until it struggles no more.

With your purchased cooked crab or steamed live crab, run it under some cold water and scrub the exterior with a stiff brush, especially the belly and legs.

On the belly side, there's a flap of shell, which I believe is called the apron (long on male crabs, wide on female crabs). Lift it up and break it off close to the body. This will leave you with a hole that you can stick your finger in to pry the shell off the body. If it's a freshly steamed crab, there will be more fresh juices so make sure to do this over a bowl to save all of the flavorful juice. Hold the crab with the top shell down, which serves as a vessel to hold the juice.

Set aside the body. Inside the shell, there will be some yellowish-green stuff. That's the liver or tomalley (lobsters have that stuff too). The whitish pieces are albumin, which is harmless protein and fine to eat. There will be some thin transparent membranes, not tasty, and some membranes covered in purplish stuff, also not tasty. Take a spoon, scoop out the liver and albumin into a small bowl and set aside. If this stuff disturbs you, you don't have to eat it. I think it makes a lovely soup or sauce and I try to use it in my recipes. The color of the tomalley is more appealing in a freshly steamed crab. It's more of a muddy green in an already steamed crab so I don't blame anyone by being grossed out. Female crab, not commercially available, have a delicious bright orange roe.

After you scraped out what you want from the shell, discard the random membranes and the purple stuff. If you want to keep the shell for serving, break off the mouth pieces and random crab bits here and there, rinse it out, and set aside.

Now moving on to the body. There will be some residual liver, scrape it into your bowl if you'd like. I didn't get a good picture of this but there will be multiple white triangular shaped, feathery, spongy type things lining both sides of the body. Those are the gills and are not edible. Peel them off and discard them.

Now you're left with the cleaned crab body. Hold firmly with both hands and break it in half where the body naturally divides. Crack the crab such that you bring the exterior of the shell together (let me know if that doesn't make sense).

Now you have two crab halves. With each crab segment, pull the legs from the body like breaking apart a chicken wishbone. You want to pull them apart such that the break will sometimes separate the crab's cartilaginous body. Sometimes, you're not so lucky and the legs break off cleanly. Once you have all 10 legs separated, if any of them are connected to parts of the crab body, separate the body from the legs so you have 10 clean legs and various bits of pieces of the crab body. When you break apart the crab, try to break and pull at the same time. Sometimes big nuggets of meat will be pulled out of the shell with a break, making your job easier.

Now, you can start picking the meat meticulously out of all the nooks and crannies. A long pointy object like a chopstick is very useful for pushing the meat out. Do things in systematic batches. First get the meat out from the body pieces. The body meat is delicate and sweet but encased in a thin cartilaginous maze. When working with crab, you want to use a delicate hand so you don't mangle the meat. Try not to break up the meat too much. Sometimes you can peel the shell apart from the meat, other times you need the chopstick to push the meat through.

When it comes to the legs, you can use a crab cracker or a swift whack with a mallet. For the smaller, delicate tips of the legs, you can sometimes cut the shell with a pair of scissors and fetch the meat out that way. there's sometimes a center sheet of cartilage that runs through the meat, you'll have to make sure to get that out.

From the start of washing the crab, to weighing all of the meat, it took a total of 27 minutes. The 2 pound crab yielded about 12 ounces of meat and about 2 tablespoons of tomalley.

Valentine's Day 2012

Steven and I just celebrated our 9th Valentine's Day dinner and our last as an unmarried couple. Instead of going out, we continued our yearly tradition of dining quietly at home. Each year, we mix up the menu a bit but we always do ribeye for Steven and some kind of seafood for myself.

We started out the day with some wedding cake tasting.

Cake place #1

Cake place #2

For tasting #3, we ordered a cake from Macrina (they didn't offer the flavor we wanted as a cake sample, so we had to buy a whole cake), which we ended up using as our dessert.

After that, we went down to Pike Place to get some dinner ingredients.

A cooked crab and a half pound of "butt cheeks", the fishmonger's words, not mine.

And we fell madly in love with DeLaurenti all over again. Steven with the upstairs bar selection and I with yeast (I finally found SAF instant yeast after weeks of searching).

Multiple shelves of bitters and Pok Pok's drinking vinegar!

Menu:
pan-seared ribeye with mt. townsend trufflestack cheese
halibut cheeks with hedgehog mushrooms and grapefruit beurre blanc
dungeness crab and dijon mashed yukon golds
pan seared brussel sprouts

manhattans/honey som and chambord spritzer

macrina's passion fruit cake


Next up: cleaning a crab

Thanksgiving 2011

I'm a night owl. It is officially Thanksgiving as of an hour ago, which marks the start of the holiday season and my favorite time of year. Now it's perfectly acceptable for me to eat a little more than I should, indulge in buttery baked goods, and most importantly, listen to Christmas music.

