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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Grilled Tamarind Prawns

Grilled Tamarind Prawns with Nam Pla Prik

One of my all time favorite food experiences occurred during a trip to Thailand a few years back. We were staying on the island of Koh Samui and spending a day wandering along some of the beaches when we came across a small restaurant with incredible fresh seafood. The standout dish was tamarind prawns - large head on prawns with a delicious sweet-sour tamarind sauce and garnish of cilantro and fried shallot.

After our trip I searched long and hard for a "tamarind prawn" recipe in an attempt to recreate the dish at home. After a couple years of searching and experimentation I developed the following recipe for delicious Grilled Tamarind Prawns. The recipe below includes insights gathered from a few recipes I found scattered across the web. Which websites and what insights came from each has been lost to time, since I apparently never bookmarked any of them! In any case, these prawns definitely remind me of the ones we had in Thailand that day on the beach.

My version of Grilled Tamarind prawns marinates and glazes the prawns with a sweet-sour tamarind, palm sugar, and fish sauce based sauce, accented with a little garlic and a healthy punch of ginger. Cooked over very high heat, preferably on a charcoal grill, the prawns pick up smoky flavors before a sprinkling of cilantro and fried shallot and a squeeze of lime adds crunch and brightness. Serve the prawns with Nam Pla Prik on the side to counterbalance the sour-sweet glaze with the irresistible spicy-sour of the famous Thai condiment and you will have a showstopping appetizer that is hard to beat. These prawns are the "chicken wings of the sea" - tender, saucy, and just messy enough to require finger-licking!

For those who might be hesitant to work with head on prawns, here is some advice: buy the freshest you can from a reputable supplier. If you have access to fresh spot prawns, I highly recommend them for this dish. Despite the head being attached, you don't need to go all "Anthony Bourdain" on them and suck on it if you don't want to. If the prawn heads still have you avoiding this recipe, feel free to use shell on, headless large prawns.

Servings: 4 or more as an appetizer

Time: 60 minutes

Equipment:

• wood skewers (one per shrimp)
• 9"x13" or 8"x10" dish with sides for marinating prawns
• a very hot grill, preferably charcoal

Ingredients:

• 8 large fresh prawns with heads on (U-15 to U-12 size)
• ¼ cup fish sauce
• ¼ cup palm sugar, grated
• ¼ cup tamarind juice (2 Tbsp tamarind concentrate plus 2 Tbsp water)
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, julienned thinly
• a pinch of white pepper
• 2 Tbsp cilantro, leaves and tender stems, rough chopped
• 2 Tbsp fried shallot
• 1 lime
• Nam Pla Prik
• 1 small shallot is about 1 Tbsp shallot. I minced the shallot.
• use at least 4 Thai chiles and as many as you like

Directions:

Prepare the prawns:

1. Devein each prawn using kitchen shears and the tip of a skewer. Using shears, make a cut along the back of the prawn from just below the head down to the tail to split the shell and expose the dark colored digestive tract of the prawn. Pull or scrape the tract out using a knife, scissor tip, or the tip of a skewer.
   
   
2. Skewer each prawn from tail to head with a single wood skewer. The skewer is inserted through the back of the tail until the tip is just into the head of the prawn. This prevents the prawn from curling during cooking. Place skewered prawns into the marinating dish.
   
   
3. If using headless prawns, the tip of the skewer should just stick out the head end of the prawn's body.

Prepare the marinade and glaze:

1. Mix the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Pour half of the marinade on the prawns and set the other half aside. Rotate the prawn skewers to coat each prawn with marinade. Marinate prawns for 30 to 60 minutes, rotating prawns to recoat a couple times.
   
   
2. Make the glaze. Add a little neutral oil to a small saucepot over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger then cook until fragrant, a minute or two. Add reserved half of marinade to pot along with a pinch of ground white pepper then simmer to create a sticky glaze. The glaze should be thickened but still easily pourable.

After prawns start marinating, prepare your grill:

1. Prepare a grill for very high heat cooking. On a charcoal grill this means that you should barely (or not) be able to hold your hand a few inches over the grate above the coals for one second.
   
   
2. Exactly when you start preheating your grill will depend on what type of grill you have! The marinating time does not need to be exact, but I recommend no more than 60 minutes if possible.

Grill and garnish:

1. Grill the prawns over direct, very high heat for 30 seconds per side until just done. The prawns should just be opaque, although this will be hard to see until they are peeled. I suggest cooking one or two at a time first until you are comfortable judging when they are perfectly cooked.
   
   
2. Transfer prawns to a serving platter and pour the glaze over top. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro, fried shallot, and lime wedges on the side. Serve with Nam Pla Prik as a dipping sauce.

Enjoy! (aka, how to eat):

1. For each prawn, wiggle the skewer while pulling the prawn to slide it off. Twist the head off the body to remove, and give it a suck if desired. You can also give the prawn legs a suck as they tend to trap the glaze and garnishes.
   
