Cooking 4 2: July 2011

Summer is finally here on the Niagara Frontier. While this season is not as long as in other parts of our great country, it is deliciously well-balanced. Rarely do we ever creep into the 90's, with the mid-80's our usual fare. Those lovely Great Lakes, who produce the occasional snowy bonanza in Winter, act as a grand moderating influence in the Summer, beating back the hot waves that occasionally nip at our heels from the Southwest. And then, every so often, our dear friends in Canada send us a waft of air-conditioning that invigorates and allows us to bear the occasional, anti-human, 90 degree spell that might get by the defenses of Lake Erie!

Summer is a time for cooking and eating outdoors. It is also the time to enjoy chilled Prosecco. With its (relatively) low alcohol content, it can be a welcome accompaniment to lunch on your deck. I always have a dozen-or-so splits cold in my refrigerator. It is also a fine friend to enjoy while reading outdoors in the afternoon. With but the occasional bee or butterfly buzzing by, we have few outdoor pests to bother us (another happy side effect of those short stretches of wintertime sub-zero temps, I think).

Grilled steaks, the ubiquitous hotdogs and hamburgers, smoked pork, turkey and brisket, grilled "Buffalo Wings" instead of frying and rotisseried legs of lamb for souvlaki; you get used to cooking everything outdoors! So, when you are in the mood for a stylish luncheon, you find a way to use your grill. This dish can be made completely indoors, of course, but I've chosen to use my grill and enjoy it al Fresco!

Any kind of crab will do, I suppose, but I found some good looking Alaskan King Crab Legs that will guarantee me large chunks of crabmeat... mmmm! My favorite. So what we're going to do is create a piquant white sauce and add the crab to it, just enough to heat it through. Then we'll pour this onto toast made from thick slices of homemade wheat bread on a few lettuce leaves. That's it!! Since I want to do everything outdoors on my deck, I'll be sure to prep all the ingredients with the aim of easy outdoor usage.

Most of the ingredients

Ingredients

Crab Enough to produce about 2 cups of meat

2 Scallions chopped thin, up to the green stalk

2 Tbs. Fresh Chives, chopped fine

¼ Lemon (to squeeze over crabmeat)

Celery: a small piece, diced fine

1 Hard Cooked Egg Yolk, chopped fine

1 Tbs. Dijon Mustard

1 tsp. Capers

1 tsp. Sea Salt

Red Hot Ground Pepper, any kind: as much as you can take

1 ¼ cups Half & Half (see note)

Large Dollop of Sour Cream

2 Tbs. Butter

2 Tbs. Flour

Paprika (for garnish)

2 Lettuce leaves

2 thick slices of Dense Bread

Good EV Olive Oil

1 medium grill proof sauce pan

* note on Half & Half. You could use almost any liquid here, from skim milk to heavy cream, probably even some white wine. It is the flour/butter Roux that creates the cream sauce, not the liquid used. I used Half & Half because it adds a little richness, but not too much. The quantity used will depend on when your sauce thickens to your desired consistency. Mine took 1 ¼ cups.

Method

1 Carefully remove Crab from shell. Save large pieces and mince other crabmeat. Cut the large pieces into bite-size pieces (or as large as you want). Place Crab in a bowl. Squeeze Lemon over crabmeat. Mince Dill and sprinkle over Crab and refrigerate until ready for use.

Main Ingredients Prepped

Crab Ready for Refrigerator

2 Crisp up two pieces of Lettuce. Chill a plate and a champagne flute.

3 Dice Celery to very fine pieces. Chop Scallions to very thin slices. Place these in a bowl.

4 Measure out 2 Tbs. each of Butter and Flour and place, respectively, in small bowls.

5 Cut two fairly thick slices of a hearty Bread. Thinly baste each, on both sides, with just a small amount of EV Olive Oil.

6 Mince the Yolk of a hard cooked egg and add a teaspoon of Capers to them.

Bread Ready

Eggs & Capers Ready

7 After grill is preheated, set burners from high (in back) to low (in front), my grill has three burners. If you have a charcoal grill, pile the coals to the rear. Basically, you want to control the heat and be able to move your sauce pan to increase or decrease the heat under it. You also want an area where you can quickly toast your Bread.

8 Place two leaves of crisp Lettuce on a chilled plate. Now you can bring all your ingredients outside and begin!

9 Place a very small amount of Oil in the pan, over medium, and when heated properly, add the Scallion/Celery mix. Sauté until translucent, just a few minutes. Add Butter, then Flour and whisk constantly for about five minutes. Do not let the mixture color. Move the pan to a cooler area, if necessary.

Begin Scallions & Celery

Butter and Flour Cooking

10 When the roux has cooked a while, add about a cup of the Half & Half, whisking until it starts to bubble and thicken. Then continue to slowly add liquid until sauce has the consistency of a white gravy. Add Salt. Add hot Red Pepper. Stir in the Dijon Mustard. Stir in the Egg/Capers mixture, cook for a minute or two and then move pan to lowest heat. Now stir in the Crab/Chives mixture and a dollop of Sour Cream.