Awake at the Whisk

Monday, June 21, 2010

Crawfish Boil

You don't have to go to New Orleans to have a Crawfish Boil. You can do it with freshly-caught crawfish right here in Sacramento.

I love seafood. I love trying new recipes. So, when I saw the sign for Kelly’s Crawfish at the Sunday farmers’ market, I made a v-line. I had read about crawfish boils. They are always described in happy detail as one of those “must” culinary adventures. Indeed, in the tales I’ve read, the boil seems to be half as much fun as the eating itself.

So, in my quest for the next big food escapade, I traded $7 for a few pounds of wriggling, pinching crawfish. Fisherman Kelly Hutson bestowed a few words of crawfish wisdom upon me as he handed over my fidgeting package. “Add lemongrass,” he suggested.

I took the neon blue bag from him and held my crawfish at arms’ length. “Of course they can’t escape,” I told myself.

As if reading my mind, Kelly tossed one last bit of advice in my direction. “When you get to your car, lay your other groceries on top of them. That will ensure they don’t crawl out,” he said.

Feeling utterly reassured, I made haste to get my little critters safely home to my cool refrigerator. Next, I began researching recipes for what would be my first-ever crawfish boil that night. With two hands, I guided My New Orleans off the bookshelf. Written by James Beard award-winning chef John Besh, this book is more than a cookbook. It’s a storybook for people who love food. Heavy, glossy, and oozing with edible photographs, My New Orleans conveys professionalism with every word, every image, every carefully-chosen recipe. I knew I could not fail with this book as my guide.

Yet, under the recipe for Crawfish Boil, the spice list merely read “1 package Zatarain’s Crab Boil spices.” Nooo! This would never do! Then I read further, “Secrets of the boil: What makes it yours are the ingredients you add.” Okay—so he doesn’t want to reveal his secret spice recipe. The man owns a restaurant. I can understand that. But as I read on, I finally found what I was looking for: “Foundations of the crawfish boil: cayenne, salt, and a mix of coriander, allspice, mustard seed, and black pepper.”

Bingo! Now I was ready! I prepped all my ingredients, fired up the grill, and had my stock simmering as our guests arrived. Within minutes of their arrival, the heady scent of spices lifted through the air. Our tummies rumbled.

“I’m going to check the stock,” I said. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I noticed everyone was following. All the stories I had read were right—a crawfish boil was an event! Eyes peered anxiously over my shoulder as I first lifted the lid to the grill, then the lid to the bubbling pot. “Oohs” and “ahhs” were uttered at the site of mere boiling water as the thickly spiced brew introduced itself to our noses.

Into the water went giant chunks of potato, corn, and carrot. As it boiled, we drank beers, but we were drunk on the smells coming from the grill, growing with force by the minute.

Now it was time for my crawling crawfish to meet their fate. The bag in my fridge was still wriggling. I cracked the seal, poured scampering crustaceans into a metal bowl, lifted the lid to their bubbling cauldron, and zoop!—in they plopped. One push of the spoon to sink them deeper into the watery depths, and clap!—I slammed the lid down, trapping all the heat in with them.

I have never before cooked a live fish. As a little girl, I went fishing on the Mississippi River with my dad, and it was his job to remove all creatures from hook. I never saw them again until they appeared on my dinner plate. Similarly, on my honeymoon several years ago, I went deep sea fishing with my husband, and we landed a giant, gorgeous mahi-mahi. As I dreamed lovingly of fish tacos, I had to look away when the fisherman walloped my mahi on the head. Love fish as much as I do, I get a little squeamish when it comes to the process from fishing line to my plate.

But I digress! I tell you this tale only to give you courage. I’m a big girl now, and as soon as the lid came down on that pot, my next thought was of dinner! And a mere 30 minutes later, I was scooping luscious chunks of veggies and crawfish right onto my plate, eager to dive in with both hands.

In every description I’ve read about crawfish boils, the entire contents of the boil are dumped onto newspaper laid across the table. But, since our bar is brand new, I didn’t want to take any inky chances. Instead, I daintily transferred mine into several large serving platters.

