Visions
of a food fight royal complete with flailing pincers
comes to mind. It’s not like
that at all. It actually goes much deeper than a simple
food fight and is at the core of an age old struggle -
who controls the kitchen!
My wife and cooking partner is the house master chef and
a damn good one too. I fancy myself as no slouch in the
cooking department, though I excel best as her sous chef
at home; on my own around a campfire or cooking on a sailboat.
When it comes to making dinner at home, I am often compelled
to throw down the gauntlet and challenge her to a cook
off. My recipe against hers - my technique against hers.
Linda's Recipe:
Jake’s Pacific
Northwest Crab Cakes
Inspired by Jake's Famous Crawfish in Portland, Oregon
1 ½ Lb. Dungeness
crab meat
2 cup coarse bread crumbs or Panko breading [available in Asian section
of grocery]
2 celery stalks, finely minced (1/3 cup)
1 small onion or less, finely minced (1/3 cup)
1 small green pepper, finely minced (1/3 cup)
[a mix of red and green pepper is nice]
½ tsp. Tabasco
1 large egg
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 Tb. lemon juice
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp. White pepper
1 Tb. parsley, finely minced
Unsalted butter or olive oil to fry the crab cakes in
For the crab cakes:
1. Drain the crab meat and
squeeze out the excess water. Be sure to check
for pieces of shell.
2. Break apart crab meat,
combine with one cup of bread crumbs, onion/celery/green
pepper mixture, mayonnaise, egg, lemon juice, Tabasco,
Worcestershire, pepper and parsley. Don’t
over mix.
3. Form one at a time into
6 balls. You can do this by hand or use an ice
cream scoop. Next, pat each ball in your hand lightly
to slightly flatten (about ½ inch thick).
4. Put bread crumbs or Pakno
on a small plate to catch the overflow. Hold patty
in hand and press on the bread crumbs one patty
at a time. Only a light coating is needed.
5. After forming and breading
we suggest you put the six preformed and breaded
patties into a wax paper or parchment paper covered
cookie sheet and pop that into the refrigerator
and chill for 30 minutes to help firm up the mix.
6. Heat oil in pan. Take
cooled and breaded patty and lower them gently
into the hot pan. Sauté on each side until
golden brown (about 3 minutes per side). We suggest
you do this in batches.
7. Serve them with tartar
sauce, a lemon or ginger aioli or a classic horseradish
cocktail sauce on a bed of baby greens or arugula.
This recipe makes 12 patties, six servings of two
patties apiece.
Tartar sauce:
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup or less of diced dill pickle
1 Tbsp. mince fresh parsley
2 tsp. capers
2 tsp. grated onion
1 tsp lemon juice
dash of salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients.
Cover and chill before serving. Makes about 1 ¼ cup
of sauce.
Mike's Recipe:
Louisiana Creole Crab Cakes
Below are the ingredients
and procedures for the breading, the cakes and
the Creole sauce.
Seasoned bread crumbs:
3 cups fresh French bread
crumbs
1/3 cup freshly grated Romano cheese (1 1/3 ounces)
1 tablespoon dried basil, crumbled
1 tablespoon dried oregano, crumbled
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Combine all bread crumb ingredients
in shallow pan.
Crab Cakes
1 pound lump crab meat
1/3 cup mayonnaise (preferably homemade)
1/3 cup fresh French bread crumbs
1 egg
2 tablespoons finely diced green bell pepper
2 tablespoons finely diced green onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Louisiana hot sauce
(i.e. Crystal or Tabasco)
1 teaspoon Creole Seasoning (recipe follows)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
Creole Sauce (recipe follows)
Fresh thyme sprigs
Sliced green onion (green part only)
For the crab cakes:
Blend crab meat (we use Dungeness),
mayonnaise, bread crumbs, egg, bell pepper, green
onion, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and Creole
Seasoning in large bowl. (Can be prepared 6 hours
ahead.
Wrap crab mixture and seasoned
bread crumbs separately and refrigerate.)
Form crab into 1 1/2-inch
balls. Roll in seasoned bread crumbs, pressing
to adhere. Flatten to 1/2-inch-thick rounds.
Melt butter in heavy large
skillet over medium-high heat. Add crab cakes in
batches (do not crowd) and cook until golden brown,
about 2 minutes per side.
Drain on paper towels. Spoon
Creole Sauce onto plates.
Arrange 2 crab cakes on each
plate. Garnish with thyme sprigs and green onion
slices. Serve immediately. 6 servings.
Creole sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup minced onion
1 egg
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chicken stock
2/3 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded, diced
1/2 cup tomato juice
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon (generous) paprika
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 1/2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce (i.e. Crystal or Tabasco)
1/4 teaspoon (generous) Creole Seasoning
Salt
Dried red pepper flakes
For the Creole sauce:
1. Melt butter in heavy medium
saucepan over medium-low heat.
2. Add bell pepper and onion
and cook until onion is translucent, stirring occasionally,
about 10 minutes.
3. Add stock, tomatoes, tomato
juice, bay leaf, thyme and paprika. Bring to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add cornstarch, hot sauce
and Creole Seasoning.
5. Season with salt and red
pepper flakes. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Purée sauce in
blender. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead and refrigerated.
