January 2021

Crab Cakes

These crab cakes are a great way to help kick the winter blues. They have fresh flavors that will soon have you imagining yourself al Fresca dining with a cold glass of Prosecco in the warm sun. They are easy to make and cook quickly. Enjoy them with a salad of spring mix and vinaigrette for a light summer style meal any time of year.

Crab Cakes

Makes 4-5

Zest (grated or chopped super fine) & juice of 1 Lemon

1 tsp prepared horseradish

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp ground mustard

1/3 cup mayonnaise or 1/3 cup tartar sauce

Fresh breadcrumbs from 1 slice of white bread

1 dash Tabasco or to taste

1 dash Old Bay seasoning or to taste

1 dash Worcestershire sauce or to taste

2 Tablespoons chopped chives

¼ cup minced red onion – microwaved for 30-40 seconds to cook slightly

2 dashes of dried dill weed, or 1 Tablespoon of fresh chopped dill weed

16 oz fresh lump crab meat – picked over gently to remove shell and moisture squeezed out (be careful not to break up too much)

Panko breadcrumbs as needed

Mix everything EXCEPT crabmeat, fresh breadcrumbs, and Panko in a bowl until mixed well.  Gently fold in fresh breadcrumbs and crab meat until blended being careful not to break up crab meat.  Shape into 4-5 crab patties. Press Panko breadcrumbs onto each side of crab cakes. Place on a tray or plate, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour or more.

Spray a non-stick pan with pan spray and fry on low temp slowly on each side until golden brown and warmed through.

Serve with tartar or remoulade sauce or make into a crab burger.

*These are very delicate and will fall apart easily when handling and cooking.  If you prefer a firmer and easier to work with cake, add one beaten egg to the mix when you mix all the seasonings. 

**Onions can be raw, but they will remain raw even after crab cake is cooked.  Alternatively, you can sauté the onion in a little butter or oil before adding to the mixture.  If you sauté the onion, make sure to drain most of the oil /butter before adding it to the mix.

By Chef Kerry, ago

Asian Style Rice Salad

This recipe was born from a need to make my husbands’ lunches more interesting.  Although delicious, he was growing tired of the Italian pasta salad he’d been taking for lunch every day.  At first, I was going to make this recipe with noodles, which would certainly work, but I decided to go with rice to vary his lunch even more.  He loves very spicy food, but if you aren’t as impervious to heat as he, you may wish to leave out some or all of the optional ingredients. I’m sure some left-over cooked chicken would be a great addition to this recipe as well.  Enjoy!

Asian Style Rice Salad

4-6 servings

1 cup uncooked rice – Jasmine, long grain, or brown

1 cup frozen peas thawed, or 1 cup sliced snow peas

¼ cup minced red onion

1-2 Tablespoons seeded & minced hot pepper -Jalapeno, Serrano, or Thai chili pepper (optional)

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

1 seeded & minced red bell pepper

2 teaspoons granulated garlic or 1 Tablespoon fresh minced garlic

2 teaspoons fresh ginger minced or 1 teaspoon dried

1 eight ounce can of water chestnuts diced

1 bunch of scallions white part minced, and green part sliced thin (keep separate)

2 Tablespoons honey or Agave

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar 

1 Tablespoon Sriracha (optional)

¼ cup toasted sesame oil

2 Tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 Tablespoon of lime juice

3 Tablespoons fresh cilantro minced

Cook rice according to package directions and then spread onto a cookie sheet to cool to room temperature.  While cooling, whisk crush red pepper, garlic, ginger, scallion whites, honey or Agave, rice vinegar, Sriracha, sesame oil, soy sauce, black pepper, and lime juice in a bowl big enough to hold the rice and all the other ingredients.  Once cooled, add rice to the bowl and mix thoroughly.  Mix in the remaining ingredients reserving 1 Tablespoon of cilantro and the scallions greens for later. Chill covered for 2-4 hours.  Stir before serving and garnish with reserved cilantro and scallion.

*For a higher protein and lower carb option, substitute Quinoa for rice in this recipe.

By Chef Kerry, ago

SHRIMP & CORN WITH CHILI LIME BUTTER

A couple of summers ago I added a Chili Lime Butter Shrimp Taco with Avocado puree, slaw, and Cotjio cheese to my food trucks’ taco menu.  On the food truck, I cook and hold the shrimp in the chili-lime butter so that it doesn’t dry out during the two hours of service, but I wondered if I could elevate the recipe to a more filling dish at home by adding corn, fresh cilantro, and hot pepper.  It turned out great.  This is a very quick and easy weeknight dish that pairs well with rice, beans, vegetables, or soup.  This version also makes a very good taco.  Enjoy.

