Soft shell crab and egg for breakfast

Soft shell crab season is just beginning-so how could I resist a big box of them suggested by the fish house? Over Friday and Saturday night we sold the entire case except one. Since they perish pretty quickly, I had no choice but to bring it home and eat it for Sunday morning breakfast.

At the restaurant I served the crabs dusted with seasoned flour and fried with creole hollandaise sauce, which is a combination of hollandaise and creole sauces.

At home I used the same hollandaise only added a layer of fingerling potato and zuchinni hash topped with a fried egg topped with the crab.

I will include pictures of the crab before he died, one of the crab at the restaurant and the crab for breakfast. I will spare you all the details of dispatching the crabs and cleaning them-it was pretty gruesome and my macho staff refused to do it, which is ok because it was one of those days I felt like killing someone anyway and way better the crab than those I was angry at.

I got the idea for the creole hollandaise at the New Orleans Cuisine blog at neworleanscuisine.blogspot.com

Tenderloin Caprese

It's a cold Spring, but I am working on Summer dishes anyway. I know this salad will be marvelous when the tomatoes are ripe, but for now I bought a store bought tomato labeled "Ugly Ripe"-it is apparently an heirloon variety of tomato. It tasted a little better than the tennis balls that pass for tomatoes in the store right now, but not much. Sometimes I have to cook things out of season in order to have the menus and recipes thought out well enough to implement new dishes when the ingredients comes into season.

Ingredients

1 eight ounce fillet mignon steak

1 ball of fresh mozzarella cheese

1 large tomato

salad greens

fresh Basil for garnish

Balsamic vinaigrette

Directions

In a hot skillet sear the steak and cook briefly, about 4 minutes on each side, the steak will still be rare.

Let the steaks rest for at least ten minutes while assembling the salad ingredients.

Cut the cheese into 6 slices.

Cut the tomato into 6 slices.

Cut the steak into 6 slices.

Line two dinner plates with salad greens, place alternating slices of tomato, cheese, and steak accross the salad greens.

Garnish the salad with fresh basil, and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.

Rhubarb Strawberry Muffins Formerly Known as Touch of Spring

I found the original recipe for these at the "Taste of Home" web page where they are titled "Touch of Spring". The muffins turned out very nicely, however I had to tweak the recipe a bit by adding orange zest, orange juice, orange flower water, and sanding sugar as well as changing some of the directions. They are delightful and will be part of my Mother's Day bread basket.

Rhubarb Strawberry Muffins

2 cups of all purpose flour

3/4 cup sliced rhubarb

1/2 cup sliced strawberries

3/4 cup sugar-divided


1 tablespoon baking powder


1/2 teaspoon salt


1 egg


3/4 cup milk


zest and juice of 1 orange


1 tablespoon orange flower water





topping


12 strawberry slices


12 rhubarb slices


2 tablespoons sanding sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In one bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. In another bowl beat the eggs with 1/2 cup sugar, salt, milk, oil, zest, juice, and orange flower water. Toss the rhubarb and strawberry slices with 1/4 cup sugar. Combine the flour mixture, the egg mixture, and fruit and mix until moistened. Fill greased or paper lined muffin tins 3/4 full, top each muffin with a slice of strawberry and rhubarb, sprinkle with the sanding sugar and bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

Rosemary Red Eye Gravy

Red eye gravy wasn't something I remember growing up with-I don't think my mom ever made it. I first encountered it here in St Louis when I was cooking at the Richard Perry Restaurant. So that is how I learned it. It is traditionally a quick pan sauce made with strong coffee, usually served with ham steak. After some reading I discovered some cooks make red eye gravy with beef steaks. It seemed worth trying. I also added some Rosemary to the mix which seems untraditional but adds an interesting twist.

I first made a dry rub of finely ground coffee-I had some Starbucks dark roast in the freezer so I used that-and added some brown sugar, salt, and pepper.

for four 14 ounce steaks-rib eye, strip, or 8 ounce tenderloins

1/4 cup finely ground coffee

1/4 cup brown sugar

Freshly ground pepper

2 Tablespoons sea salt

I rubbed the mixture into the steaks and let them sit for 1/2 hour

I got out my favorite Griswold iron skillet and got it pretty hot and seared the steaks-lots of smoke. I removed the steaks to finish cooking in the oven.

While the steaks finished in the oven, I made the red eye gravy. Add brown sugar to the hot skillet and let it melt and caramelize slightly-this takes place almost instantly as the pan is so hot. Deglaze the pan with a bit of red wine, I then added a couple sprigs of fresh Rosemary-then add strongly brewed coffee. Scrape up all the drippings and let the mixture bubble a couple minutes. It makes a very thin but flavorful sauce similar to a jus.

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup red wine

1 1/2 cup strongly brewed black coffee

2 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

Pour the gravy over the steaks and serve with spoon bread on the side.

Back to Barramundi

I ordered in more Barramundi. It is such a delicious fish, similar to sea bass but a little denser. Very mild sweet flavor and it is a sustainable fish unlike the sea bass. I was going to prepare Florence Fabricant's recipe printed in the New York Times this past week. She brushed the fillet (she used Halibut, but I figured it would work well with Barramundi as well) with molasses and seared it and served it with mushrooms. She created the recipe to pair with some Pinot Noirs they were reviewing. The dish did not work for me, so I reverted to my old stand by of grilling served with ginger vinaigrette plus some wasabi and pickled ginger. The asertive vinaigrette is mellowed with sesame oil and really brings out the sweetness of the fish.