 I have been spending Thanksgiving with Steven's parents for many years now. We usually alternate between doing a turkey or prime rib for our main event. In the past, Steven has mentioned more than once that turkey is dry and bland so naturally I didn't think he'd mind that his mom and I were talking about forgoing the turkey entirely and doing something like rack of lamb and duck confit. To my surprise, Steven specifically requested turkey this year. I later discover this is only because I told him about a Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen version (link to recipe and episode) that involves roasting a salt-pork covered, self-basting turkey.

In addition what is essentially a bacon covered turkey, I made my holiday tradition twice baked potatoes and pumpkin creme brulee. For now, it's bedtime and in 8 hours, we will make the (30 minute) drive down to his parents house while listening to Michael Buble's Christmas album.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Blueberry Muffin

The fact that this is my seventh muffin recipe on the blog shows how much I love them. I'm certainly not the first to proclaim the muffin top to be the best part. When the muffins are not intended for any occasion the following day, there can be half a dozen mangled muffin bodies after Steven and I are through with them. The tops are best after the muffins have rested for a few minutes after coming out of the oven. This crucial wait allows for the exterior to set into a slightly crunchy crust and allows for the muffin to cool enough for eager fingers to pry the tops off of the unsuspecting body. We can't let the precious tops go to waste. After muffins sit around, you lose the distinction between the top and bottom and the next day, you're left with a plain, uniform muffin. The tops are never the same, even after reheating them in the oven. I wondered why I’ve never seen a pan that capitalizes on muffin-top love like game changing edge brownie pan.

But a quick google search proved me wrong!

In fact, Chicago Metallic deemed themselves the creator of the Original Muffin Top Pan . While the idea is brilliant, I’m not for paying $15 for a pan that only makes 6 muffin tops when my current muffin pan that was a fraction of the cost works just fine. For similiar reasons, I never purchased the $30 (highway robbery for a student in debt) brownie pan when I can still bake them in my $5 pyrex.

But with a little more digging, I unearthed a similar shallow "whoopie pie pan" that looks like it will make the same end product. The ridged edge along the rim of the pan will make it a little more difficult to wash than the Chicago metallic but it’s cheaper and bakes twice as many muffins. This one is going on the registry.

Now back to the actual muffin. Four years of blogging and I have finally made the quintessial blueberry muffin. My past recipes have used sour cream or a combination of sour cream and buttermilk. But years of baking have led me to refine my original recipes (which are still good by the way). I’ve found that batter made with sour cream alone is very thick and a little difficult to work with. Batter made with plain milk becomes a good consistency but the finished product lacks in flavor. Buttermilk muffins have the same subtle tang and delicate crumb of sour cream muffins but the batter is easier to work with. When it comes to the fat in the recipe, butter offers the best flavor hands down, but adding a little bit of a neutral oil creates a moister product when eaten at room temperature. As for the berries, it’s best to use frozen or fresh blueberries. I think canned berries have an odd, sometimes metallic flavor, and their squishiness does not stand up well to being mixed into batter. Lastly, a note about baking. I've been baking my muffins at 400 degrees for years now. After experimenting with a different recipe at various temperatures, I found that the higher temperature gave them a handsome golden brown crust. Now I discover that higher temperature also contributes to the coveted domed top. How serendipitious!

Blueberry Muffin
2 cups (8.8 ounces) all purpose unbleached flour 
1 tablespoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted 
4 tablespoon (1/4 C) neutral oil like vegetable or canola 
1 large egg 
1/2 cup granulated sugar 
1/4 cup brown sugar 
1 cup buttermilk 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup blueberries 
Butter or oil spray for muffin tin 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray. If you are using paper liners, lightly spray them with some oil so less muffin sticks to them when they're being peeled.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter, oil, egg, and sugars. Then whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold the two sets of ingredients together.

When the batter is starting to come together and no large clumps or streaks of flour remain, add the blueberries. Continue folding until the blueberries are evenly distributed and batter is mixed, a few streaks of flour are okay. Do not over work the batter

Scoop a mounded 1/4 of batter into each muffin tin, making sure the batter is distributed evenly amongst the 12 tins.

Bake at 400 degrees F until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin in the center of the pan comes out clean, about 15 - 17 minutes. But like the article linked earlier in the post says, if your muffins are looking too "peaked" and scraggly for your tastes, try baking them at 375 for 17 - 20 minutes. Every oven is different.

