CRAB SALAD WONTONS

This is the perfect appetizer for the spring. Its so refreshing and somewhat healthy. The crab salad is so good on its own, that you will find yourself dipping anything you can into it. I woke up at 8:00am on Mother’s Day to prepare these and ended up eating a few. Yep, crab for  breakfast, why not?

When I first made this recipe years ago, the hardest part was finding the wonton wrappers. Now most supermarkets carry them and have them usually where they have tofu and vegan items.

Ingredients:

FOR THE WONTON CUPS

• Cooking spray

• 18 wonton wrappers, thawed if frozen

• 2 tsp canola oil

• kosher salt or sea salt

FOR THE DRESSING

• 2 TBLS fresh lime juice

• 2 TBLS olive oil

• 1 tsp grated lime zest

• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

FOR THE SALAD

• 1/2 lb lump crabmeat

• 1 rib celery, finely diced

• 1/2 cup peeled and finely diced ripe mango

• 1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions (white & green parts)

• 2 TBLS chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat 2 mini muffin tins with cooking spray.

MAKE THE WONTON CUPS

Brush both sides of the wonton wrappers with canola oil and place each wrapper into a section of a mini muffin tin. Gently press each wrapper into the tin and form it into a cup shape. Sprinkle with salt.

The trick is to make sure you crease the edges a bit inside the cups, you need to press them together, or else they will fold into each other during baking.

I am speaking from experience, because my first batch got messed up and I had to eat half the wontons, yes, I had to eat them all. Don’t judge me haha.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until browned and crisp.

MAKE THE DRESSING

In a small bowl, whisk the lime juice and zest, salt, and red pepper. Add the olive oil and whisk until combined.

MAKE THE SALAD

In a medium bowl, gently toss the crabmeat, celery, mango, scallions, and cilantro, trying not to break up the crab too much. Add the dressing and gently toss to combine.

Both the salad and the wonton cups can be made up to a day ahead of time. Store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator and the wontons at room temperature in an airtight container. To serve, fill each cup with the crab salad and serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy of Finecooking.com

OLD BAY GRILLED CHICKEN

Who would have thought that the word Old Bay and Chicken would be in the same sentence. It is typically associated with eating crabs, since that’s where it had originated. It was created by a German immigrant in the 1940’s as a seasoning to be used on crabs. Similar to how you can find peanuts up for grabs at most bars, at those times in Maryland, they would offer free crabs to encourage people to drink.

If you’ve never tried it, then you need to pick it up next time your at the store. The little yellow can is a unique blend of: mustard, paprika, celery seed, bay leaves, both black and red pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, salt and ginger. It’s full of flavor and I am sure you will find many more uses for it.

On the back of the can they have a few recipes suggestions, this chicken being one of them (I adjusted it slightly).

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 1 Lemon

• 1 TBLS of Old Bay Seasoning

• Handful of fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley

• Salt & pepper to taste

In a glass dish or plastic zip lock bag, combine all ingredients. Add some fresh cracked pepper and salt to your preference. I personally don’t add any pepper, I add a pinch of sea salt. Give the lemon a good roll on the counter to get the most juice out of it. Squeeze the whole thing in, don’t worry about the pits.

Now, seal up the zip lock bag and work all the ingredients together to make sure the chicken is evenly coated. Refrigerate this 20-30 mins and then grill on a medium-high grill. You can also broil in the oven until no longer pink inside

Grill 5-10 mins a side, until fully cooked through.

Serve with some veggies and rice. I grilled some corn for this meal and made some brown rice. 

For only marinating 20 minutes, this chicken has a ton of flavor.

GRILLED TOMATO SALSA

What is the most popular condiment in the United States? You would first assume its ketchup or mustard, but apparently over the last few years, salsa has been taking over the pantry. I heard this fact a few years ago and I can’t seem to find any current statistics that prove it, but for our purposes, lets assume its #1.

I enjoy the taste of jarred salsa, but nothing compares to fresh. It reminds me of going to a Mexican restaurant, sitting down and instead of bread at the table, there are chips & salsa. It’s their own unique blend, its their signature. Here is a chance to make your own.

You can easily do this in the oven, but the grill creates a great charred flavor that the oven lacks.

Ingredients:

• 3lbs Roma tomatoes

• 8 peeled garlic cloves

• 1-2 peppers (serrano chile peppers or jalapenos)

• 1 cup fresh chopped cilantro

• 1 tsp sugar

• 3 TBLS white vinegar

• Kosher salt to taste

Preheat the grill to high or your oven to high broil. If you are grilling these, then place the garlic cloves in aluminum foil and wrap tight. If you are using the oven, line a rimed baking sheet with foil and place tomatoes, peppers and garlic directly on the pan. For broiling, you are going to broil them for 5-10 minutes on 1 side, making sure to brown them slightly. Flip everything over and then continue broiling for another 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven to let cool.

