Tag: seafood
Crab Salad
Crab Salad
While we eat a lot of deli crab salad in America, its origins are actually Japanese. Imitation crab(kani) was created in Japan; made out of ground white fish paste called surmi. The Japanese version consists of crab, cucumber, carrots, Japanese mayo, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. This recipe is the American version, with a mayo/lemon juice/dijon mustard dressing and celery, shallots, and herbs mixed in. This salad is great on its own or on a toasted baguette. Step aside, Subway.
Ingredients
- 1 lb imitation crab flakes chopped
Dressing
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 ribs celery finely chopped
- 3 tbsp shallots finely chopped
- 1 tbsp dill finely chopped
- 1 tbsp chives finely chopped
- 1 tbsp parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- Mix together the dressing ingredients.
- Stir in the crab meat. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.
Crab Rangoon Cheese Ball
Crab Rangoon Cheese Ball
I came up with this recipe with my new found love of Tillamook cream cheese. It’s much creamier and richer than your normal cream cheese. It’s so good you could shamelessly eat a brick of it in one sitting. Shamelessly. I took the ingredients that would go into a crab rangoon and turned it into the most decadent cheese ball known to mankind. The cheese ball contains jumbo lump crabmeat(substitute artificial crab if on a budget), shallots, chives, green onion, a few seasonings, and of course, Tillamook cream cheese. I rolled the mix into 2 balls, then rolled them in sesame seeds. They should chill in your refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.
Ingredients
- 8 oz cream cheese preferably Tillamook
- 8 oz jumbo lump crab meat
- 3 green onions finely chopped
- 1/4 cup shallots finely chopped
- 1/4 cup chives finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp white sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
- fried wonton wrappers for serving
Instructions
- Mix together the crab meat, shallots, green onion, chives, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, and salt.
- Using your hands, mix in the cream cheese.
- Form the mix into 2 balls.
- Mix together the sesame seeds.
- In a bowl, roll the cheese ball in the sesame seeds until it is entirely coated. Let chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours before serving.
- Serve the cheese ball with fried wonton chips.
Jambalaya Burger
Jambalaya Burger
I’ve seen multiple recipes online for jambalaya burgers; all using ground beef patties. What sets my burger apart from everything else on the internet is that mine uses a raw ground andouille sausage. And the reason why is that people might have a problem finding raw ground andouille sausage. Almost all andouille sausage you find in a grocery is going to be smoked. My meat department happens to make a raw andouille sausage. If you can find a raw andouille sausage, take it out of the sausage casings and form it into patties. If not, I’m attaching my recipe for andouille sausage below this one. Just skip the stuffing and smoking. Beyond this andouille rant, this is one of the best burgers I’ve ever had; by far. I’m such a big fan of Cajun and Creole cuisine, I turned one of my favorite dishes, jambalaya, into a spicy, juicy, burger of meteoric proportions. Once again, I made an andouille sausage patty topped with Creole shrimp, the trinity(onion, celery, and bell pepper), and sliced heirloom tomato; with creole mustard on top of a toasted brioche bun.
Servings: 2 burgers
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground andouille sausage
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil divided
- 1/4 cup white onion finely chopped
- 1/4 cup red bell pepper finely chopped
- 1/4 cup celery finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 8 large 16/20 ct. shrimp peeled and deveined; tails removed
- 2 tsp creole seasoning
- 2 brioche buns toasted
- heirloom tomato sliced
- creole mustard
Instructions
- Heat up 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onion, celery, and bell pepper for 4 minutes.
- Add in the garlic and cook for a minute.
- Add in another tbsp of vegetable oil. Season the shrimp with creole seasoning. Add to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
- Flip the shrimp and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove the contents from the pan.
- Divide the ground andouille sausage into 2-8oz patties.
- Pan fry the patty for 6 minutes over medium high heat.
- Flip the burger and cook the patty for 4 minutes; covered.
- Put each patty on a toasted brioche bun. Place 4 shrimp on top the patty. Evenly distribute the sautéed vegetables on top of the shrimp. Top with creole mustard.
Smoked Andouille Sausage
Andouille sauasage is the famous staple of the cajun and creole cuisine of Louisiana. With it’s origins from French charcuterie, andouille sausage consists of coarse ground pork heavily seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme, sage, paprika, and a large amount of garlic. The pork is stuffed into casings and slowly smoked with pecan wood. Andouille can be used in numerous cajun dishes such as jambalaya and gumbo.
Equipment
- food processor
- meat grinder
- sausage stuffer
- twine
- Electric Smoker
Ingredients
- 8 lbs pork shoulder
- 40 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp sage
- 2 tsp pink curing salts
- hog casings
Wood Chips
- pecan wood
Instructions
- Place the garlic cloves in a food processor.
- Process until chopped.
- Mix together all of the seasonings.
- Grind the pork on a medium grind plate, one time through.
- Thoroughly mix the spices and garlic into the pork.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings.
- Twist into 6” links. Let cure overnight in the refrigerator.
- Cut every 4th link apart from each other. Tie in between the middle of the 4 links with twine to the grate of your smoker so they can hang.
- Place the grate on the very top rack of your smoker so the sausages can hang. Turn the temp to 130 degrees. Allow the sausages to dry out for an hour with out adding any wood chips.
- Turn the temp to 250 degrees and add your wood chips. Allow the chips to ignite. Turn your smoker down to 150 degrees. Smoke for 6 hours, changing out the wood chips every 2 hours. After 6 hours, turn up the smoker temp to 180 degrees and smoke for 1 more hour.
