Frogmore Stew

Disclaimer: No frogs were harmed in the making of this stew.

As it happens, the "Frogmore" appellation is derived from a location rather than amphibians.  So you can relax.  Frogmore stew is a classic lowcountry dish.  We firmly believe in learning about and enjoying local foods, which is how we were introduced to the stew in the first place.  We'd seen it on menus all over, but first tried it at Low Country Bistro.  LCB is, by the way, one of the best restaurants in Charleston, in my humble opinion.  The best thing about them is that they provide fantastic food at a reasonable price.  So, if you ever find yourself in Charleston, hit up LCB!

Saturday is Farmer's Market day in the town I work at, and the market is good enough that we're willing to make the 40 minute drive a few Saturdays a month.  It's also puppy-friendly and Kodi has many admirers there.  We picked up the usual tomatoes, goat cheese and lamb stew meat, but were also lured in by the fresh shrimp.  I'm starting to come around on shrimp and The Husband was about drooling over these huge, juicy bugs, so we got a bunch.  I asked what he wanted me to make out of them, and we came up with Frogmore stew (though we did just steam a few as an appetizer.  Amazing!).

This dish is fairly simple to make.  I do strongly recommend making your own stock and crab boil spice though.  The stock really makes or breaks the dish and if you use a commercial spice mix you'll risk having an overly salty stew.  Seriously, it will take you just over an hour to make the stock and it's so worth it.  The boil spice is a matter of moments to mix up!

Ingredients

1 leek (white parts), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 T EVOO
1 large tomato, diced
1 ear of corn, kernels removed
5 small red potatoes, cubed
2 c shellfish stock (recipe follows)
1 T crab boil spice (go find your own, I'm not sold on my recipe yet)
1/2 T Old Bay
1 andouille sausage, sliced
1 lb fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
Water as needed

Sautee the leek, garlic and celery in the evoo for 1 minute.  Add tomato, corn, potatoes, stock and spices.  Simmer until potatoes are tender, 5-10 minutes.  Add water as needed, probably a cup or two.  Add the sausage and shrimp and continue simmering until shrimp are just cooked, 3-5 minutes.  Serve with crusty bread or biscuits.

Shellfish Stock

5 c shells (from shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc)
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic
pepper
water

Combine all ingredients in a pot over medium heat, with enough water to cover everything.  Stir once.  Do not boil.  Keep just below a simmer, not stirring.  As foam forms at the top, skim it off and discard.  Cook like this approximately 1 hour or until color and flavor are both rich.  Strain out solids.

Bang Bang Shrimp

Until Friday, April 6th, I never met a shrimp I liked.  Sometimes I'd find shrimp that I liked the flavor of, but the texture always killed it for me.  Last friday, though, we headed into The City to do some shopping - and to use the gift cards the in-laws had given me for my birthday.  The gift cards to Bonefish Grill.

Yeah, Bonefish is a chain, but despite our relative proximity to the ocean, we live in a bit of a seafood desert and Bonefish is wayyyy better than Red Lobster!

Anyway, my husband has been wanting bang bang shrimp for a while.  Wednesdays are bang bang days, with specials and whatnot, but it was Friday.  It was also happy hour, and we noticed that bang bang tacos were on the cheap appetizer list, so we got that.  Warily, I took a bite.

I was in heaven.  The sauce was divine, the shrimp crispy and not at all bothering me (the tortilla did, though, they really need to make their own!).  I devoured my share.

I needed more.

When I got home, I started looking up how to make my own.  Fortunately, it's a simple process.  I made The Husband run out and get me some shrimpies and we celebrated Easter with the oh-so traditional Bang Bang Shrimp dinner.  Yum!  I tossed them with roasted veggies to make it a bit healthier.

Ingredients

1/2 c mayo
1/3 c sweet thai chili sauce
sriacha to taste
2/3 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
cornstarch
vegetable oil

Make the sauce ahead of time to allow flavors to blend.  Mix mayo and chili sauce (maybe a bit extra of the chili sauce), and add sriacha to taste.  Add a LOT of sriacha to taste.  Don't be a wimp, get some spice in your life!

Heat oil to 350.  Pat shrimp dry and toss in cornstarch.  Let shrimp sit for 10-15 minutes.  Fry in oil until browned, 2-5 minutes depending on the temp of your oil.  Drain on paper towels.  Toss shrimp with some veggies and sauce to taste.  We had a lot of extra sauce but no extra shrimpies!

Crab Cake Pizza

A few weeks ago, The Husband and I were down on the Kenai looking for bears.  Long story short, we were unsuccessful, but we did find ourselves spending a night in Seward, one of our favorite towns.  I really wanted to spend some time there before we PCSed, so I was pretty excited.  After heading down to Lowell Point to look for sea otters (they obliged!) we wandered through town debating where to eat for dinner.  We finally settled on a particular place based on the fact that they had halibut cheeks on their menu.  If you've never had halibut cheeks, you are Missing Out.  It is, without a doubt, the best part of the fish, deliciously tender.  Of course, each fish only has two, and we'd eaten our last for Christmas.  Since it's nearly impossible to get cheeks outside of the state, I wanted some!

Anyway, we choose poorly.  I hadn't realized it was POSSIBLE to ruin halibut cheeks, but they did, and it made me very sad!  They also ruined the seafood salad we had.

