Fresh Crab Cakes on the Oregon Coast

Hello, everybody! Mary Jane here with some pictures of our beach trip. I hate that we had to come back to 105+ weather. UGH. But, I just keep trying to remember that at least we have ice, unlike the pioneers. I can get a cold Diet coke with a lot of ice, instead of warm water from a canteen. Positive thinking, right?

 So, we went crabbing in Newport. $10 gets you a shellfish license for the season. Can you believe we were wearing light jackets?? *sigh*
                                                                
Hauling the traps up from the water builds muscles!!
                                                    
A Fish and Wildlife warden showed us the easiest way to pick them up. Here, Ana demonstrates her fearlessness.
                                         
I wondered if three large Dungeness would make enough patties for the nine of us...
                                
Time to get cracking!

 The boys went to work. My 12 year old is kind of squeamish and said, "No way, no how." But he didn't eat any, either, so that was fair, I guess.

 The three crabs gave about 1/2 lb of crab meat. I had a recipe that needed 1 lb, so I had to adjust a little.
3/4 cup mayonaise
5 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup panko crumbs, unseasoned
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
pepper and salt to taste

I like this recipe because it lets the flavor of the crab shine through, and it's not too overwhelming.
 

Fry on med high heat until golden on both sides. 

 Thank you, Mr. Dungeness, for your sacrifice!! You were delicious. :)

 

Until next time!!

Toastados with Spicy Cilantro Sauce

Hello, everybody!  I have a delicious recipe for fish tostadas. (Actually, this could be set on rice or salad, too, but I like some crunch with my veggies.)

Ingredients:

One package of breaded fish fillets, or bread and fry up your preferred fish

two cups corn

two cups black beans

four avocados

3 small tomatoes, chopped

4 tsp chopped onion

Veggie sauce:

2 tsp olive oil

3 tsp honey

4 tsp lime juice

dash of cumin

dash of cayenne pepper

Cream sauce:

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp fresh cilantro fresh cilantro

4 tsp lime juice

1 cup mayo

1/4 tsp cayenne

4 oz canned green chiles, mild

salt to taste

4 or 5 corn tortillas

salt to taste

Oil for frying

So, chop the avocados, tomatoes, onion and add to the corn in a medium bowl. 

 Mix the lime juice, cayenne pepper, honey, salt, and garlic together and add to the veggies above.

 Random pictures of chopped tomatoes. *sigh* These were from a store. How I miss fresh tomatoes right now!

 Prep the cilantro so it's ready to add as a garnish. I'm NOT a cilantro fan. Even the smell of it makes me queasy. But my husband loves it, so here we are... lots of cilantro. Because love.

 I love fresh limes. :)

Heat about 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil in a small pan until hot enough to crisp corn tortillas. 

I also made some corn chips for those who preferred mostly veggies and just some chips for a garnish.

                                                    
As soon as the tostada is out of the oil and cooled, pile on the veggies and beans. This is a bit of a deceptive photo since the reality was almost all the ingredients were separate because I have picky eaters, so people were adding what they wanted, with or without sauce.

 Now, add the mayonnaise, garlic, lime juice, cayenne pepper and cilantro to a blender and blend completely. Add salt to taste.

 The fish should be cooked or near cooked by now. I picked up the wrong fillets so these weren't as crunchy as I wanted, but they were still good.

 Add the cilantro cream sauce and garnish with fresh cilantro.

A shot of the tortillas. If I wasn't so scared of hot oil, I'd make fresh tortilla chips every day!

Enjoy!

How to Clean A Crab

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I mentioned last week that it's crab season on our coast. We're not near the coast at all (about 7-9 hours, depending on the route you take, highway or back road). So we don't usually eat seafood because by the time it makes it here to the other side of the state, it's not really as fresh as I'd like it to be. And you know I'm all about fresh food! (Oregon is 98,000 square miles and ranked 9th largest.... way behind TEXAS, of course!) 

 So, these babies started showing up in our grocery store by the mountain. Glorious, cheap, crabs! And although the seafood assistant will crack and clean them for you, my twelve year old boy loves that job. (Ah, twelve year old boys are the best for the dirty jobs. They look forward to them!) Another reason we keep our crab cleaning skills up is for our yearly beach visit. Seafood is cheap there but it's usually sold in the outdoor market. They don't hold your hand as you pick out your dinner, and they don't clean it for you. We've bought tuna, etc. right off boats in the harbor. We also have a year's fishing license, and then when the tide is low we pull mussels off the rocks, dig for clams, or hang a crab trap off the pier. I know you can just buy it in a restaurant and that's absolutely a fine way to proceed. BUT if you lay awake at night wondering if your family would survive the zombie apocalypse, or like to prepare your own food from scratch, keep reading!
                                            
So, let's begin! When crabbing, make sure to follow the local rules and regulations. That usually includes size and sex (nothing under a certain size, and no females). This is a male and you can tell by the shape of the "apron". Males usually have a shape somewhat like the Washington Monument. And females are shaped like the US Capital dome. (Baby females have a sort of triangle, and are probably too small to keep.)

