Deviled Crab on Toast al Fresco

            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. 

Thickening Sauce

Everything Finally Added

      Place slices of Bread on the higher heat area of the grill  ̶̶  watch carefully!  ̶  turn bread when just toasted, and do the other side.

Toasting Bread, Keeping Sauce Hot

11  Place Toast slices on the Lettuce and pour Deviled Crab mixture over them. Sprinkle with Paprika and serve with highly chilled Prosecco. 

Toast on Lettuce

Deviled Crab on Toast

Enjoy your Luncheon al fresco!   ... Love, Dave

Farsumagru Saia

            This is another dish I tailored to accompany a fine wine. I found this pairing to be particularly beguiling. The Farsumagu is scrumptiously divine by itself, but is enhanced by the spectacular sauce designed to stand up to the intensity of SAIA Nero d'Avola!

            Nero d'Avola is a grape grown in Sicily which produces a dry red wine, sort of like Chianti on steroids, if you'll pardon the non-wine terminology. SAIA is produced by Antonio Moretti on the estate Feudo Maccari in the extreme Southeastern tip of Sicily. See the red blob on the map. The volcanic soil and cooler sea breezes produce an interesting grape which is hand-harvested and after a long maceration on the skins and fermentation, is aged for 15 months in Oak. The result is a deeply colored and voluptuous wine. This wine needs to be carefully decanted for at least a few hours, and will gain in nuance as the evening progresses (if it lasts that long!).

Saia Nero d'Avola

            Interestingly, one side of my Mother's family has the name: Saia, although they emigrated from Cefalú well over a century ago. I circled Cefalú on the map to show that it is nowhere near the estate of this wine. As I researched "Saia", I discovered that the name is an ancient Arab word for the viaducts built to hold water during the scorching summer months. I never knew that! Now to the dish:

            Farsumagru is simply a roulade of meat with a savory filling. There are many incarnations of it, since it is found all over Sicily. Often made with veal, I chose to use beef to achieve a deeper flavor. The stuffing is the key here. Traditionally we would expect a certain few ingredients and then additional support. The customary fill is hard cooked eggs, sausage and Caciocavallo cheese. I have enhanced that with ham, olive paste and a few minced mushrooms. The Farsumagru will braise in sautéed onion, ham, mushrooms, carrots, beef stock, tomato paste and our Saia Nero d'Avola wine, with a few sprigs of rosemary and parsley. After braising, we'll strain the liquid and add it to a roux of equal parts butter and flour. We will favor this gravy with a splash of Marsala and a tablespoon of butter. Then we will slice the roulade and place it on a bed of couscous and cover with the gravy.

            The photo of the ingredients shows round steak in the foreground and then from left to right: Mushrooms, Parsley, a Sausage patty (my homemade Italian Sausage), sprigs of Rosemary, hard cooked Egg ready for slicing, about ¼ pound of Ham, a Carrot, large Vidalia Onion, Tomato paste, Couscous and Pecorino cheese. To the right are ingredients for a simple salad: Radishes, Capocollo Ham, smoked Caciocavallo cheese, Lettuce and for the dressing, Lemon and the finest Olive Oil.

            A word about the cheese: Caciocavallo will be very difficult to find. In fact, the cheese store that sometimes carries it around here only had smoked caciocavallo the day I shopped for this dish. That's pretty good, but I didn't want the smoked flavor in the filling, so I replaced it with a Pecorino (sheep's) cheese. While caciocavallo is a Sicilian cow's cheese, it has a sharp pungency not unlike a pecorino cheese. I bought the smoked cheese anyway and used it in my salad!

            Special Note: I'm sure anybody can roll and tie a piece of meat better than I. My wife Sandy was always in charge of this, since I am so inept. I apologize ahead of time!

Ingredients:

       For the Farsumagu

            1 thin piece of Round Steak (braciole cut)... mine was less than 1/2 pound

           ¼ lb. Ham (ham steak has a better flavor, but deli ham would do in a pinch)

            1 Italian Sausage (if you use a link, remove from casing)

            ½ large Onion

            2 cups Beef Stock

            1 medium Carrot

            6 small Mushrooms

            1 hard cooked Egg

            1 raw Egg

            about ¼ cup Breadcrumbs

            Olive Paste

            ¼ lb. Caciocavallo (or a meltable pecorino) cheese

            1 Tbs Tomato Paste

            ¼ cup Red Wine

            1 Bay leaf

            3 sprigs each fresh Rosemary and Parsley

            ½ cup Couscous

            ¼ cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated

            Butter

           Splash Marsala wine (Porto or Sherry would work, but this is Sicily!)

