Crab & Corn Chowder

We had a huge crab feast with my parents on New Year's Eve but we had so much crab we couldn't finish it all. Matt & my dad were nice enough to pick the remaining meat from the leftovers for me & then we froze it until ready to use. There was a lot of debate about whether we should make soup or crab cakes. I really wanted soup & since I was doing the cooking my choice won.

I'd made this Corn & Crab Chowder from Rachael Ray once before but didn't really like it. All the ingredients sounded like it should have been great. My gut feeling was the corn had freezer burn & gave the whole thing a funny flavor. So, I decided to give it another try. I figured with this beautiful crab & the sweet corn I had frozen this summer it had to be better.

I'm so glad we gave it a second chance. This soup was wonderful, creamy with a sweetness from the crab & corn & a little heat from the cayenne. The corn I had blanched & frozen in the summer kept a nice crunch in the soup instead of seeming soggy & waterlogged. If we got some good crab meat again I would make this in a heartbeat.

Crab & Corn Chowder
from Rachael Ray 365:No Repeats
(I've adjusted the recipe for a more realistic serving size)

1 T olive oil
1 T unsalted butter
1 medium potato, peeled & chopped small (1/2-inch or smaller cubes)
1 celery rib with greens, chopped
1 small onion, peeled & chopped
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 T Old Bay Seasoning
1 1/2 T all-purpose flour
2 T sherry
1 1/2 c chicken broth
12 oz cooked crab meat
1 c frozen corn
1 1/2 c half & half
1/4 t cayenne (or more to taste)

Heat the olive oil & butter over medium-high heat in a medium soup pot. Add the potatoes, celery, onion, bay leaf, salt, pepper & Old Bay. Cook for 5 - 10 minutes or until the vegetables start to get tender, especially the potatoes. Add the flour & cook while stirring for 1 minutes then add the sherry & cook 1 minute more. Stir in the broth, crab & corn. Bring to a boil. Cover & reduce the heat. Let simmer for about 5 more minutes. Add the half & half & allow to simmer uncovered for another couple of minutes to thicken a little. Add the cayenne & more salt & pepper if needed. Remove bay leaf & serve.

3 -4 servings (this is 1/2 the original recipe which claimed it was only 4 servings!)

We served this soup with biscuits with a little good cheddar grated into the dough. Ah, this was just a perfect dinner.

What's in CSA box #18

Usually I would show you what we did with the last CSA box but really other than a Vegetable Curry we didn't do anything too exciting. We used a lot of things just as side dishes, mainly roasting them. Now on to box #18

This is the first of two extended season boxes we'll receive & then we are done until Spring.

Red Cipollini Onions - These little onions are perfect for stews & roasting. I'm thinking they'd be wonderful in a Beef Bourguigon.
Shallots
Savoy Cabbage

Black Beans - Apparently our farm got frustrated trying to find organic black beans that were grown locally (or North America for that matter) so they decided to grow their own. These babies will be for chilies & soups.

Carrots

Celeriac - I think I may mash this one

Golden Turnips

Garlic

Black Radishes

Sunchokes - Matt thinks that roasted these taste a bit like plantains so perhaps I may have to create a meal like we used to get at Cha Cha Cha in San Francisco

Red Beets - I might be time to make some borscht though I don't have any beet greens

Parsnips

Red Turnips

Bailey's Mocha Cupcakes

Awhile back Matt & I had been discussing ideas for cupcake flavors. We knew we wanted to try one with Bailey's in it but I never went out to buy a bottle just for cupcakes. Then while shopping for wine & such over the holidays Matt picked up a bottle so I knew the time had come to try these.

Matt likes his Bailey's on the rocks where I prefer it mixed into a little coffee or hot chocolate, you know a little something to ward off the winter chill. I decided to mix it with both espresso & chocolate for this cupcakes. This was a bit of an experiment since I used Bailey's instead of milk or yogurt. Luckily the experiment worked & these cupcakes came out beautifully moist with a wonderful flavor. The Bailey's flavor is what stands out the most with a hint of the espresso in the background.

Bailey's Mocha Cupcake

4 T unsalted butter
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Special Dark)
3 T water
1 t instant espresso (if you don't like espresso just leave this out of the recipe)
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 T Bailey's Irish Cream
1/2 c flour
1/8 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 6 muffin tins either with cupcake papers or by greasing & flouring them.

Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan. Whisk in the cocoa. Add the water & instant espresso & whisk to combine. Remove from the heat & stir in the sugar, eggs & Bailey's. Then stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder & salt. The batter will seem very watery. Divide evenly between the 6 muffin tins.

Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack.