With the first messy bite, I learned why others rave about crawfish boils. The corn, which I thought might turn out mushy from all that boiling, was crisp and gushing with spicy Cajun flavor—no butter, no salt necessary. The potatoes were velvety. And the crawfish… the tails were soft and buttery, while the claws (my favorite!) were sweet and bright. As juice ran down our arms, we licked our fingers, cracked more fish, and stuffed ourselves silly on these farm-fresh delights.

Amber’s Sacramento Crawfish Boil

Ingredients:

1 large grapefruit cut into 1/8ths
2 large stalks celery, cut into large chunks
2 large cloves garlic, cut in ½ crosswise
2 ½ large, red onions, quartered
2 Tablespoons each: mustard seed, coriander seed, peppercorns, mild paprika, torn lemongrass, salt
1 Tablespoon allspice
½ Tablespoon each cayenne pepper, rosemary, and fennel seed
4 bay leaves
1 ½ lbs purple potato cut in half
5 ears of corn, shucked and halved
4 small sweet potatoes, whole
2 lbs crawfish
4 carrots cut in large chunks
4 washcloths
Juice from half a lemon

Farmers' Market Fare: garlic, onion, purple potato, corn, sweet potato, crawfish, carrots, lemon
Fresh from My Garden (and my neighbor's tree): grapefruit, lemongrass, rosemary, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, fennel seed
Non-local Supermarket Ingredients: celery, mustard seed, coriander seed, peppercorns, paprika, salt, allspice

Fill your largest soup kettle ½-full of water. Add the grapefruit, celery, garlic, onion, and spices. Bring to a boil on your grill. Reduce heat, cover with a lid, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Now add the potatoes and corn. Return to a boil, and then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes more.

Add the carrots and crawfish, being sure to dunk the fish under the water. Cover and cook for 10 more minutes.

Without removing the lid, turn off the heat and continue to let the crawfish stand in the pot for 20 minutes more.

Strain the liquid. Dump the remaining contents onto newspaper on your picnic table, or be dainty and distribute it among several large platters.

When the meal is finished, submerge clean washcloths in a bowl of very warm water. Add the lemon juice. Squeeze the excess water from each washcloth and place them in a metal bowl with a lid to trap the heat. Hand one to each guest. Their hands will be messy, and they will thank you for this lovely gesture!

Serves 4.

Labels: Cajun, cajun recipe, crawfish, crawfish boil, crawfish boil spice recipe, farmers' market recipe, John Besh, Kelly's Crawfish, My New Orleans, Sacramento locavore, seasonal recipe

# posted by Amber @ Monday, June 21, 2010 1 Comments

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Roasted Garlic Egg Salad: Revising a Classic

When it comes to egg salad, most people don’t want you messing with their momma’s recipe. If Mom made hers with pickle relish, then by golly, all good egg salad needs pickle relish. But if Mom’s recipe came without pickle relish, you might possibly start a household World War III by adding the stuff. There are certain classics that the home cook just doesn’t redesign.

Well, welcome to World War III! I have done the unthinkable. I’ve taken a classic recipe and utterly rearranged it. I have invented Roasted Garlic Egg Salad. And by jiminy, this stuff stands toe-to-toe with the classic version, if I do say so myself. Even my husband gobbled it up happily and without an utterance of “This isn’t how Mom used to make it.”

I hope you’ll agree that this little sandwich is delightful. In fact, now you can freely introduce egg salad to your “company’s coming” menu. By adding roasted garlic and “fancy” brown mustard, you’ve just elevated egg salad from brown bag lunch to Sunday brunch. Roll out the red carpet!

Roasted Garlic Egg Salad
4 organic hard-boiled eggs, peeled and rinsed
4 cloves roasted garlic (recipe follows)
1 ½ to 2 Tablespoons organic mayo (more or less, depending on how moist you like your egg salad)
1 teaspoon grainy brown mustard such as Boetje’s Stone Ground Mustard
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 slices corn rye bread

Farmers’ Market Fare: eggs, garlic, (mayo if you use farm eggs and local olive oil to make your own), rye bread
Non-local ingredients from grocery store: mustard, black pepper

Mash the hard-boiled eggs with a fork. Add the roasted garlic cloves, mayo, mustard, and black pepper. Stir to combine. Divide the egg salad evenly between the four slices of bread and serve as an open-faced sandwich.