Meat Lasagna

Every time I open the pantry, I'm accosted by two lingering boxes of lasagna noodles that have been sitting at eye level for the last two years. They are the final edible remnants from when I catered E's wedding over 2 years ago. I have not made lasagna since then--perhaps it's because I'm still a little traumatized by all the prepping and cooking that went on that week. But if I'm to be successful in clearing out the entire pantry, I had better start making some lasagna.

In other news, I'm still working through moderating all the unpublished comments and the hundreds of emails in my blog email. So if you've left a comment on this blog and are wondering where it is or if you've sent me an email and I have not replied, please bear with me. Thank you for your patience! I do love your emails and comments. If you make something from the blog, I wanna hear about it! Even if you didn't like it. Also let me know if recipes are unclear, I'm in the process of updating many older recipes.

Some notes: Lasagna can be time-consuming but the sauce can be made in advance to save some day the day of. If using boil noodles, only cook them about 75% of the way, undercook them by about 3 - 4 minutes. They will finish cooking in the oven.

Meat Lasagna
serves 6 - 8

Meat Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pound of ground beef or 50-50 mix of ground beef and italian sausage, casings removed (I prefer this combo but it depends on what I have)
1 medium onion chopped fine
6 medium garlic cloves minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
28 ounce can tomato puree
28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 teaspoon salt

Lasasgna
15 ounce ricotta cheese, preferably whole-milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup coarsely chopped basil
1 pound shredded mozzerella cheese
2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
12 no-boil noodles

Making the sauce
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the ground meat and cook, breaking up the pieces, until browned. Transfer the ground beef to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the fat back to the Dutch oven and turn the heat down to medium. Drain and discard the rest of the fat.

Add the chopped onions and cook until translucent while scraping up the brown bits. Add the black pepper and garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Return the meat back to the sauce, add the drained diced tomatoes, tomato puree, and salt. Simmer for 1 hour.

Assemble the lasagna
If using chilled, premade sauce, let it sit out at room temperature for 20 - 30 minutes prior to using but you do not need to do this if you do not intend on baking the lasagna right away.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Add the ricotta, cream, egg, salt, and pepper to the bowl of a food processor. Puree until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the chopped basil.

Mix the grated Parmesan and shredded mozzerella in a separate bowl and set aside.

Smear the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with 1/4 cup of tomato sauce (avoiding large chunks of meat). Place 3 noodles on the bottom of the dish. Drop 3 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture in one tablespoon dollops along each noodle. Roughly spread the cheese mixture out on each noodle with the back of the spoon. Evenly sprinkle 1 cup of the grated mozzerella and parmesan mixture on top of the ricotta mixture. Then cover each noodle with 1/2 cup of meat sauce. Apply another layer of noodle and repeat the ricotta, mozzerella, meat sauce, and finally noodle again twice more. In the last ricotta layer, use up the remaining ricotta mixture.

Place the final layer of lasagna noodles on and cover with the remaining meat sauce. Then spread the remaining mozzerella mixture evenly over the top.

A cross-section of the lasagna will look like this:

Remaining mozz/parm
Remaining meat sauce
Noodle layer 3
Meat Sauce
Mozz/Parm
Ricotta
Noodle layer 2
Meat Sauce
Mozz/Parm
Ricotta
Noodle layer 1
1/4 cup sauce without meat
However, for a more photogenic lasagna with separate cheese and meat sauce layers, you can do something like this. Up to you, fresh lasagna never slices neatly anyway.

Remaining mozz/parm
Remaining meat sauce
Noodle layer 3
2x Meat Sauce
Noodle layer 2
2x Mozz/Parm
2x Ricotta
Noodle layer 1
1/4 cup sauce without meat

Bake uncovered at 400 degrees on the middle rack for 30 minutes. Depending on the oven, the top may brown faster than anticipated, if this happens, loosely cover the lasagna with a piece of foil and continue baking. Let it sit for 10 minutes at room temperature prior to slicing and serving.

If planning ahead, the lasagna can be kept in the fridge for 2 days. If freezing, wrap the dish tightly with plastic wrap, then wrap tightly with foil, and finally wrap tightly once more with plastic wrap. Thaw in the fridge for 24 - 48 hours. Make sure the center of the lasagna is not frozen prior to baking. After defrosting, let the lasagna sit at room temperature for an hour prior to baking.

Gently remove the foil when unwrapping because it can be used during baking. Gently drape the foil over the lasagna and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes then uncover and continue baking until the sauce is bubbly and cheese is spotty brown, approximately 25 - 35 more minutes.