A Great Crab Cake

Friday, October 7th, 2011 | posted by mike

Everybody loves crab cakes and our manager, Bernie, makes some pretty darn good ones that we offer at the Market. When it comes to making a great crab cake it’s always the simpler the better. Looking back at some of our old cook books, such as Maryland’s Way, a great compilation of recipes from homes, churches and old cookbooks that date back to 1634, crab cakes were very basic, mainly crabmeat, some egg, mayonnaise or butter for moisture and bread or crackers for binding.

Ingredients have evolved over the years but the main ingredient for a good crab cake is still great crab! There’s lots of crabmeat on the market, everything from canned Asian snow crab to the finest fresh picked jumbo lump crabmeat (crabmeat from blue crabs). Fresh blue crabmeat is scarce and very pricey right now but there are good alternatives. Most of the big crab suppliers down south now offer an imported pasteurized crab meat that’s pretty good quality, or you can try the crab we use in our cakes which is fresh Jonah crabmeat. Jonah crabs are rock crabs that we get from Maine and Massachusetts. They look kind of like a small Dungeness crab and have a sweet nutty flavor, not quite as intense as fresh blue crab but still a great crab for cakes, salads or stuffing.

Today’s recipe is a take on traditional Maryland crab cakes. A little simpler than Bernie’s and with less ingredients, these are easy and delicious . Serve them with lemon, your favorite hot sauce or Monahan’s remoulade.

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Monahan's Crab Cakes

Friday, October 7th, 2011 | posted by mike

  • 1 lb. Fresh Jonah crabmeat (claw and knuckle meat) or back fin lump blue crabmeat
  • 2 T onions finely chopped
  • 2 t Dijon mustard
  • 2 t Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 2 T mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup panko crumbs or bread crumbs
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 t Old Bay seasoning
  • Vegetable oil

Serves 3-4

In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients except oil, gently toss so you don’t break up chunks of crab. Form cakes fairly small (about 3 inches wide & 1 inch thick).

Heat about 1/8 inch of oil over med. high heat in large frying pan, you may want to use a non stick pan because these cakes are mostly crab with a small amount of binder. When oil is hot (sizzling hot but not smoking) carefully place cakes in pan leaving enough room to be able to flip them. Fry for about 4 min. until the cake is golden brown, flip and repeat.

Drain on paper towel or paper bag.

Season and serve with lemon and remoulade.

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Cool Seafood Recipes for HOT Summer Evenings

Friday, July 15th, 2011 | posted by mike

The dog days of summer are upon us. It’s hot as heck and not all of us want to slave over a hot stove or grill. Quick, easy, healthful and tasty seafood salads are just perfect this time of year. And luckily, we have all the great seafood and fish on hand to put together a refreshing, simple dish that will be an ideal accompaniment to a glass of wine and a relaxing, sultry summer night.

It can be as easy as flaking some smoked fish over mixed greens with a simple vinaigrette. Poached salmon tossed with a little sour cream, yogurt, dijon mustard, lemon, chopped cucumber and fresh dill is perfect summertime fare. Try some boiled shrimp, lobster meat, or crabmeat and just add a touch of mayo, lemon, chopped celery and onion, maybe a little fresh tarragon and a dash of Tabasco, serve on a bed of lettuce or on a roll. Blacken a fillet of bluefish and serve it over a Caesar salad. Squid or octopus salads are always a hit. Simply boil (squid for 2 min.-octopus for 45 min.), cool, make a light oregano vinaigrette and serve with tomatoes and onions. Creating a great vinaigrette is a cinch. All you need is extra virgin olive oil and a good vinegar.

Pantry Essentials
Some of the essentials in our pantry are Thai sweet chili sauce, sriracha sauce, Thai roasted chili paste, Thai red curry paste, Thai fish sauce (nuoc mam), ponzu (a citrus, soy, bonito sauce), Kikkoman ponzu is available at Monahan’s, pickled and fresh ginger, mango chutney, dijon mustard, Tiger sauce and Lizano sauce (from Costa Rica). We use fresh fruits, lemons, oranges, mangos and lots of limes in many vinaigrettes. Curry powder, cumin powder and a good assortment of dried herbs (we buy fresh herbs and chiles as needed). You can go for the sweet and spicy or the tart and tangy. For seafood salads I usually use white or rice wine vinegar.