Shrimp and Corn with Chili Lime Butter

2-4 servings

1-pound extra-large shrimp (21-25 per pound) 

1 ½ cup of frozen corn thawed

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes (optional)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

1 Tablespoon diced & seeded hot pepper, Jalapeno or Serrano (optional)

Juice and zest of 1 lime

1 lime quartered in wedges

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Thaw, peel, devein, and remove tails from shrimp, pat them dry with a paper towel.  Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat, add garlic and the diced pepper to the butter.  Sauté for about 2 minutes, adjust heat if needed so the butter doesn’t burn, then add the shrimp in a single layer and sprinkle chili powder, chili flake, salt, and pepper over shrimp. Cook shrimp until edges turn pink and bottoms start to get brown spots, about 3 minutes. Quickly flip shrimp and add corn evenly around the pan.  Cook for another 2-3 minutes until shrimp is opaque and cooked through.  Stir and remove from heat.  Off heat, stir in lime juice, zest, and half the cilantro. 

Serve the remaining cilantro and the lime wedges with the shrimp.

This recipe is also great in tacos with avocado, Cotija cheese, and a side of crispy coleslaw.

By Chef Kerry, ago

Taking the Cream out of Cream of Mushroom Soup

Last February my husband and I decided that our eating habits needed to be improved to help us achieve a healthier lifestyle and feel better as we get older.  During this ten-week period, we adopted a plant-based diet.  Having never attempted anything like this before, it was a fairly large learning curve with some disappointing food purchases.   At times it was challenging to keep our meals interesting and filling, while still making sure they met our dietary needs.  I discovered things about my body that were both good and bad.  My skin cleared up after about a week, I had more energy and never felt “food coma” after a meal and I didn’t have heartburn anymore.  I also discovered that I absolutely cannot eat beans without suffering serious gas and abdominal pain and eating too much fiber makes me fart constantly.  In the end, we learned a lot, not only about what food we wanted to keep in our diets but also, what foods we could purchase vs what foods were better prepared at home.  Despite feeling very healthy while eating the vegan diet, we realized we would not be able to completely give up animal products long term.  After 10 weeks, we slowly adopted the Mediterranean diet, but some of the recipes I developed while eating vegan have remained.  The Cream of Mushroom Soup below is one of them.  This recipe is easily adapted to a non-vegan version by substituting Worcestershire sauce for the coconut aminos, regular unsalted butter for the plant butter, and half and half for the Almond milk.  I didn’t include a photo, as the soup isn’t much to look at, but it is tasty.

Vegan Gluten-Free Cream of Mushroom Soup

4-5 one cup servings

2 cups of fresh mushroom chopped or sliced

1 cup dried mushrooms -packed tightly

1 tsp thyme

1 medium yellow onion diced

1 Tablespoon of coconut aminos (optional)

2 medium potatoes peeled and sliced 1/2” 

2 Tablespoons plant butter or olive oil

1 quart plain unsweetened almond, oat, soy, rice, or cashew milk

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons of fresh parsley, or chives chopped (optional)

In the pot you are using to make the soup, sauté onion, thyme, fresh mushrooms, a teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of black pepper in the butter or oil on medium-low heat until onions are translucent and soft, stirring occasionally, about 10 – 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pulverize dried mushrooms to powder consistency in a food processor or blender. If a few rice size pieces remain, that’s ok. 

When sautéed onion and mushroom are soft, add dried mushroom powder and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes.

Add amino acid, potato, and milk and simmer, stirring occasionally until potatoes fall apart easily when forked and liquid has reduced by about ¼ of its original volume. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed.  The soup will not be thick at this point. Use one of the two methods below to thicken the soup.

Off the heat, use an immersion blender to blend/smooth the soup until the soup is thickened.

OR

Carefully ladle 2 cups soup into a standard blender and blend until smooth. Transfer blended soup to another container and continue until all the soup has been blended. 

Return blended soup to the soup pan and heat through. 

Serve with a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive oil, Avocado oil, or flavored oil. Top with the fresh herbs and enjoy!