 Using a knife, pop open the apron and pull down.
                                                 
Flipping the crab over, grip both sides of the carapace and remove the top.
                                              
Inside you can see the gills, the innards, etc. Some people save the top and serve the crab dish inside. If you want to do this you'll need to scrub it really well with soap, and then leave it in the sun to dry, preferably for several days. We just toss ours. :)
                                              
Inside the middle is a yellow gunk called "crab butter'. This is like the crab's liver and filters the toxin from the system. Some people carefully collect this and use it in soup or the crab dish because it's a very strong flavoring, like anchovy paste (but not as salty). I've had dishes made with crab butter and although it's good, I don't feel comfortable eating something that filters toxins so... I discard this. Of course, I don't eat liver, either, which plenty of people feel is perfectly okay. It's really up to you whether you feel it's safe to eat/cook with.
                                
Another shot of the gills, crab butter, mandibles. All this should be removed.

 At this point, you can easily crack the crab in half. Take each half and rinse under warm water.

 You can either serve it like this, half a crab for everybody, or you can continue cracking the legs/pincer, remove the meat and use in a recipe.
I hope you've enjoyed my crab cleaning tutorial! Ok, until next time, everyone!

California Sushi 101

Hello, everybody! We were craving fresh sushi and since we live in the middle of verifiable nowhere, we have to make it ourselves. I decided to take some pictures in case anybody has enjoyed sushi but thought it was hard to make. It's really, really not. Plus, it keeps in the fridge for several days, and the ingredients are great for families on a budget. I first made sushi in college and my kids have grown up making sushi rolls at home. We've experimented with a few different kinds, but we always come back to California rolls. 

We like the fresh ingredients. No raw tuna, here! Or maybe it's just easier to find the various veggies and such.

So, let's start!

A pack of sushinori seaweed sheets, rice vinegar, and good quality rice. All of these can be found in your local grocery store. (I'm positive. Really. If WE have them, YOU have them. Unless you're a one stop-light town. We're a two stop-light town and we've got seaweed, and it's certainly not because of our large Asian population.)

Bamboo mats are in most kitchen stores an Walmart and on Amazon. Usually about $6. You don't really need one. You can use plastic wrap or foil, but they do work better. 

We usually use fake crab (because the kids like it better and it's already in the package) but crabs are in season on our coast and this fresh beauty was only $5.99! My son loves to clean them so I let him take care of that part. Maybe I'll post a tutorial on crab cleaning? Hmmmm...

One cucumber, several carrots, fake crab, and avocado. Cut into slices.

Real crab. Mmmmm....

 Mix 12 TBS rice veingar, 9 TBS sugar, and 3 TBS salt in a pot and warm (stirring frequently) until everything is dissolved.Boil the rice according to the directions. Pour the liquid over the HOT cooked rice. This is what gives sushi rice that delicious sweet/sour flavor.

Here's the tricky part. You want each grain coated with the mixture, and how this is achieved is to mix the rice in a folding motion, while fanning with a stiff paper (or a school notebook, as is the case here). You can do it yourself, but if you're not so coordinated, it's always better to have one person fan and the other fold. After about five minutes of gentle folding, the vinegar mix should be absorbed into the rice.

Lay the nori on the mat. Inhale deeply. MMMMM...

So, first step is to cut your nori sheets in half. They should snap apart easily if they're fresh out of the package. 

 Here's the thing... California roll has the seaweed on the INSIDE. Pat rice in a thin layer onto the seaweed sheet. Have a small bowl of water nearby to dip your fingers in or you'll end up with rice EVERYWHERE.

 If you're making a normal sushi roll, the seaweed would stay on the outside but again, it's California roll so we're going to flip the rice over onto some foil that we've put on top of the sushi mat (we don't wan rice in the sushi mat, it's a pain to clean) and build the ingredients into the inside.

 Lay cucumber, carrot, crab, avocado in a line. Not very much because you've only got half a sheet to make the roll. (The bigger the sheet, the fatter the roll.)
                                                         
Roll gently and slowly. It's not hard and with practice, it really takes about 2 minutes to assemble. But I'm uncoordinated so I go slowly.

 Once it's rolled together, carefully remove the foil. (Like a jelly roll!)
                                
They can be wrapped in plastic and put in the fridge at this point. They'll keep for a day or two (probably more) and they're great for bringing to a party, assembling in the kitchen and bringing them out. Lots easier than hauling around platters of sushi.
                                                 
And just in case anyone wants to make the rice on the inside, you can do it really easily an skip thats the of the extra foil and the flipping over.
                                                   
The cutting works the same way, but if the nori is on the outside, it's easier to cut if you dip the knife in very hot water before each cut.
                                                       
Here is a traditional roll (same ingredients, but seaweed on the outside).
                                               
California roll! (But I ran out of sesame seeds, so just imagine a coating of sesame seeds on the outside.) Dip in soy sauce and wasabi for best results!

Take care, have some sushi, and see you all next time!