Fortunately, I'd splurged and ordered an appetizer of king crab cakes.  Unlike the rest of our meal, they were fantastic!  So good that I fantasized about them all the way home.

Then, it occurred to me.  This month's HH6 challenge was to make a pizza without tomato sauce.

Crab cake.  Pizza.  The two terms sounded strange together, but I KNEW they would be delicious.

I was right.

Ingredients

Pizza Dough (Peter Reinhart's version, or use your own)

4 1/2 c flour
1 3/4 t salt
1 t yeast
1/4 c olive oil
1 3/4 c ice cold water

Blend ingredients into a smooth dough (5-7 minutes with dough hook).  Divide into 6 pieces and refrigerate overnight.  You can also freeze the dough at this point.  On the day you make the pizza, pull out the dough at least two hours before.  Pat it into a rough oval, cover, and rest for two hours.


Roasted Red Pepper Aioli

1 red pepper
1/4 c mayo
1 clove garlic
dash onion powder
dash cayenne
1 T lemon juice

Roast the pepper, either in the oven or on the grill.  Peel off skin and discard seeds.  Place pepper in food processor with other ingredients until sauce forms.


Topping

1 leg king crab (or equivelant of other crab, but red king is best! ...I love Alaska!)
1/4 c diced celery
1/4 c mayo
1 T Dijon mustard
dash onion powder
dash hot sauce
1/4-1/2 c panko crumbs
1/8 c shredded Parmesan or asiago cheese

Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 550 or as high as it will go.

Gently stir first six ingredients together.  Fold in about half of the bread crumbs.

Roll pizza dough out to the desired size.  Spread a thin layer of aioli across.  Top with crab mixture and sprinkle with the remaining panko and cheese.  Transfer to pizza stone and bake 5-8 minutes or until golden brown.

Manila Clams in White Wine

Today was a day of random food purchases to jump-start my cooking bug. I didn't really cook dinners at all last week, which is pretty typical for me the first week the Husband is gone. So today I decided to have fun. The first thing I picked up was a spaghetti squash which I promptly named "Sam." I was planning on using Sam tonight until I went to New Sagaya and saw the tank full of manila clams. "HAH!" I said to myself, "the husband is GONE, so I can have all the clams I want!"

Now, I like clams, but I've never cooked with fresh clams before, only canned. So this was a new thing for me. Thanks to recipezaar.com for helping me out with my first ever fresh clam cooking experiment.

As a note, I'm trying to become more aware of dietary restrictions in my cooking. I'm sure that many of you are more knowledgeable than I on these topics, so if I mislabel a dish, please let me know!

That said, this dish is gluten free and dairy free.

Ingredients

manila clams (~1 dozen per person)
fresh basil, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
crushed red pepper
ham or prosciutto, thinly sliced
dry white wine
olive oil

If needed, scrub the clams to remove any exterior dirt. Soak in cool water until ready to use. In a pot at least twice as large as the amount of clams you have, saute the ham in olive oil until crispy. Remove ham and drain. Meanwhile, add the basil, garlic, and crushed red pepper to the pot and saute about one minute. Add wine to cover the bottom to 1/4 inch and bring to a boil over medium heat. Drain the clams and add to the pot. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Discard any unopened clams. Spoon the remainder into bowls and top with the ham slices.

Seafood Chowder

What's better on a cloudy day (or any day, really), than a cup of nice hot chowder? Thick and creamy, stuffed full of clam, crab, and halibut, this has finally satisfied my craving. Now all I need is bread bowls! Props to Circle of Food for providing the base for this chowder.

Ingredients
4 slices bacon
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 slice of jalapeno

6 small red potatoes, cubed

3 cans (6.5 oz) clams
4 oz crab meat
1/2 lb halibut, cut into chunks

2 T butter
1 1/2 T flour
2 cans clam juice*
2 c half and half

salt, pepper, cayenne

Preheat oven to 350. Wrap the potato cubes in tin foil and set in the oven. Saute the first 5 ingredients in a pot until the bacon begins to crisp. Remove and set aside. In the same pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and cook until bubbly. Add in the juice drained from one can of clams, stirring well. Once this has blended, stirring constantly, add the half and half and the juice from a second can of clams. Add the vegetable and bacon mix back to the pot, along with the seafood and potatoes from the oven. Season to taste and simmer at least 30 minutes longer. Remove the jalapeno before serving.

King Crab

The hardest part of making crab is getting the crab. This is one of the wonderful benefits about living in Alaska - there is crab everywhere!

So you've managed to hunt down some crab - hopefully red King, though golden is acceptable. Dungeness and snow also work, and may be easier to find depending on where you live. You have crab, of one kind or another... but it's frozen, big, and prickly. Now what?

It's really quite simple.

You'll need to plan ahead, so that you can thaw your legs out in the refrigerator. This takes about a day. Once the legs are nicely thawed, preheat the oven to 350. Wrap the legs in tinfoil, leaving a small hole at the top. Use this hole to add about a quarter cup of water. Cover the hole with additional tinfoil. Pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes and you should be ready to go!

Some people advocate salting the legs before heating. I consider this unnecessary. The poor animal has been swimming in an ocean his whole life - he already has plenty of salt!

Remember, frozen crab legs have already been cooked. All you are doing is heating them up. Once the meat is warm to the touch, they're done.

For ease of eating, run your kitchen shears along one side of the leg, slicing it open. Serve with rice and melted butter.