Bailey's Chocolate Buttercream

4 T unsalted butter, a room temp
2 t Bailey's Irish Cream
1/4 t vanilla
1/2 t unsweetened cocoa powder
1 c powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Beat the butter, Bailey's & vanilla until creamy. Beat in the sugar 1/4 cup at a time until combined, adding the cocoa powder with the first addition. Beat in the salt.

Frost cupcakes & sprinkle with instant espresso.

Makes 6 cupcakes

(Ok, I have to make a confession here. When I made these cupcakes I read my own writing wrong & put in two eggs instead of 2 T of egg. Matt really liked the way the texture of the cupcake turned out so I wrote it up here this way.  does create a very dense cupcake. You could easily just use one egg in this recipe., I think I will next time.)

Roasted Vegetable Curry

We like to eat vegetarian from time to time. Its not really something we plan but I think its healthy to not have meat from time to time. We still have quite a few vegetables from the last two CSA boxes (luckily root vegetables last awhile) so, I decided to add a vegetable curry to our menu this week.

We're experimenting more & more with making curries from scratch, using a variety of spices rather than curry powder. For this dish, I started with Alton Brown's Vegetable Curry recipe. I changed a few things such as using fresh vegetables that I roasted instead of frozen & adding Sriracha instead of chilies. I'm using brussel sprouts in this which I'm sure is not traditional at all but I really liked the flavor of them in this. You can add whatever mix of vegetables you like.

Roasted Vegetable Curry

2 medium potatoes, peeled & cut into 1/2 cubes
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 medium red onion, peeled & quartered
1 c small brussel sprouts
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper
2/3 c plain non-fat yogurt
1 t cornstarch
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 t fennel seeds
1/2 t mustard seeds
1/2 t ground cumin
1 t ground turmeric
1 t onion powder
1/2 t ground coriander
1/8 t ground cinnamon
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 c frozen peas
1/4 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t Sriracha (or as much heat as you want)

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Place the vegetables in a small roasting pan. Coat with the olive oil & season with salt & pepper. Roast for 30 - 40 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Stir the yogurt with the cornstarch & set it aside.

Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large sauté pan. Add the fennel & mustard seeds. Cook until, stirring from time to time, until they begin to pop. Turn the heat down to medium & add the cumin, turmeric, onion powder, coriander, cinnamon, red pepper flakes & garlic. Sauté until the garlic starts turning (its hard to tell because of the color of the sauce so I just did 4 minutes).

Add the roasted vegetables, peas, sugar salt & Sriracha. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until everything is warm (especially the frozen peas).
(look at all those colors!)
Turn off the heat & add the yogurt mixture. Stir to combine everything.
Serve with rice if you wish.

Makes 2 main dish servings

This turned out pretty good though I still think it needs a little tweaking. We didn't care for biting into the fennel seeds so next time I'll crush them a bit before toasting them. I also think it needs something bumped up or something added but I'm not sure what. We thought it needed heat which is why we added the Sriracha which was good but not the thing I was missing. We'll have to play with it more next time we make it.

Ham & Bean Soup

Let me create the scene for you...
It's cold out, MInnesota winter cold, probably snowing a little, there is a fire in the fireplace & all we want is something warm & satisfying for dinner that we can eat in front of it. A thick, stick-to-your-ribs soup would be just the thing. Luckily, there was a ham bone leftover from our pre-New Year's feast & we had lots of beautiful beans from Rancho Gordo that we bought while we were in San Francisco.

Ah, Ham & Bean Soup, perfection.

This soup is pretty much the U.S. Senate Bean Soup from Joy of Cooking. I wanted a real basic, traditional ham & bean soup. We used a ham bone instead of a ham hock. We also added quite a bit more chopped ham because we had it. The only other real change was to add some thyme which just seems to make everything better.

Ham & Bean Soup

1 1/4 c small dried white beans (we used yellow-eyed beans)

Pick through your beans for any small stones then place them in a pot. Boil a kettle of water. Pour the water over the beans until the water is 2-inches over them. Cover & allow to sit for until the beans are double in size, at least 1 hour. Drain. Now the beans are ready to use.

7 c cold water
1 ham bone
1/2 c diced ham (optional)
1 large onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 large potato, peeled & diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t dried thyme (I would have preferred fresh but mine had gone bad.)
salt & pepper

Place the beans, water & ham bone into a large soup pot & bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer until the beans are tender about 1 1/2 hours.

Remove the ham bone. Cut any meat remaining on it off & dice it. Return the meat to the pot.
Add the diced ham, onion, celery, potato, & thyme to the pot. Salt & pepper to taste.
Simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes.
Use a potato masher to gentle mash the soup until it is a little creamy.
Serve with crusty bread.

Makes 4 main dish servings