   
2. Peel the shell off the prawn body, give the meat a dip into the Nam Pla Prik, a swipe through the glaze on the plate, or both and enjoy!
   
   
3. Rinse (lick your fingers) and repeat!

Top row: tamarind glaze and Nam Pla Prik Bottom row: prawns on the grill

Notes:

• 1 to 2 prawns makes a great appetizer. 3 to 4 (or more...I ate all 8) is enough for an entrée portion. Perhaps serve with sticky rice and some of your other favorite Thai dishes. 
• This recipe can easily be doubled (or beyond). Simply skewer more prawns and make more marinade.
• Overcooked prawns are tough, chewy, and kind of rubbery, and must be avoided at all costs. Thus, to get both a little charred and smoky flavor without overcooking your grill needs to be very hot.

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Clams and Linguine (Linguine with Clams?)

Clams and Linguine

The other night I had a big craving for clams (because we have some of the best clams around in the PNW), but I wanted to prepare them in a different way than our regular steamers. I eventually settled on making clams and linguine (or perhaps, linguine with clams, depending on your worldview...). They key to this dish is to use the best clams and linguine you can find. Here in Seattle, that means reaching for the widely available Manila clams and some high-quality fresh linguine. While we have made fresh pasta at home a few times, I wasn't in the mood for that large of a cooking project so I opted for some fresh pasta from the grocery store, courtesy of Carso's Pasta Company.

The recipe below was based on this one. It is a fairly straightforward clams in garlic, shallot, parsley, and wine broth. There is a hint of red pepper flakes to add just a touch of heat and to complement the strong aromatic and herb notes in the sauce. I served the dish with some thick slices of warmed baguette - perfect for soaking up the flavorful broth!

Servings: 2

Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds Manila clams
• 6 Tbsp olive oil
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup minced shallot
• ¼ cup minced parsley
• pinch red pepper flakes about 1/8 tsp, or more to taste)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 8 oz fresh linguine
• salt and pepper

Directions:

Washed clams

1. Rinse the clams well immediately prior to cooking in a bin of cold water. Fill the bin with enough water to just cover the clams then agitate with your hands to knock sand and debris free. Lift clams out of water and place in colander. Repeat one or two more times until no dirt knocks off clams.
   

   

   Sautéing aromatics

   
   
2. Heat a medium pot with water (salted lightly if desired) to a boil for the pasta.
3. Heat olive oil in a large, wide, lidded pan over medium heat. Add garlic and shallot and saute until aromatic and softened, but before they begin to brown.
   

   

   Clams in the pot!
   
   

4. Add the wine, parsley, red pepper flakes, and season with salt and a touch of black pepper. Add clams, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until clams open, about 5-8 minutes.
5. While clams finish cooking, add pasta to pot with boiling water and cook per directions on pack until very al-dente. Our fresh pasta took about 3 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.
   
   

   

   Clams opened and cooked

   
   

   

   Adding pasta to the cooking broth

   
   
6.  When clams finish cooking and have opened, remove to a bowl and set aside. Add al-dente cooked pasta to the clam cooking liquid, mixing to combine, then cook for one to two minutes until the pasta absorbs some of the broth and is finished cooking. Add butter to the pan and mix until it melts into the sauce.
   

   

   Clams and Linguine, ready for serving!
   
   

7. Add cooked clams back to the pan and mix to combine and warm through. Divide clams and pasta into serving bowls. Garnish with additional minced parsley if desired. Serve alongside warmed or buttered and toasted bread.

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Mussels with Fennel-Saffron Broth

Mussels with Fennel-Saffron Broth

The other week we received fennel in our bi-weekly CSA shipment from Helsing Junction Farms. Since we don't often cook with fennel, Erin scoured the web for an appealing dinner that used this perennial herb. The recipe she eventually settled on comes from one of Mark's favorite food websites (Serious Eats) and involves one of our favorite foods (mussels)!

Over the past handful of years we have eaten mussels in a variety of preparations both in Seattle and around the world. We've enjoyed delicious Penn Cove mussels at home here in Seattle, at restaurants in the city, and at the nearby Front Street Grill in Coupeville on Whidbey Island (seriously, look them up and visit if you have a chance!). We've savored traditional Moules Frites in Brussels. We (Mark) has enjoyed smoked green-lipped mussels in New Zealand while on vacation. However, at home, we almost always prepare them in the same way we prepare clams.

This fennel-saffron mussels recipe was a refreshing change to our usual preparation of clams and mussels. The broth is full-flavored and semi-rich without being too heavy so that you can eat large quantities of these mussels without feeling overwhelmed as you might by a cream-based broth. It also pleasantly incorporates the fennel flavors with a hint of spice and a touch of herb to create a dish that you won't be able to stop eating. In particular, this preparation mellows out the licorice/anise flavor of raw fennel to create an extremely well-balanced dish that you can keep on standby as an impressive main requiring relatively minimal effort.

