Dungeness Crab Dip

Dungeness Crab Dip

Dungeness crab is one of our favorite foods and a treasured food of the Pacific Northwest. In my humble opinion, it is the best crab - better even than the prized King crab. Dungeness is found along the west coast of the United States with peak seasons during both summer and winter. Its namesake is a small fishing village on the Olympic Peninsula and Strait of Juan de Fuca here in Washington (see this). If you ever make it out to Seattle, a trip to the Olympic Peninsula is a must, and a fun stop is Dungeness Spit and the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.

Now, back to the food. Dungeness crab is mild flavored, both slightly sweet and rich, and lightly salty or briny. It is at its best in preparations that allow its mild flavors to shine. This dip recipe uses just enough goat cheese and whipped cream cheese to bind the dip together and offset the crab's salty-briny characteristics with added richness, while accenting the crab's mild sweetness with aromatics, citrus, and herbs. The end result is a dip that is crabby in all the best ways!

Servings: 6 as an appetizer

Time: 15 minutes (add 20 minutes or more if picking crab)

Ingredients:

• 1 Dungeness crab, cleaned and picked, about 8oz meat
• 4 oz mild goat cheese, softened
• ¼ to ⅓ cup whipped cream cheese
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp capers, rinsed, drained, and minced
• 1 Tbsp chive, minced, plus a pinch for garnish
• ½ tsp dried dill, or 1 Tbsp fresh dill minced
• 1 cornichon, minced
• ½ Tbsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• a couple dashes of hot sauce (e.g., Tapatío)

Directions:

1. If needed, clean the crab and then pick the meat from the legs and body of the crab. Double check for any shell pieces.
2. Prepare dry ingredients. Mince shallot, garlic, capers, chive, dill (if fresh), and cornichon. Grate lemon for zest.
3. Add goat cheese and whipped cream cheese to a mixing bowl. Mix well to combine and create a uniform mixture.
4. Add prepared dry ingredients, lemon juice, and hot sauce to the cheese mixture. Mix to incorporate.
5. Add crab to bowl and fold into the dip, preserving some larger chunks of crab.
6. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Depending on the saltiness of the crab itself, you may want to add a little bit of salt or some more capers or cornichon. Not enough herbal notes? Add more! Not enough acid? Add another small squeeze of lemon juice!
7. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with a little minced chive.
8. Serve with crostini, crackers, or even vegetables (radish, carrot, celery, snap peas).

Prepared Ingredients

Cheese and dry ingredients mixed and ready for crab!

Serve with crostini, crackers, or mixed vegetables.

Notes:

• I rarely measure out the ingredients for this recipe and instead taste and adjust as needed. If taking this approach, I suggest starting with a light touch on the dry ingredients - you can always taste and add more as needed.
• This dip can be repurposed to make delicious crab melts. Toast some bread, spread with dip, and top with sliced avocado. Or, spread dip atop sliced bread and top with some cheese before toasting in the oven or under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and warm.

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Salsa Verde (Cooked Tomatillo Salsa with Cilantro and Jalapeno)

Salsa Verde

Salsa Verde is a classic Mexican salsa made from cooked green tomatillos. It is absolutely delicious on Carnitas or as a dipping salsa for tortilla chips (in addition to being great on many other Mexican dishes). This recipe comes courtesy of Deborah Schneider and her book Salsas and Moles, which has proven to be an indispensable guide for our Mexican and Mexican-inspired cooking.

Salsa Verde's main ingredient is the green tomatillo. Similar in a way to the tomato, in that it looks like a small to medium green tomato on the outside and has seeds inside, the tomatillo is quite different than a tomato. Tomatillos may also be purple-green in color, but as far as I know this is only a visual variation that has no impact on flavor. A tomatillo typically comes with a husk surrounding the fruit, which is removed before washing the fruit. You may notice a sticky residue on the tomatillo after removing the husk (this is normal), but it will disappear with a little running water. Tomatillos have a tart-sweet flavor that is complemented nicely by the onion, jalapeno, and cilantro in the recipe.

Tomatillos (with and without husks) - including a cool purple-green one!

Ingredients

• 10-12 medium tomatillos, husked and washed
• 1 clove of garlic
• ½ white onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 large jalapeno or serrano chile, stemmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 10 sprigs cilantro (tough stems removed, tender stems included)
• (optional) ½ of a lime

Directions

1. Place tomatillos, garlic, onion, jalapeno, and salt in a saucepan (2 ½ to 3 ½ quart). Add just enough water to barely cover the tomatillos then bring to a boil over high heat.
2. Boil until tomatillos are tender and the tip of a knife can be inserted, about 5 minutes. Do not overcook. You want tender, not mushy.
   