            Salt, Pepper and Savory

Method:

1       Gently pound round steak to make an even oval shape and thickness.

Beginning the filling

2       Sauté ¼ onion (small dice) and 3 mushrooms (small dice) in regular extra-virgin olive oil. Meanwhile, mince half the ham and the sausage and place in a medium bowl. When the sauté is finished, add to the bowl. Season with a little salt, pepper and a pinch of Savory. After this cools a little, mix in a beaten egg and enough breadcrumbs to bring together.

Ready for rolling!

3     Lightly coat the beef with Olive Paste. Place sliced hard cooked eggs in a line on the Paste. Then spread the ham filling over this, and finally top with chopped cheese. Carefully roll and tie the meat.

4       Preheat oven to 350 F.  Warm a casserole with 1 Tbs each Butter and Olive Oil. Carefully brown the rolled meat on all sides. Get some good color on it. Meanwhile, chop ½ the carrot, remaining 3 mushrooms and remaining ham into larger dice. 

                                          

        When meat has browned, remove it and then add the chopped ingredients to casserole, browning them and scraping up all the browned bits into the mixture. (A splash of brandy can help here.)

        Now add the red wine and tomato paste and blend well. 

Red wine and Tomato Paste added

    Then add about 1¼ cups of the beef stock (you want to reserve about ¾ cup for the couscous). Place the beef roll on top of this sauce and add bay leaf and sprigs of rosemary and parsley. The casserole is now ready for the oven. 

Ready for Oven

       Cover and place in the 350 F oven for about 2 hours. After one hour, gently turn the roll onto its other side and add more liquid if it needed.

5       While the Farsumagru bakes, put the reserved stock into a small saucepan and add the remaining ½ carrot, chopped into very small dice. 

    

      Grate about ¼ cup of Pecorino Romano cheese and reserve. About 20 minutes before beef is done, bring stock and carrots to a gentle boil and cook, covered.

6     I had a salad and some garlic toast. This is the time to prepare salad ingredients and place in refrigerator to crisp up nicely. Squeeze about ¼ cup lemon juice and reserve for the dressing. For the toast, I mixed a small bowl of the finest Olive Oil and added some chopped garlic and a teaspoon of sea salt and mixed well. 

For Garlic Toast

         

     

        I cut my bread and placed it in the toaster, ready for toasting at the last minute.

7      When the meat is done, remove it to an ovenproof pan and cover meat with foil. Place it back into the turned-off oven to keep warm. 

         At this point add the couscous to the stock & carrots, turn off heat and cover.

8       Strain cooking liquid and reserve. Add about 1 Tbs each of soft butter and flour to the casserole over moderate heat and stir constantly, scraping up as much as you can. 

        After about 5 minutes, add the cooking liquid and mix well, making the gravy. After the gravy has come together, add a splash of Madera, if you wish, and a Tbs. of butter.

9       Turn on the toaster. Toss the salad with lemon juice and Olive oil and sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Add most of the Romano to the couscous and mix well. When toast is done, brush on the garlicked olive oil and sprinkle the remaining Romano over this.

10     Slice the Farsumagru into ¾" thick slices.

11     Spread the Couscous over the entire plate. Place Farsumagru slices, overlapping, down the center and cover both with lots of that wonderful gravy. Enjoy!! (I know you will... these flavors are great!)

12     Enjoy with Saia Nero d'Avola. If you can't find it, I would recommend Borolo or a fine Barbera d'Asti rather than a different Nero d'Avola, because these would be closer to the explosion of flavor found in Saia.

- Love Dave

Just an Experiment! Linguini & Clam Sauce

     This is not my June recipe. That'll be up in a couple of days. I was in a market Saturday during a big thunderstorm, trying to avoid going out into the rain. Wandering around to kill time, I chanced upon some fresh littleneck clams that looked really good. As I was going to be at a concert on Sunday, I decided that Sunday night would be perfect for Linguini and Clam Sauce, since it is so easy and fast to make. While I was preparing the meal, I took pictures of the various steps...I guess it's a habit now :) 

     Looking at the pictures I wondered if I could just show them, with minimally descriptive titles, instead of the usual recipe. This is probably only good for such uncomplex meals as this. Oh well, here goes. Enjoy!

Cleaned and Chilled

Cook in Butter and Wine

Removing Clam Meat

Final Batch Left in Shells

Beginning the Sauce

Add Strained Poaching Liquid

Toss Linguini and Clams in Sauce, add Parsley

     Well, that was almost as easy as making the meal. I picked up a pack of fresh linguini which cooks in just two minutes. Talk about fast food... and this with no chemicals or mystery meat!