For the people that are grilling, place the tomatoes, peppers & garlic (wrapped in foil), directly on the grill.

Close the grill and grill for 5-10 minutes until charred black. You will start to notice the skin is peeling off the tomatoes. Flip them over to continue grilling the other side.

Remove them from the grill and let cool completely. Once cooled, peel the tomatoes. Cut off the tomato top to remove the core and make peeling easier. These tomatoes are juicy and will make a mess, I do them on a cutting board and make sure there are plenty of paper towels to soak up the juice. Sometimes I do these in a strainer to drain some of the juice, but its up to you. Peel the peppers and cut off the stem.

Next, place the garlic, cilantro, peppers (seeds & all), sugar & white vinegar into a food processor. Finely chop everything up.

If you don’t have a food processor you can just mince up everything finely and you will have a chunkier salsa then one made with a food processor. Once these base ingredients are finely chopped,  add the peeled tomatoes and few handfuls of kosher salt and pulse everything together. I like to just pulse a few times, so that its chunky. You can mix it as much as you want if you prefer something more liquid.

Make sure to taste for flavor and add salt as needed. Place the salsa in a container and then store in the fridge until ready to serve. You can serve immediately or store for up to 5 days.

After you taste this salsa, you may see why American’s voted salsa #1.

MOM'S GNOCCHI

Imagine having a few too many drinks at your uncle’s 50th birthday party and then your mother invites you over the next day to learn how to make gnocchi. I woke up and don’t remember the night, but I do remember the promise of fresh pasta. 

I wanted to share the experience I had while watching my mother take just flour and ricotta and turn them into something that sauce perfectly adhered to and melted in your mouth, all while not leaving you stuffed.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of Ricotta (we used Poly-O original)

• 6-8 cups of All-purpose flour

Tools: (optional)  certainly makes it easier

• Bench Scrapper  knife can be used

• Gnocchi Board  fork will work just fine

Makes approx 2 lbs (extra to freeze)

Make sure you have a clean stable work surface. My mom has a special board she had made for pasta and struffoli’s (honey balls). This is not required, but makes for an easy, low hassle working surface. Scoop out the ricotta into a pile and make a well in the center by taking a spoon and going in a circular motion.

Then you just need to add the flour in increments, mixing with your hands, until the right consistency in formed. Very similar to other pasta dough’s, it can’t be too sticky. If it continues to stick to your fingers, keep adding flour. The reason you add the flour in increments, is that you don’t want it to become too dry.

You’ll notice the dough is sticky, but not forming together. Keep adding flour and kneading it with your hands.

The dough is finally starting to come together and resemble a log. With an un-floured finger, try poking the dough and it you don’t stick, then the dough will be ready for rolling out.

Now comes the fun part. Place the dough in the corner of your workspace, since you are going to need plenty of room for rolling out and cutting. Cover the dough with a clean towel and using your bench scrapper or a knife, cut a 2 inch piece off at a time. Roll this into a 1/2″ thick log, you can make them as big or small as you would like.

Next, using the bench scrapper or a knife, cut them into 3/4″

You can cook them if you wanted to now, but traditional gnocchi have ridges. To create the ridges, press each piece of dough against the front of a fork then gently roll up and around the back of the fork. If you the dough is sticking to the fork, dust the fork lightly with flour. If you happen to have a wooden gnocchi board, then you just press the dough at the top and roll it down.

After each rope is cut and formed into gnocchi, using your bench scrapper or a spatula, place them onto a lightly floured baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. This makes it easier to transport them to the water, once you’re ready to cook them.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and gently add the gnocchi, they will cook very fast. Approx 5-6 minutes and they will start floating to the top. Make sure you have an official pasta tester who has agreed to judge the doneness. That would be my dad. He’s the most picky eater and he loves his pasta, so were not done until he says so.

Once Big John says the pasta is done, then drain them and toss with your favorite sauce. We’ve got mom’s homemade sauce of course.

Enjoy. Not only is the pasta delicious, its fun to make and brings everyone together. That has to be the most rewarding thing about food.

Thank you Mom.

Love,

your Son

QUICK DILL PICKLES

Recipe courtesy of, Quick Pickles by Chris Schlesinger.

This recipe was introduced to me by one of my co-workers when I was working @ PepsiCo. At the time, he was into cooking even more than I was. He makes batches of pickles and distributes them to everyone in his team. Just as soon as he hands them out, people are already asking for more. It’s always nice to learn more about the people you work with everyday, it adds a whole new depth to them and I have a new found respect for someone I am just getting to know. I would have never thought that I would be making my own pickles, it was a realm that I never thought of exploring. Now that I have started, I can’t stop. I am having the best time learning about what spices to use, what herbs to experiment with and how something can be so tasty from just a few ingredients.

