Wednesday morning is one of my favorite “reading” material days: three of the local grocery stores publish their specials and the Post publishes the Food section. While I rarely shop at Giant or Safeway anymore, since they don’t tend to carry they types of food that I am likely to buy (and when they do, it’s “premium” in their stores and the price it as such), I still scour their circulars each week. Maybe it’s force of habit, curiosity, food lust, or just a cheap chick looking for a good deal. Last Wednesday, I found it. Half price crab meat at Giant. Someone is having crab cakes, very soon. Of course, Giant publishes their specials on Wednesday, but they don’t go into effect until Friday. Visions of crab cakes danced in my head for the remainder of the week.
Crab cakes were on the “menu” of options I presented to Jim for Saturday night’s meal, but did not make the cut. No bother; I’ll slip them in somewhere. We had plenty of leftover couscous from last night’s meal, and Jim (in his own words) is not “a big fan of leftovers”. He doesn’t seem to mind them quite as much if I can recreate said leftovers into something seemingly totally new. So…couscous-from-last-night stuffed bell peppers were born.
So, that was the Sunday night menu; nothing too difficult or time consuming to prepare, and nothing so heavy that I’d wake up the next morning feeling like death. Crab cakes, couscous-stuffed bell peppers, roasted asparagus with carrots and green beans, and roasted parsnips and turnips (those made it in because they’ve been in the fridge for a while and needed to be used—they’re light and tasty and make a fine addition to any meal).
Ok, you’re saying, Mrs. “Healthy cook”: crab cakes? That’s indulgent fare. Not mine. I’ve never been a fan of mayonnaise, and don’t use it when I can avoid it. The binders that I use in my cakes are just whole wheat bread, egg white, Dijon mustard and a dash of low-fat sour cream. And, I bake them on a baking sheet sprayed with olive oil. No frying, no excess amounts of oil. Just crabby-goodness.
We decided that Sunday night would be a beer-night, and so I have two tastings to report. We got started on #1 while I began my prep work.
Koningshoeven Quadrupel Trappist Ale (10% ABV): The aroma was light, with a malt presence and possibly some fruit. There was some light lacing around the edge of the glass, with very little head. On drinking it, we found it to be very well carbonated (as one would expect from a Belgian beer—even though this is a Trappist brewer based in the Netherlands). There is definitely a yeasty flavor, with a sweet malt as well. Overall, quite refreshing and tasty. We agreed that it was superior to some of the other quadruples that we have had in the past.
Crab cakes were on the “menu” of options I presented to Jim for Saturday night’s meal, but did not make the cut. No bother; I’ll slip them in somewhere. We had plenty of leftover couscous from last night’s meal, and Jim (in his own words) is not “a big fan of leftovers”. He doesn’t seem to mind them quite as much if I can recreate said leftovers into something seemingly totally new. So…couscous-from-last-night stuffed bell peppers were born.
So, that was the Sunday night menu; nothing too difficult or time consuming to prepare, and nothing so heavy that I’d wake up the next morning feeling like death. Crab cakes, couscous-stuffed bell peppers, roasted asparagus with carrots and green beans, and roasted parsnips and turnips (those made it in because they’ve been in the fridge for a while and needed to be used—they’re light and tasty and make a fine addition to any meal).
Ok, you’re saying, Mrs. “Healthy cook”: crab cakes? That’s indulgent fare. Not mine. I’ve never been a fan of mayonnaise, and don’t use it when I can avoid it. The binders that I use in my cakes are just whole wheat bread, egg white, Dijon mustard and a dash of low-fat sour cream. And, I bake them on a baking sheet sprayed with olive oil. No frying, no excess amounts of oil. Just crabby-goodness.
We decided that Sunday night would be a beer-night, and so I have two tastings to report. We got started on #1 while I began my prep work.
Koningshoeven Quadrupel Trappist Ale (10% ABV): The aroma was light, with a malt presence and possibly some fruit. There was some light lacing around the edge of the glass, with very little head. On drinking it, we found it to be very well carbonated (as one would expect from a Belgian beer—even though this is a Trappist brewer based in the Netherlands). There is definitely a yeasty flavor, with a sweet malt as well. Overall, quite refreshing and tasty. We agreed that it was superior to some of the other quadruples that we have had in the past.
With drink in hand, I started on the crab cakes. Crab cakes are simple fair, but so tasty and such a treat. I began with a 16 ounce package of “special” crab meat, which I gather is a mixture of backfin, claw and lump. I bought a package of the lump crab meat, but at $10 (that’s half price), we decided to reserve it for another occasion. After picking the meat over for shells and cartilage, I added the following: about 5 scallions, sliced (green and white parts); ½ cup chopped fresh parsley; 1 clamshell package of dill, minced (which probably turned out to be 1 T); ¼ t onion powder, ¼ t garlic powder (I know—onion powder and garlic powder? I’ve discovered that these really add a great flavor punch, and are very useful even though they seem like sacrilege); ¼ t celery salt; a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce; about 2 ½ slices of whole wheat bread, diced into very small “crumbs”; 1 T light sour cream, 2 t country Dijon mustard; 2 egg whites; ½ t thyme; and the greater part of a red bell pepper, finely diced. I mixed all of this together and, after ascertaining that the mixture would indeed form cohesive patties, I shaped them and then tossed them in some panko breadcrumbs (first time I’ve done that; the intent was to give the cakes that crunchy exterior that you might get from sautéing them or frying them—seems to have worked in the end). Onto the baking sheet and ready for the oven.