Original recipe: J. Kenji López-Alt at Serious Eats

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2-4 ounces hard dry fennel salami, diced
• 1 small bulb fennel, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
• 4 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• pinch of saffron
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 1 (2-inch) piece orange zest, white pith removed
• ½ cup crushed tomatoes (optionally pureed)
• 2 pounds mussels, cleaned and de-bearded before cooking
• ¼ cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 loaf rustic bread, sliced, buttered or oiled, and well toasted

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan or pot over medium-high eat until hot. Add salami and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add fennel, onion, and garlic then reduce heat to medium, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until vegetables are softened but not browned, about 5 minutes.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Add saffron and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add wine, orange zest, and tomatoes, increase to high heat and bring to a boil.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Add mussels, stir, cover, and cook, shaking pan every 30-60 seconds. As soon as all mussels have opened, remove the mussels from the pot using tongs and transfer to a bowl then cover with a lid or a plate.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Remove the pot from heat and whisk in the parsley, butter, and lemon juice. Return the mussels to the pot stir to combine, then transfer to a warm serving bowl or serve directly into warmed bowls, ladling broth and vegetables from the pot over mussels. Serve with toasted bread.
   
   

   

   Mussels with Fennel-Saffron Broth
   
   

Notes:

• Make sure you thoroughly rinse and de-beard the mussels immediately before cooking. De-bearding the mussels will kill the mussels eventually and mussels should be alive when you cook them, so avoid doing this too far in advance. See this article on Serious Eats for more information.
• When de-bearding mussels, use half a piece of paper towel to grab and grip the beard. This makes it much easier to grasp the beard compared to using your bare hands, and if you are purchasing paper towels that can be composted then you can toss them into the compost when done.
• Go light on the pepper flakes the first time (no more than 1/8 teaspoon) to avoid an overly spicy dish. The flavors in the dish pair nicely with a bit of heat, so increase the amount of red pepper flakes to match your tastes, but note that a little goes a long way.
• The original recipe calls for pastis or Pernod instead of dry white wine. We are not huge fans of the licorice/anise flavors so we opted for a dry white wine. Dry vermouth should also work well as a substitute.
• Slice the bread about 1" thick and then toast or broil so the outer surface is well toasted while the inside is warm and soft.

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Pad Gra Pao (Thai Stir-fried pork with basil)

Pad Gra Pao ready to eat!

Pad Gra Pao is a delicious Thai pork stir-fry featuring salty, sweet, and spicy notes that is a regular in our weeknight meal rotation. Erin introduced Mark to this dish a few years ago, having become a fan of it herself during her time in Thailand and Southeast Asia. When we visited Thailand a couple summers ago, I (Mark) had the chance to try the dish from a local vendor and was shocked by how similar the version we make at home was to the version we had in Thailand. The main difference between our version and what we enjoyed in Thailand is the spice level: we use fewer chili peppers.

The recipe we use originally comes from Leela at SheSimmers. The main difference in our version is that we typically use only regular soy sauce and use fewer Thai chili peppers. Regardless, it is still delicious. Every time we make this dish it turns out slightly different depending on the spiciness of the chile peppers, the amount of garlic or shallot we use, or the exact mixture of sauce ingredients. However, it never disappoints and this stir-fry is a staple in our weeknight diets.

Ingredients

The aromatics - garlic, shallot, Thai chile pepper, and Thai basil

The sauce - oyster, soy, and fish sauces

• 1 pound ground pork
• 5-7 garlic cloves
• 2-3 Thai chili peppers
• 1 large shallot
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 cup Thai basil leaves, packed
• Thai Jasmine Rice for serving
• Fried egg for serving

Directions

Minced aromatics ready for sautéing

1. Finely chop or mince garlic, chili peppers, and shallot together. If you have a mortar and pestle, pound these ingredients together into a coarse paste.
   
   

   

   Sautéing the aromatics

   
   
   
2. Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, then add garlic, chili peppers, and shallot mixture. Fry until fragrant.
   
   

   

   Stir-frying the pork with the aromatics

   
   
   
3. Add meat to pan and break it up into small pieces as it cooks.
4. When the meat is nearly cooked, add remaining ingredients (except basil), and stir well to incorporate.
   
   

   

   Adding Thai basil to the stir-fry

   
   
5. Once meat is cooked through, add basil leaves and stir a few times, then remove pan from heat and continue to stir basil in until it wilts from the residual heat.
6. Serve over Thai Jasmine rice and then top with Thai-style crispy fried egg.

Notes

• Feel free to substitute ground beef or chicken for the pork for a variation on the dish. I don't think we have ever tried, but tofu crumbles might also work for a vegetarian (protein-wise) variation.
• The soy sauce can entirely regular soy sauce or a combination of thin/light soy sauce and dark sweet soy sauce in 2:1 ratio.
• The Thai-style crispy fried egg can be replaced with a sunny-side-up or over-easy egg.

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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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