- Dave

Pork Chops Teodoro

I named this dish for my Uncle Ted, whom you read about in an earlier blog post. It wasn't easy to create a dish to reflect him because he had so many gastronomical interests. So I gave up on that and just tried to picture him when he visited me or talked to me. Every year he would stop in and bring a large braided garlic chain when the season was over. Then he would always tell me that garlic could be used in unusual combinations but, he annually admonished me, never use too much!! So in that spirit, here is a simple dish (he would have liked that) using garlic and apple (he would have liked that) and named Pork Chops Teodoro. I guarantee he would not have liked that name, but I overrule him here because I like the sound of it :)

Regaleali

To add a little style to simple pork chops, I'll highlight two wines. The first will be our dinner wine, but about 1/4 cup of it will also be used to create a braising sauce. This wine is from Sicily and from the estate of the Tasca D'Almiritas, named Regaleali. Ironically, this is just a little way from the tiny town that both my grandparents on my Father's side emigrated from around the turn of the 20th century. This is an unusual white wine for Italy (I know, I know: Sicily is not Italy...just for now). Generally you expect Italian whites to be crisp and brittle (think Pinot Grigio: think it, don't drink it). But this Regaleali White is full and complex. A really enjoyable wine!

Jerez-Xéres-Sherry D.O.

The second wine will only be poured over just as you plate the dish. Use a little or a lot, whatever you can afford. This is Lustau's Pedro Ximénez sherry. If you've never had this sherry, you're in for quite a surprise. It's made from the Pedro Ximénez grapes and is a dark, very sweet and rich wine with hints of chocolate and figs. Its D.O. is in the Cadiz province of Andalusia. Pour some over ice cream and you can really sparkle up a dessert - seriously! It works perfectly as a sauce in this dish because it contrasts well with the spiciness of the Creole rub applied to the chops.

I chose to accompany the chops with a simple side of brown rice, but with some chili sauce added at the end of the cooking period. I happened to have some excellent home-canned chili sauce given to me by a dear friend (thanks Irene!).

Finally, I was treated to a visit from my granddaughter just as the meal was nearing completion, so she stayed to try it out. She loved every part of it! This was a little shocking to me because there was stuff here she doesn't generally like, such as "cooked fruit." So either this dish is a real winner, or that little girl is growing up and branching out. See what college will do!

the cook's martini is not required, but recommended

Ingredients:

2 boneless Pork Chops

1 firm-type Apple, peeled, cored and sliced into thick slices

1 Onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, split

1 Tablespoon Ketchup

Any spicy Rub for chops

fine Flour for chops

1/4 cup White Wine

Pedro Ximénez Sherry

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Butter

Brown Rice, for two

1 Tablespoon Butter

1/4 cup Chili Sauce

Equipment:

1 large heavy-bottomed fry pan (not teflon)

1 Oven-safe casserole pan

1 small saucepan for the rice

"coring" garlic

Method:

1      Dry the chops and rub with a spicy seasoning. I used a commercial Creole product that's pretty good. Then dredge them in a fine pan-searing flour. Chop the onions into big chunks. Split the garlic cloves. If there is a green fold in the middle of the clove, carefully remove it. It will be bitter. Peel and core the apple and slice into rather large slices (you don't want them to turn into applesauce!), reserve.

ingredients prepped

2      Preheat oven to 325 F.

3      Heat a frypan and add 1 Tbs Oil and 1 Tbs Butter. When it is hot, sear the chops until a nice crust forms on each side. I find a cast iron pan works best for this. Remove the chops and reserve.

Searing chops

4      Add another tablespoon of butter and then sauté the onions until they soften a bit. Scrape up the bottom of the pan. 

Add the garlic and sauté for another minute or so. Then add the white wine. After a few minutes, stir in the ketchup. 

After another minute transfer this sauce to an oven-safe crock (like Corningware™). Then layer the apples over the top of this, 

and finally the pork chops.

5      Cover, and place in the center of the oven. Set the timer for 30 minutes.

6      Prepare the rice by placing rice and water and 1 Tbs butter in a sauce pan.

7      At the 30 minute mark, bring the rice to a boil, fluff with a fork, cover and let cook, untouched, over moderate heat so it is just boiling. Set the timer for 25 minutes.

8      At the 25 minute mark, add the chili sauce to the rice, mix with a fork, and judging from the consistency, allow to cook a little longer (probably 5 more minutes). When most of the liquid is gone, turn off heat and let sit, covered, for about 5 more minutes.

9      While the rice is resting, remove chops from oven and uncover. Place a chop on each plate. Carefully remove apples, one at a time, and place next to chops. Drizzle a little PX sherry over both pork chops and apples. Place the rice on each plate and serve with that beautiful Regaleali Bianco. Enjoy!

- love Dave