Crab Soup

Tags

crab meat, crab recipe, crab soup, crab soup recipe, Old Bay, soup, Soup recipe

After coming in from playing in the snow with Hubster and our border collie Belle, I opened up a can of crab soup… and just as quickly threw it away. It smelled and looked horrible… I think it was my punishment for attempting not to make my dinner.  I’ve never seen good canned crab soup. So I pulled out a 1 lb. can of crab meat I had in the refrigerator and whipped up a pot.

My ideal crab soup is not creamy, it’s not fishy (I love crab, but don’t really like fish), and it doesn’t have a salty flavor.

My ideal crab meat taste like crab (Old Bay and butter)and is chunky. Who wants to search their bowl for chunks of meat?

Crab Soup

Ingredients:
1 c. white wine, 1 shallot, 1 stick butter, 2 Tbs. Old Bay Seasoning,  1 Tbs. parsley, 1 Tbs. celery seeds, 1 lb. crab meat, water

Directions:
In soup pot, sauté shallots in butter. Add Old Bay and celery seeds.  Stir in white wine and bring to a boil. Remove pan from burner, add crab meat and parsley and let sit for 5 minutes. Add water (I filled the empty crab can once with water), stir and return to heat. Bring to boil and serve!

On this snowy day while all other bloggers are making cookies, cakes and bread to blog about…  I shared my soup with you. Add some oyster crackers! Yum!

Snow Day Play

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Chicken Vesuvius

Tags

artichoke hearts, asparagus, chicken, crab meat, Entertaining, hollandaise, risotto, zucchini

Chicken Vesuvius has been one of my favorite dishes at Georgine’s (restaurant) for a long time. Many restaurants have their own variations with not only the dish, but also the name. I’ve been wanting to make my own variation based on my favorite flavor combinations. One of my friends was joining us for dinner and what better time to try a new dish then for company?

My Chicken Vesuvius is a chicken breast topped with jumbo lump crab meat, asparagus, artichoke hearts, and hollandaise sauce. I served this with an Italian risotto (the first time I ever made it) and steamed zucchini. *Next time I would like to add sautéed grape tomatoes and Kalamata olives.

I made my hollandaise sauce by whisking 4 eggs yolks over low heat and adding hot water one spoonful at a time. When the sauce thickened I added warm lemon juice and removed from the heat as I continued whisking. Then, I added about a 1/2 cup of melted butter. I kept the sauce warm until ready to plate the meal.

Starting the Risotto

Risotto on the Way…

I cooked the chicken by dipping the breasts into eggs, then flour, and frying it in olive oil. The finished dish is layered upon the plate, so I can omit any ingredients the diner does not wish.

I started the risotto by sautéing fresh chopped basil and minced onions in the olive oil. Once the flavors were married, I added the short grain rice into the olive oil and sautéed until the rice was opaque in color. Then, I stirred in Italian blend seasoning and added chicken broth (Next time, I will start with a cup of white wine before adding the broth). I brought the risotto to a boil and then simmered it low, adding chicken broth as needed. Once the dish was almost done, I stirred in Parmesan and Romano cheeses. *Something I remember seeing the chef (where I used to wait) do, is add a bit of heavy cream at the end of the cooking time; next time I’d like to try that. Once plated, I topped with chopped parsley and fresh grated Gruyère.

Steaming Veggies

*I used my crinkle cutter to slice the zucchini before steaming. I love using the tool for an unexpected touch of added texture.

I forgot to take a picture until after we had started to dig into the dish.

One saucepan, one frying pan, a pasta pot, two steamers and two pots later. Voilà! My Chicken Vesuvius (and sides) looked beautiful! Everything tasted really great! I definitely want to add the cream to the risotto next time. A multilevel bamboo steamer might also help cut down on the amount of pots & burners being used.

Half-Polished Off Dish

XOXO,
Young Wifey