Serves 4.

Roasted Garlic
1 Whole bulb garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
A dash each of salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the upper inch off the bulb of garlic so that the whites of the cloves are just beginning to show. Tear off two square sheets of aluminum foil and place them one on top of the other. Set the garlic bulb in the middle of the foil, then drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pull the foil tight around the garlic and place in the middle oven rack for 45 minutes to an hour. You will know the garlic is fully roasted when the cloves turn a caramelized golden brown color. When the garlic has cooled, you can now individually pull off cloves of yummy roasted garlic for your egg salad. You can also use this heavenly invention on pizzas, in pasta sauce, with potatoes, and just about anything that you want to taste better.

Labels: Boetje's mustard, egg salad recipe, farmers' market recipe, local recipe, revising a classic, roasted garlic, Roasted Garlic Egg Salad, roasted garlic recipe, Sacramento local recipe

# posted by Amber @ Tuesday, March 30, 2010 0 Comments

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Quail Egg Appetizer on Blini with Grapefruit Zest & Dill Sauce

Want an easy way to impress your party guests? Try these! They’re tiny, cute, and tasty to boot. You can find fresh quail eggs for a mere $1 at the Sacramento downtown farmers’ market on Sunday.

When you present a platter of these, your friends will ooh and ah. Go ahead. Let them think you slaved all day! Only you and I will know how quick these little treats really are to prepare.

Quail Egg Appetizer on Blini with Grapefruit Zest & Dill Sauce
20 quail eggs

Blini with Grapefruit Zest
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg (chicken egg, not quail egg)
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon melted butter
Zest from one grapefruit

Dill Sauce
1 cup organic sour cream
2 Tablespoons organic mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon dill weed

Farmers’ Market Fare: quail eggs, grapefruit, chicken egg, butter, mayonnaise (you can make your own mayonnaise with local egg yolk and olive oil)
Locally sourced from California: buttermilk, sour cream
Garden-grown: dill
Supermarket ingredients (non-local): flour, salt

To hard boil the quail eggs, lay them in the bottom of a small sauce pan in a single layer. Cover with cold water about 1 inch over the tops of the eggs. Partially cover the pan with a lid, and turn heat on to medium high. Bring water to a boil. As soon as the water boils, place the lid fully over the pan and turn the heat off. Set a timer to 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, fill a small bowl with ice and water. As soon as the egg timer rings, drain the hot water from the quail eggs and immediately place the eggs in the ice water bath to stop them from cooking. This method will produce an egg with a creamy yellow middle.

When the eggs have completely cooled, crack each egg thoroughly on a plate to loosen the shell. From the bottom of the egg, pinch the shell to tear it open. Gently peel the egg. Rinse off any bits of shell that remain behind. Repeat until all the eggs are peeled. Set them aside until assembly.

Meanwhile, make the blinis (or mini pancakes). First, place two skillets on the stove top over medium heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another small bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, melted butter, and grapefruit zest. Add this buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until combined.

Coat your skillets lightly with olive oil. Using a single Tablespoon, drop the blini batter onto the skillet. You should avoid using too much batter. You want the blinis bite-sized, or smaller than a biscuit cutter.

I use two skillets at once and make four blinis at a time in each skillet (or 8 blinis at one time). This speeds up the cooking time considerably.

You should flip the blini over when air bubbles begin to surface, and then cook until they are golden brown on each side. Place each finished blini on a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

While the blinis cool, make the dill sauce. Stir together sour cream, mayonnaise, and dill weed until well combined.

Now you are ready to assemble your appetizers.

Set one single blini on a pretty serving tray. Top with one teaspoon dill sauce placed in the center of the blini. Place a hard-boiled quail egg in the center of the dill sauce. Repeat.

You are now ready to impress your guests!

Labels: blini, California grown, dill sauce, farmers' market recipe, farmers' market Sacramento, hard boiled quail egg, quail egg, recipe

# posted by Amber @ Wednesday, March 03, 2010 0 Comments

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