By Chef Kerry, ago

What to Do with Left Over Veggies – The Frittata

It’s late Sunday morning, you’re leisurely sipping on a warm cup of coffee or tea and thinking about what to have for brunch.  Maybe you’re still feeling the aftermath of the last glass of wine you had after supper, or perhaps you just aren’t in the mood to invest much time into this.  You head over to the refrigerator to see what the options are, all the while wishing leftover pizza will suddenly appear out of nowhere and be sitting on the shelf.  Sadly, a magical pizza fairy has not blessed you this day and the only left-over food you see are some cooked vegetables from supper.  How will you turn these vegetables into a meal that’s not too involved or time-consuming? The answer comes from Italy, make a Frittata.  

The Frittata is a bit like scrambled eggs, crustless Quiche, Spanish Tortilla (which usually includes cooked potatoes), or an unfolded Omelet.  In Italy, mothers and grandmothers will whip up a Frittata as a quick and easy snack using whatever meat or vegetables they have around the house. You might also see a Frittata at a bar being offered as a bite to eat between meals with an espresso or glass of wine.  In my experiences, they were always served at room temperature in Italy, but at home I like to eat it hot with melted cheese on the top.  

It’s perfectly acceptable to add whatever cooked vegetables and meat you have handy.  Fresh herbs or fresh spinach added at the end of cooking are nice too.  In this recipe, I used zucchini and mushrooms that have been cooked with onion and garlic.  I typically add a few dashes of Tabasco, but that’s not traditional.  Don’t be afraid to make it your own, this is a forgiving recipe.

Frittata

Serves 2 -3

3 large eggs

1 Tablespoon milk (nut milk or animal milk)

2 dashes of Tabasco (optional)

Salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

2 Tablespoons Parmesan or Pecorino cheese grated (optional)

½-1 cup cooked vegetables 

Shredded cheese of your choice (optional)

¼ cup fresh baby or chopped spinach (optional)

1 Tablespoon of olive oil 

Heat olive oil in a non-stick oven safe sauté or fry pan until shimmering slightly.  Add the cooked vegetables evenly across the bottom of the pan.  

In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, Tabasco, Parmesan, pepper flake, salt, and pepper.  Pour egg mixture evenly over vegetables in the pan and reduce heat to low.

Method 1:  Cook until edges start to brown slightly then turn out onto a plate and slide back into the pan.  Continue to cook until edges start to brown slightly.  Optionally,  sprinkle with shredded cheese, fresh spinach, fresh herbs, and cook until cheese is melted. 

** This method can be difficult and messy, so it’s not my favorite.

Method 2:  Place pan into a preheated oven at 350 degrees and cook until eggs set up and begin to brown slightly.  Gently shake the pan to test for doneness.  Optionally, sprinkle top with shredded cheese, fresh spinach, fresh herbs if using and cook until just melted. 

Method 3 (my favorite):  Cook until edges start to brown slightly.  Cover with a tight fitting lid and continue to cook until set.  Gently shake the pan to test for doneness.  Optionally, sprinkle top with shredded cheese, fresh spinach, fresh herbs if using and cook until just melted. 

Serve warm or at room temperature.

By Chef Kerry, ago

Row 34 Portsmouth New Hampshire – A Review

Eating out during COVID has been challenging for us.  We have tried to get carry out and eat outside at many of our favorite places.  Some of these experiences have been very good and some not so good.

When our 10th wedding anniversary came along in September, we decided to eat outside at Row 34 in Portsmouth, NH.  The temporary outdoor dining area was decorated with potted plants which created not only a barrier but also the feeling that the patio had always been there. 

Our waitress was friendly and knowledgeable about both food and drink, and attentive without hovering. We had been grazing through the afternoon and thus were not hungry enough for a heavy meal, so we settled on raw bar including Shrimp Cocktail. 

The tray of oysters was cold, shucked perfectly. The oyster recommendations from our waitress were spot on.  The shrimp were large, firm and perfectly cooked.  

We also ordered Tuna Crudo. Thin slices of raw tuna rolled atop perfectly ripe avocado slices and sitting on a bed of black garlic purée topped with crispy fried shallot and delicate flakes of sea salt, which provided a welcome change of texture to this otherwise creamy dish. The tuna was fresh and the black garlic purée sweet and absent of the harsh bite that uncooked garlic possesses. 

We skipped dessert on this visit in favor of going for ice cream, but I highly recommend trying their house made Butterscotch Pudding made with actual Scotch and topped with puffed rice that adds a nice crunch. 

Row 34 has consistently friendly and knowledgeable service, and fresh, expertly prepared seafood.  I highly recommend dining here.

For tips on more places to eat in Portsmouth check out my travel book.

By Chef Kerry, ago