Second Platinum Chef Competition

Last year a group of eight Monroe County high schools formed a conference for culinary competition. This year, the group grew to 10 schools. Some of the schools don't even have a culinary program, but only an after school club, where they cook with and learn from an advisor.

I was asked to be one of the judges again this year

It is so much fun to observe these kids. Teams consist of 5 members and two dish washers. They are judged on several levels, including sanitary and safety, knife skills, creative use of ingredients, presentation, teamwork, and taste. Outstanding individuals are recognised as well.

Ten schools was a bit daunting to get through. In the end the judges (there were five of us) were all pressed for time in analysizing all the different categories. I also had less time to take photos.

The competition took place on the gym floor, where 10 individual staging kitchens were set up. So the equipment wasn't the best, but the kids really made the best of what they had. The bleachers were full of students and family members observing and taking pictures.

One of the smaller schools without the formal culinary program won. Their passion for what they were doing showed and won them the trophy.

Bulgogi-Korean Barbequed Rib Eye Steaks

When I was in second or third grade, we had a Korean minister come to the little Methodist church that my family attended. Reverend Sun was his name-Han Yung Sun I think was his full name. He and my father became good friends and my family found itself in church alot during his tenure. A couple of times Reverend Sun would make Korean food after church on Sunday. Our tiny little church basement got smokey with exotic aromas and what was unusual flavors for small town Mid-America in the 1960's. The noodles and thin strips of beef that emerged from the kitchen were a revelation to say the least.

I don't recall Reverend Sun's noodles enough to even try to recreate them, but the beef must have been Bulgogi-and it surely must be one of the signature dishes of Korea. I decided to revisit my Korean food memories and create a Sunday lunch for some friends. Instead of thin strips of beef, I used whole rib eye steaks grilled outside over real charcoal.

I accompanied the steaks with three flavorful and unusual Asian salads. Sesame-corn salad, Eggplant, and Carrot. For dessert Dan and I made a chocolate lamb cake-since it is close to Easter-we shared the steps in creating a "black sheep" .

Oysters

During my recent vacation, I did cook one evening in the kitchen of my parents condo. Before I left St Louis, I froze some Rib Eye steaks and shipped them with dry ice to the island (you just can't buy decent beef in most places without alot of research), fresh shrimp and oysters are another story. They are abundant and delicious. We picked some up from my mom's favorite shop along the gulf in Port Isabel. Next we picked up some cauliflour from a farm stand. So we started dinner with oysters while I grilled steaks out by the pool and made a cauliflour gratin (from Barefoot In Paris cookbook bu Ina Garten).

We also had a salad with succulent avocados and tomatoes-also purchased at the farm stand. The cauliflour, avocados, and tomatoes were brightly flavored with that unmistakable vine or tree ripened and just picked freshness.

I topped the oysters with a crumb and crab mixture and ran them under the broiler briefly.

South Padre Island

I've been on vacation recently. My folks stay on Padre Island during the winter (for over 15 years now), so I use it as a mid winter get away myself. It was cold and snowing in St Louis as I left. It was 80 degrees and partly sunny on the island when I arrived. Of course we went to Mexico a couple of times. We ate a a rather fun restaurant called Angel's. Located on the third floor of an atrium building. Many of the restaurants are similar. Sort of fancy in that the waiters are in tuxedos, and there is usually live music-in this case an organist. They have the usual touristy food, but also more fish dishes and goat-which you don't see on the US Menus. They serve Margarits with olive garnish and were also selling many Bananas Foster with great showmanship. It was lots of fun.

Veal Chop

I've been running veal chops as a week end special. It isn't part of the regular menu. I usually run one or two off menu specials because we have so many customers who dine with us several night out of a month, so eventhough I change the menu seasonally, they are always asking for something new. I grilled this and topped it with sun-dried tomato, fresh basil, and buerre blanc.

Chinese New year's Eve

I was invited to a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner at a friends house last night. Nu (my friend) and her mother prepared a chinese feast. We started with shark's fin soup-delicious. There were spring rolls and egg rolls as well, with at least three homemade dippping sauces. There was a whole roasted suckling pig, roast chicken, spicy crabs, two rices, and several salads. One of the standouts was an abalone and mushroom salad that I really liked-it was the first time I had eaten this salad. There was a delicious chicken, cabbage, and mint salad dressed with a light sauce, similar to spring roll sauce. I should mention that this Chinese family also lived in Viet Nam for a time, so their food has many Viet Namese influences.

We finished the evening drinking champagne and eating dragon fruit and Asian pears. At the end Nu and her mother passed out beautiful chinese envelopes with cash inside-which is a Chinese tradition.

Mardi Gras

We had a big crawfish boil at the restaurant for Mardi Gras. Also made Gumbo, jambalaya, bread pudding, Hurricanes etc. I made the Paul Prudhome recipe for Cajun Shepherd's pie for the first time. It was from his first cookbook backin the 1980's. It consists of a deliciously spiced meat loaf, topped with sauteed vegetable (with another set of spices, frosted with mashed potatoes, and a spicy brown sauce on the side. It was delicious and reminded me of how much I loved that book when it was first published.

It is always a treat to eat in his restaurant in New Orleans named the same as his book "K Paul's Lousiana Kitchen". There is always a line to get in, and they have a community seating policy, so a couple of times, I have shared dinner with absolute strangers. It seems a bit strange, but it was not unpleasant or uncomfortable at all, I remember meeting some lovely people and engaging interesting conversation.