Reheat over low heat, stirring frequently.) Makes
about 1 2/3 cups.
Creole seasoning:
2 and 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried leaf thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly
and store in an airtight jar or container. Makes
about 2/3 cup
|
Some would say my cooking
rivalry stems from a jealousy of her cooking prowess
[that much is true]. I chalk it
up to a desire to get a toehold into her sacred territory!
There can only be one head chef. Rarely does she take up
the gauntlet of a cook-off. When it comes to crab cakes
though, she can’t resist. Her love of crab in any
form is too great! Like a trout rising to take a Mayfly,
she responds. In this case, it is dueling recipes. Linda’s
favorite – inspired by Jake’s Famous Crawfish
in Portland, Ore. and my favorite – inspired by Mr.
B’s Bistro in New Orleans. Pacific Northwest vs.
Creole. In the end, there are no losers in this crab cake
challenge.
The actual cooking can
take place simultaneously if you have the prep space,
stove top real estate and cookware.
Usually, we stage our dueling crab cakes on back to back
evenings in order to make the kitchen ballet a little easier
and savor each of the recipes. I am her sous chef one evening,
she is mine the next. You can’t imagine how satisfying
it is to have my wife prepping food for me when I cook.
She’s amazing. I truly worship at the stove top she
cooks at.
Both the recipes (at right)
make approximately 12 cakes apiece, enough for a dinner
party for six. Typically we cut the
recipes in half for the two of us and have three large
crab cakes apiece for dinner with a salad or a vegetable
side dish. You can attempt your own dueling crab cakes
on successive evenings or one person can make their cake
recipe first and cool them ahead of time; then the other
person makes their cakes. It depends on the time you have,
the size kitchen and your temperaments. We’ve done
it both ways.
As to who is the winner
here, this is strictly a judgment call and is based on
preference. The fact that I get to test
my cooking skills head to head against my wife’s
is a pure win in and of itself. Imagine testing your skills
against the Iron Chef - you can only get better, and in
the end, eat well every time.
The Jake’s recipe
is classic; quick and easy to make and quite tasty - a
pure bundle of Pacific Northwest best seafood. The Mr.
B’s Louisiana Creole crab cakes are a wee bit more
complex to create but deliver layers and layers of flavor
that meld nicely with our wonderful Northwest Dungeness
crab. If you create the Creole sauce and Creole seasoning
ahead
of time,
it’s
easy to make the two crab cake recipes one after another
and cook them the same night. Above all, have fun and enjoy
youselves.
Wine
Our favorite wine to go with crab cakes is a graceful aromatic
white. An aromatic and most pleasant white
to try with these recipes is the Apolloni
Pinot Blanc 05.
Sweet creamy pear and crisp citrus with lemon-lime zest
in both the scent and flavors of this lovely wine make
it a unique and delicious Pinot blanc. Pinot blanc can
be a somewhat austere, light wine, but not here. The flavor
has a lush quality not common to Pinot blanc, not out of
keeping with its varietal character, but "Blanc to the
max". It's a very forward wine, with "creamy" a descriptor
that comes back again and again as we worked on describing
this wine.
Other
whites you might consider are Amalie
Robert Chardonnay 04 or any number of wonderful
Pacific Northwest Viogniers , Sauvignon Blanc or a gem
like Territorial Rose of Pinot noir.
With the Louisiana crab cakes, don’t shy away from
a full body Pinot Noir such as Beran Estate Pinot
Noir 2002 . While our white wine suggestions
above go quite well with
our Louisiana recipe, these beautiful reds compliment the
spiciness of the thyme, bay and red pepper flakes and still
let the delicate flavors of the crab shine through.
Dueling Music
To compliment our
Dueling Crab Cake recipes, Sub Rosa present a selection
of dueling artists slaving over dueling tunes. When it
comes to music, the only duel here is between which version
of a song you like best. Some versions of these songs
are the originals. Others are reinterpretations that totally
rock. Whilst you decide which crab cake recipe you like
best, check out these dueling titles and let us know
which
ones are your favorites.
Dueling Music HERE
About Michael Sherwood
Michael Sherwood is an Oregon original - your modern
day Renaissance man. He’s
done more interesting jobs than most of us – FM radio personality, commercial
logger, commercial fisherman, rock band promoter, neighborhood advocate, energy
conservation expert, arts festival coordinator, software developer, non-profit
executive, beer and wine guy and land use planner.
After 10 years developing software in Seattle, Mike moved back to Portland
and was soon drafted to be the first Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers
Guild, a fledgling non-profit trade organization, which he helped turn into
one of the most dynamic small brewer associations in North America.
All the while he was managing
the affairs of the states craft brewers, he was not so
secretly a wine lover and
worked providing marketing assistance to a local winery.
Beverages are 'in his blood' as his family owned a beer
and wine distributorship in the 60’s and 70’s
in Roseburg.
Today Mike runs a wine sales, marketing and technology
consulting business called Arbre which provides branding
and sales support for wineries large and
small. He has also created the Internets first truly virtual stealth restaurant
and underground wine bar called Sub Rosa. We liked his mix
of wine savvy and irreverent humor so much, we hired him to write for Avalon.
