Tag Archives: recipes

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Crab Corn Chowder

I haven’t written up a recipe in awhile. But rest assured, I stayed busy in the kitchen all year.

I tend to prefer broth-like soups, but every wet, cold wintry day demands a spicy stick-to-your-ribs seafood chowder.

This recipe pairs crab and corn together for liquid gold creamy goodness. During warmer months, I usually omit the potatoes, but recently DH demanded potatoes in his chowder, so in they went.

Lite crab corn soup – minus the potatoes

The result is a kicky, New England-style chowder that’s sweet, spicy and chunky.

Base:

  • 4 oz onion, chopped or diced
  • 1 tablespoons evoo (for onion saute)
  • 16 oz lobster broth
  • 15 oz canned cream corn
  • 8 oz light cream cheese
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (omit for less spicy)
  • .25 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp stevia or sweetener of your preference
Make your own lobster broth for best flavor! Slow cooked shells

Saute the onions over medium heat, then add the rest of the ingredients above and mix thoroughly. Immersion blend till desired liquid consistency. Pour into slow cooker, then add the following ingredients.

  • 16 oz russet potatoes, diced
  • 1 medium or large jalapeno, diced (remove veins for less spicy)
  • 4oz heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp corn starch
  • 6- 8 oz claw meat
  • 12 oz roasted corn
  • 2 to 3 sprigs of thyme

Slow cook until thickened and potatoes are tender and cooked through, about 20-30 minutes over high heat. I don’t recommend pressure cooking because there isn’t enough liquid in this recipe, which will trigger the burn warning. Slow cooking will let this dish develop its flavor over time and thicken as it cooks.

Prior to serving, stir in 6-8 oz of crab meat. Garnish with chives or green onions.

Dining, Recipes

When Mushrooms Go Wrong + Recipe: Gruyere Cream Cheese Mushroom Soup

I love mushrooms. I love their earthy taste especially when roasted. I love that they are capable of absorbing and releasing flavors depending on the dish. Deep-fried, stir-fried, braised, stuffed, stewed, grilled, or even raw, I’ll add a fungus to my dish any time the opportunity presents itself.

I have several mushroom soup recipes in my collection in an attempt to squeeze out as much shroom flavor from the edible fungi. One of my fave varieties is the shiitake mushroom. Shiitakes cook very well, and have a sweet-smoky-earthy taste that I enjoy with herbs and especially garlic. Since I started off the 2018 year stricken with laryngitis, my food consumption options were limited. Liquids were the least painful medium to get some nutrition into me.

I’ve whipped up a couple of slow-cooker mushroom soup recipes, working with standard whites, baby bellas and shiitakes tossed in homemade turkey broth along with garlic and some form of dairy. In my most recent attempt, I roasted a 30oz batch of shiitakes then immersion blended it in along with aforementioned liquids.

The result was too strong to be edible for most folks. Shiitakes are already naturally earthy and smoky, but it seemed too much made for an overwhelming amount of acrid smokiness in a soup that should have been creamy-but-mildly earthy. Nearly 2lbs of shrooms resulted in a thick, gloppy concoction…and even my attempts to puree it in my Oster blender still left a slight grittiness to it.

Not good if your throat is still recovering from severe inflammation and is prone to irritation.

So let that be the lesson…there is too much of a good thing, even if it is mushrooms.

  • 2 tbsp Extra Light virgin olive oil
  • 3.5oz Neufchatel, 1/3 less fat cream cheese
  • 3oz gruyere cheese, shredded or grated or cubed
  • 16oz white mushrooms, sliced
  • 8oz heavy whipping cream (non-dairy: almond, coconut milk)
  • 24oz of homemade turkey stock (chicken, beef okay too)
  • .5 tsp xanthan gum (for thickener)
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • .5 tbsp ground black pepper
  • .25 tsp sea salt
  • 8oz baby bella mushrooms

Simmer turkey broth and cream in slow cooker over high heat for 15-20 minutes.

In a pan over medium heat, toss 16oz of white mushrooms in olive oil until softened and fat is absorbed. Remove from stovetop and pour into slow cooker. Using an immersion blender, puree mushrooms until liquid is thick and shrooms are incorporated. Take care, this mixture is hot!

Add the rest of the ingredients, including whole bellas, and slow cook for 2-4 hours.

When ready to serve, sprinkle with chopped parsley and shredded parmesan cheese, or make oven-roasted cheese crisps.