From there you can get as wild and crazy as you want. Just experiment and have fun with it! If you still don’t feel like cooking, we usually have a few seafood salads ready to take home at the market.

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Seafood Gumbo

Friday, March 4th, 2011 | posted by wendy

This recipe is from one of our favorite New Orleans chefs, John Besh. This is for a BIG batch of gumbo (serves 10), so either get ready to party, or cut this recipe by half or more.

  • 1 c canola oil
  • 1 c flour
  • 2 large onions, diced
  • 1 lb. spicy smoked sausage (We like Bob Sparrow’s Andouille) sliced 1/2 inch thick
  • 1 stalk celery, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup sliced fresh okra
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme
  • 3 quarts fish stock (available frozen at Monahan’s)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 lb. medium wild gulf shrimp
  • 1 c shucked oysters
  • 1 c lump crabmeat
  • 1 c minced green onion
  • salt & pepper
  • Monahan’s Cajun Seasoning
  • Worcestershire
  • Tabasco
  • 4–6 cups white rice

Make a roux by heating the oil in a large cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil. It will immediately begin to sizzle. Reduce the heat to moderate and continue whisking until the roux tkaes on a deep brown color, about 15 minutes. Add the onions, stirring them into the roux with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue stirring until the roux is a rich dark brown, about 10 more minutes.

Add the smoked sausage and stir for a minute before adding the celery, bell peppers, garlic and okra. Increase the heat to moderate and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes. Add the thyme, fish stock and bay leaves. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and skim off any fat from the surface of the gumbo.

Add the shrimp, oysters, crabmeat, and green onions to the pot and cook for 15 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire and Tabasco. Serve in bowls over rice.

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Classic Pan Fried Soft Shell Crabs

Friday, May 7th, 2010 | posted by wendy

These crabs are great on top of a salad or even on toast! Also wonderful as an entrée…everybody loves soft shell crabs! Pop over to the market between spring and fall and we’ll clean them for you or even show you how to do that at home.

Soft Shell crabs (cleaned)
Drake’s batter mix (dry) or seasoned flour, milk for dipping
peanut or vegetable oil
garnish of your choice (you can use lemon; our remoulade, cocktail or tartar sauce; lemon-caper-tomato-butter and parsley; or even a Japanese-style ponzu or teriyaki with grated daikon radish.

Heat oil (1/8 inch deep in skillet) over medium heat. Pat the crab dry with paper towel, dip in milk, then dredge in Drake’s or flour. Place crabs in hot skillet, far enough apart so they brown well, and partially cover with lid (to prevent explosions and splatter) or use a screen. Cook for approximately 4 minutes a side (for jumbos or whales) or 3 minutes (for primes or smaller crabs). Remove to plate covered with paper towel or paper bag to drain.

Serve warm with garnish or sauce in the style of your choosing. We serve them open-face, on Zingerman’s toast with lettuce/tomato/onion and a side of slaw at the market for lunch, so stop by during the season!

VIDEO: How to Cook a Soft Shell Crab

VIDEO: How to Clean a Soft Shell Crab

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Cioppino

Sunday, March 21st, 2010 | posted by wendy

The great Italian-American fisherman’s stew from San Francisco:

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into large chunks
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 1 large plum tomato, sliced
• 3 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 lb. mussels, scrubbed and beards removed
• 1 1/2  Manilla clams or small little necks, scrubbed
• 1/2  lb. snapper, rockfish or other mild, firm fish, cut into chunks
• 1/2  lb. shrimp, in-shell
• 1 (about 2 lbs.) cooked Dungeness crab (or other crab), cleaned and cracked with the body section cut into pieces
• 1/2  lb. squid mantles cut into rings
• Sweet pepper sauce

Heat olive oil in large Dutch oven or kettle over medium-high heat.  Add yellow pepper, onion and garlic and sauté 5 minutes or until soft.  Add tomato slices and lemon juice;  cook 2 minutes.  Add mussels, clams, fish and prawns; cover and cook over medium heat 5 minutes.  Add crab and sweet pepper sauce (see sidebar); cover and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in squid; cover and cook 2 to 3 minutes longer or until squid is opaque throughout, shrimp is pink and opaque, fish is cooked through, crab is hot and mussels and clams have opened.  Discard any unopened mussels or clams.  Serve Cioppino in a tureen or large soup bowls, dividing the various ingredients among the bowls. Serves 4–6.

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