The first time I made crab cakes, I embarked on a full-scale fact finding mission in search of the ultimately perfect recipe. I had decided that I wanted to make them at home and, while I had them in restaurants countless times, I had really no clue what actually went into those little wonders of luscious crab. I started with a recipe from Eating Well magazine, a wonderful publication devoted to healthful eating. Seeing what they used for binders (if my memory serves me correctly, they called for light mayonnaise, 1 whole egg and one egg white), I then proceeded to look up crab cakes in every source I could find. I tore apart my cookbook collection and scoured the internet. The purpose of this search was to find out, in general: just what do people put in these things? The result of all this searching is what I listed above; I decided on my spice mixture based on a comprehensive survey of (probably) at least 20 crab cake recipes. I axed the light mayonnaise and egg yolk suggested by Eating Well, opting instead for an extra white and less-offensively flavored light sour cream (and not much of it). And LMF crab cakes were born. It would seem like I have a lot of time on my hands—truth is, I really don’t. I just don’t sleep much.
The couscous was pretty simple also. That’s the beauty of taking a left over side dish and making a new side dish out of it—not much work involved. Recycled food, if you will. I had one red, one yellow and one orange bell pepper, from which I removed the tops and as much as the ribs and seeds as my little fingers could reach from the holes I cut in the tops. I filled them about halfway with the leftover couscous, added a few diced tomatoes in the center (just to add a little moisture, so the couscous wouldn’t dry out). I filled the rest of the pepper with the couscous, topped each one with a slice of plum tomato and a sprinkle of feta cheese (Greek sheep’s milk feta from Trader Joe’s—good quality and a great price; often the sole reason for my trips there, but I always find a few extra things to buy). Into a small loaf pan they go, and ready for the oven.
As usual, roasted veggies. I’m not too creative with veggies, unfortunately, but I find that roasting them with some kind of flavorful splash usually produces good results. After all, it gets Jim to eat his veggies. Asparagus was on sale at Whole Foods (first sign of spring?), so that was the star. I added some carrots and grape tomatoes for color, some defrosted artichoke hearts, and also the last of the fresh green beans that I bought for yesterday’s dinner. Some garlic powder and onion powder (dinner prep was fast tonight---no fresh garlic in sight….gasp! Bad lazy cook!), 1 T of yellow mustard seeds, 1 t herbs de provence, 1 T balsamic vinegar, pepper and some red pepper flakes. Also a good splash of chicken broth, to keep some moisture in there and prevent burning (where most people would probably use oil--low fat cooking, folks). Now, a toss to mix everything up and ready for the oven.
We had some parsnips and turnips in our veggie drawer that were probably getting close to being old, so I decided to add a fourth dish to our supper. I peeled them, diced them small (those turnips are deceiving; the look like carrots and you wouldn’t think that they take forever to cook and are not at all pleasant when they’re even slightly undercooked—when they are undercooked, they’re tough and gritty, but they’re tender and sweet when cooked properly). A dash of soy sauce, some garlic and onion powder (I know, I know—Bad lazy cook!), some pepper and ready for the oven.
Everyone in the pool…or the sauna? 400 degrees, and all of these pans barely fit. As the dinner cooked away, we broke into our second beer.
The Burton Baton from Dogfishead Craft Brewery. Described on their website as “A blend of oak-aged English strong ale and our 90 Minute I.P.A.. Citrus notes from Northwestern hops meld with vanilla notes from the oak”, and clocking in at 10% ABV. It had a mildly hoppy aroma, with a touch of sweetness. In the taste, you could definitely pick up some oak and Jim thought maybe a touch of smoke. I felt that it left a slight tingle on the tongue in the finish. A nicely balanced beer, with good hop flavor but a pleasant dose of malts as well. Very refreshing (and served in the DFH “tasting” glasses that I got Jim for Christmas—who on earth calls a 16 oz. glass a taste, I’m not sure. DFH, apparently).
Elements of dinner slowly emerged from the oven and waited patiently, covered in aluminum foil, for the slow members of the group to finish up. The bread crumbs on the outside of the crab cakes were not browning quite as much as I had wanted, so I cranked up the heat to broil and moved the rack up to the second-from-the-top position. I let them broil for about 5 minutes to get a nice golden brown and then we were ready to eat. You can see the final plated meal below (again, side salad served but not pictured).Well, that was Sunday night. Now we start a new week, with much more meager meals to be had in that period. Monday night will consist of leftovers (3 crab cakes are left, 1 ½ stuffed peppers and some roasted veggies), which is just as well because I’ll be home late. Now, to dream about what to make next weekend…
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