Nutrition calculator:
Calories 137 (per 4oz serving)
Total Fat 10.7 g
Total Carbohydrate 5.1 g
Dietary Fiber .7 g
Sugars 1.6 g
Protein 4.9 g

Recipes

Turkey Brine Recipes

I prepared two turkeys for the Thanksgiving LAN party weekend, with different brine solutions based on some recipes I found on the net. For the first 15lb turkey (a Jennie-O brand young turkey), I used the following recipe with some amazing results:

1 gallon apple juice
1 pound brown sugar
1 cup salt
1/2 cup of garlic salt
2 cups pineapple/orange juice
1 gallon ice cubes

Combined the apple juice, sugar, salt and garlic salt in a large stock pot. Brought it to a boil and stirred it to dissolve the sugar and salt. I then poured the pineapple juice the ice cubes (which I hoped amounted to 1 gallon of water) to cool off the solution. After I tasted the solution I was rather appalled that it was too salty, so I added more ice. I then submerged the raw turkey in the brine, breast side down and made sure the cavity was filled. I refrigerated the pot overnight for no more than 18 hours, so that the turkey wouldn’t turn out too salty.

To prep it for roasting, I drained the turkey and coated it with virgin olive oil steeped with fresh chopped rosemary and chopped garlic. The remaining olive oil with pieces of crushed garlic went into the cavity along with a small branch of rosemary. With the oven heated to 500F, I decided to brown the turkey for the first 30 minutes. Afterwards, I reduced the heat to 350F, covered the turkey in foil and roasted for 2.5 hours. For the last half hour I took a baster and drenched the turkey in its own drippings.

During this time, I attacked the second turkey, a Kroger brand premium young turkey weighing a little over 12lbs.

1.5 gallons apple juice
1.5 pound brown sugar
1/2 cup of garlic salt
2 cups pineapple/orange juice
2 tablespoons of ginger shavings
1 dash of cinnamon
1 med navel orange sliced

Once again I combined the dry ingredients in a stockpot with a gallon of apple juice and brought it to a boil to dissolve. I added the last half gallon of apple juice and 2 cups of pineapple juice to cool the solution. I peeled part of a ginger root I had previously frozen and shaved it into the brine. Afterwards, I submerged the turkey, breast side down again. Added the orange slices at the end, and inserted one into the cavity as well, then it was off to be refrigerated for about 18-20 hours.

A word about the two turkeys: they were frozen and store-bought. I read on the labels that they had already been pre-injected with a solution that supposedly would make for a moist turkey. Also, I removed the giblets and necks and did not add them to the brine, but I added the necks to the turkeys while they roasted.

So back to Turkey 1. It roasted for a total of 2.5 hours, which of course, wasn’t nearly long enough since the bottom half of the turkey was still mostly pink. I suspect that I needed a bigger roasting pan, since it barely fit into the one I cooked it in. After cooling for 30 minutes, DH brought his carving skills to bear on the turkey, and resulted in slice after super-moist slice of turkey breast almost dripping off the bone. After taste-testing several parts, I was pleased to discover that the saltiness of the brine was barely detectable. The undercooked dark meat (already deboned, sliced, and shredded) went back into the oven for one more blast of heat, about 20 minutes uncovered. I also reserved the drippings and added it to my gravy.

On to Turkey 2. I brined it a little longer since I wasn’t overly worried about the salt content overpowering its flavor. Drained it and stuffed it with the orange slices and another small branch of rosemary. I also used the same rosemary-garlic-olive oil concoction to coat every inch of it. Then off it went into the oven at 350F, breast-side down and covered with foil to cook for an hour. For the next hour, I turned it over, breast up, covered with foil and cooked it for another hour. For the last half hour, I removed the foil to achieve browning and generously basted it with its own drippings.

Carving the second turkey revealed that it was superbly moist and juicy like its predecessor, but sweeter with no hint of saltiness. Maybe it was a little bit too sweet, and I didn’t detect the cinnamon at all. For future endeavors I might use a chipotle-raspberry or a sweet-chili sauce to glaze…also add more ginger and garlic. Again, the bottom was undercooked (though not as much as T1), even though it spent half of its cooking time bottom side up. I think I need a deep roaster pan with an actual rack to achieve even cooking. I reserved the drippings and used it only to wet the turkey when it went back into the oven to finish cooking.