I am introducing you to the first pickle that I tried from the book, the Fresh Dill Cucumber Pickle, its been one of my favorites so far. I will make sure to share as I go through and try some others out.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 pounds of pickling cucumbers (less than 5″ long)

• 1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled and minced

• Bunch of Fresh Dill

• 1/4 Cup pickling spices (see note below)

• 3 cups red wine vinegar

• 6 cups water

• 1/2 cup kosher or other coarse salt

• 3 small chilies (optional), slit in half

• 2/3 cup peeled, finely grated horseradish (optional)

• Grape Leaves (optional)

Pickling Spices*:

• 1 TBLS coriander seed

• 1 TBLS mustard seed

• 2 tsp celery seed

• 2 tsp whole black peppercorns

• 2 whole cloves

• 4 crumbled bay leaves

*For the pickling spices, I would place these all in a dry saute pan over medium heat and toast. Moving frequently, just a few minutes until you start to smell them. Remove from heat, to avoid burning them.

Time to tickle your…

First trim and discard the ends of the cucumbers. This is to speed up the absorption of the brine into the cucumbers. You can keep them whole, halve them, quarter them, or slice them into 1/4″rounds. I have made them every way and I prefer to quarter some and to slice them into 1/4″ rounds (I use a simple mandolin that literally cost me $11.00 at a hardware store).

Next, you’re going to pack all the ingredients into the jar, crock, or bowl. I start with some dill, garlic and a grape leaf on the bottom. Then I start adding the cucumbers, savings the smaller ones for the top. I divide the pickling spice among how many jars I have and I begin to sprinkle it in as I am filling it with the cucumbers.

In a nonreactive pot, bring the vinegar, water, and salt to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the salt. Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers, covering as much as you can. Allow to cool at room temperature, then cover, refrigerate, and in just a day or 2, the pickles will be ready to eat.

These pickles will keep, covered and refrigerated for at least 2 months.

OYTSTERS KILPATRICK “THE AUSTRALIAN GEM”

In 2005, I had the pleasure of studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia. It is by far the food Mecca of down under. People don’t drink Fosters beer, they don’t throw boomerangs and they don’t have pet kangaroos, although they do taste delicious. Cultures collide here to bring you some of the most unique blend of food across the world. There is everything from Little Italy to China Town, or if you prefer to just throw something on the “barbie.” Food rules this city and rightfully so.

Geographically, Melbourne is within a reels throw away from the water, which supplies some of the freshest seafood to the city. Until living there, I had developed a weird aversion to eating anything from the ocean. I had a somewhat traumatic experience that made me, a once seafood loving kid, avoid it like the plague. 

I had started off easy and ventured into the realm of  shrimp, it was like kindergarten for crustacean eaters. Before, I knew it I had graduated and was eating swordfish & dory (the blue fish from “Finding Nemo.” she was delicious). The only next step was to go completely out of my comfort zone: Oysters.

Never had I thought I would have a plate of “Oysters Kilpatrick” in front of me and actually be willing to try them. My family (some, who happens to live in Australia) assured me that they were not fishy and easy to eat. Not only were they right, I couldn’t stop eating them. I began ordering them out wherever I went and now here I am back in New York, and I am making them myself.

Ingredients

• 1 Dozen Fresh Oysters

• Few slices of thick cut bacon

• Worcestershire sauce

• Butter

• Lemon

• Flat-Leaf Parsley (optional)

• Salt & Pepper

• Rock Salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean oysters properly and then carefully shuck them. The best way I know of shucking, is to place the oyster in a towel and carefully insert your shucking tool into the narrow end of the oyster, then wiggle back and forth until able to pry open.

The towel acts as a stabilizer and it also protects your hands from the tool. Discard the top shell and separate meat from lower shell, return to shell.

Place oysters on baking tray, lined with foil, which also has a layer of rock salt (rock salt will hold the oysters steady and stop them tipping and spilling their juices).

Next, I take small tabs of butter and place them on top of each oyster. Followed by a couple shots of Worcestershire sauce on top. Then a few cranks of fresh ground pepper and a light sprinkle of salt (optional). Then a few pieces of dices bacon on top of each, as little or much as you want.

Place in the preheated oven for 5-10 mins, until the bacon crisps up. Remove from oven and serve right off the tray, the rock salt stabilizes them better than any serving platter will. I then garnish with some fresh flat-leaf parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

Enjoy. Make sure you slurp up the juice that’s left over or dunk some bread into it. This was my way of bringing a little of Australia home with me.