   

   

   Ingredients in the pot with water

   
   
   

   

   Cooked tomatillo mix ready for blending

   
   
   
3. Drain off the cooking water and transfer the contents of the saucepan to a blender. Add the cilantro leaves then pulse the mixture until smooth. Specks of cilantro and some tomatillo seeds will still be visible after pulsing.
4. Add a squeeze of lime (start with a little, and increase as desired, but don't add too much!) and taste to adjust seasoning. You want to primarily taste the tomatillo with a bit of added sweetness, heat, herb, and acid from the remaining ingredients.
5. Enjoy with chips or try it out on top of some freshly made carnitas!

Notes

• If using table salt, use ½ tsp, then add more at the end if needed.
• Add another clove of garlic if you are a garlic lover.
• Serrano peppers are typically spicier than jalapeno peppers. If you enjoy spicy salsas, use a serrano. If you like milder salsas, feel free to remove the seeds from the chile pepper before using.
• You can use a food processor or even an immersion blender instead of a regular blender. I have found that a blender makes the best salsa, though, so use one if you can.

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Oven-Fried Old Bay Chicken Wings (with Buffalo Sauce)

 

Oven-Fried Old Bay Chicken Wings

There are few foods more satisfying or popular than chicken wings. However, for the home cook chicken wings can seem like a daunting task. Why is such a seemingly simple dish so challenging to make well at home? The main reason is that most chicken wings we are accustomed to eating at bars and restaurants are deep-fried, which provides the crispy-crunchy texture we love. Unfortunately, deep frying at home is not exactly a mess-free activity, especially if you don't own specialized equipment. Thus, the question becomes how to recreate a some of the crispiness of industrial-fried wings within the confines of the home, and specifically using the oven?

Fortunately, the chefs and writers over at Serious Eats figured out a great way to make wings at home! Their technique for oven-frying wings is our standard at-home wing approach. Feel free to check out their article at this link, but keep reading below for our take and notes.

In the rest of this post, we hope to inspire your at-home chicken wing adventures by describing this oven-frying or roasting technique for wings. This approach creates wings that are extremely tender inside with a pleasing crispy-chewy texture. Our current standard (favorite) seasoning is a somewhat uncommon combination of an Old Bay Seasoning-based dry rub with a Buffalo-style hot sauce offered by the original Serious Eats article. However, the technique described here can easily adapted to your favorite flavorings. Experiment away!

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp fine sea salt)
• 2 pounds chicken wings
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp Frank's Red Hot (original)
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Crudité and blue-cheese dressing for serving 

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together Old Bay, baking powder, and salt.
2. If using whole wings, cut into drumettes and flats. Optionally, remove the wingtip from the flats, however we leave it attached. The wing tip breaks down really nicely in the oven and creates a crunchy, chewy treat attached to each flat! (Just watch out for the larger tip bone and knuckle bones)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Pat wings dry using paper towels and place in a large bowl. Sprinkle on the Old Bay mixture and toss well to coat wings evenly.
   
   

   

   Seasoned wings ready for the oven. Note the layout of pairs of flats (with tips) sections.

   
   
   
4. Line a baking sheet with foil and place an oven-safe wire rack in the sheet. Stainless steel, oven-safe racks are great for all sorts of things (roasting meat, cooling cookies or bread, etc.)
   
   
5. Place wing pieces, skin side up, in a single layer on the wire rack, leaving a little space between each wing. See picture for our typical layout - pairing flats plus tips makes for an efficient use of the space!
6. Optionally, place the baking sheet with wings into the refrigerator, uncovered, for 8 hours or overnight. This step supposedly helps to dry out the wing skin through a process known as dry-brining. (We have never actually done this and still love the results!)
   
   

   

   Oven-fried wings ready for saucing!

   
   
7. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Move baking sheet to oven and cook until browned and crisp, about 40 to 60 minutes. We typically flip the wings over after 25 minutes and then flip them back to skin side up after another 10-15 minutes (or 35-40 minutes total cook time). Our typical cook time is in the 45-55 minute range. Flipping the wings over provides an even, tender cook, but reduces the amount of time the skin is face up where it can more easily crisp up.
8.  Optionally, finish the wings under the broiler set to the Low setting. Watch the wings carefully so they don't burn! This step helps put a final crisp on the wings' skin.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Melt butter on the stove top in a small sauce pan. Add hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce to pot and whisk together over low heat.
10. Transfer wings to a large bowl then pour sauce mixture over wings. Toss wings and sauce to thoroughly coat wings. Move wings to a platter and serve immediately with crudité and blue-cheese dressing.

Oven-Fried Old Bay Chicken Wings

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