Pip's Plate

We’re still doing Gourmet Club, and the other weekend our theme was Louisiana Creole. It was an excellent theme. I had second course (out of five) and chose to make crab cakes. These were pretty delicious. Surprisingly, the curry sauce makes an excellent combination with the tarter sauce and crab cake.

Spicy Crab Cakes with Caper Tarter Sauce and Creole Curry Sauce
makes 8 crab cakes

Crab Cakes

Ingredients
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat
3/4 cup panko crumbs
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 cup mayonnaise
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce
salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

1. Pick over the crabmeat to remove any shell or cartilage, trying not to break up the chunks too much.
2. In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except for the butter and olive oil. Moisten hands with a little water and shape the mixture into eight fat ball-like cakes. (They will flatten slightly during cooking.) Place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3. In a large skillet, heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat. Carefully lay the crab cakes into the butter and oil and fry until crusty and browned, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Creole Curry Sauce

Ingredients
3T minced parsley
3T minced shallot
butter
3T flour
3T curry powder
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1t sugar
1/4 cup sherry

Directions

1. Saute parsley and shallots in butter in double boiler. Add flour and curry powder. Add cream and millk. Stir until thick. Add sugar. Simmer a few minutes. Just before serving, blend in one-fourth cup of sherry.

Roasted Garlic Tartar Sauce

Ingredients
4T mayo
4 cloves garlic, roasted
2 green onions, sliced thin
2T capers
1T caper liquid
1T milk
1/8 t salt
black pepper

Directions

1. To roast the garlic, place the cloves unshelled in a small piece of aluminum foil with a dash of olive oil. Wrap it up and roast it in a 250 degree F oven for about 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and unwrap the garlic to remove the roasted pieces from their shells.
2. Place the mayonnaise in a small mixing bowl and add the roasted garlic. Mash the garlic into the mayonnaise until smooth.
3. Fold in the green onions, capers, caper liquid, milk, salt and pepper.
4. Chill.

To Serve

Place one crab cake on a plate, dollop about 1 T tarter sauce on top of the crab cake. Drizzle 1 1/2 T of curry sauce on the plate next to the crab cake. If you wish, you can garnish with thinly sliced green onions.

This recipe was inspired by this one and this one.

After the brilliant success of our first Gourmet Club meeting back in January, I immediately went home and started scavenging the internet for braised short rib recipes – because it doesn’t get much better than that. And man oh man….it doesn’t.

Nicole and I were serving the main course this time, which also meant we would be hosting it at my house. I first thought an Asian inspired short rib recipe would be exactly what I was looking for. Until I found this recipe: Brasato al Barolo (Braised Short Ribs with Pumpkin Orzo and Horseradish Gremolata). YUM.

Then I thought…wait a second, this is from Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo cookbook…hmmm…why does that sound familiar? Then it dawned on me! I finished a book at the end of November titled “Heat” – which is now one of my favorite books – about Bill Buford working for Mario Batali and traveling through Italy. Well, this dish is mentioned in great detail. I looked it up, laughed at the descriptions (it’s violently vulgar), and said “sign me up! this is the dish!”

I read some more about the region this dish comes from – Emilia Romagna in northern Italy and discovered this from wikipedia:

The city of Bologna is famous for its superb cuisine. Perhaps less well known is the fact that it lies at the heart of Emilia Romagna, a region celebrated both in Italy and abroad for the range and quality of its culinary delights. From the Adriatic coast of Ravenna and Forlì to the inland plains and river vallleys of Parma, Piacenza, and Modena, Emila Romagna is richly blessed with prime produce and ingenious cooks.

We preordered short ribs (not flank style but the cut with one bone per rib) and picked them up early that Saturday along with all the other ingredients, then went back to my place to get everything prepped. Have you ever grated fresh horseradish? It is STRONG. And it’s fleshy and weird – it kind of creeped me out a bit.

Either way, the dish was hands down the best dish I’ve ever made. It was simple enough to do again, although somewhat time intensive as it requires a long time in the oven. Although the recipe says to braise at 375 for 2 hours, the next time I would braise at 350 for 3 hours.

The table setting had an Italian theme with reds, greens, and yellows.

Here is the menu:

First Course

Antipasto platter of assorted meats, cheeses, olives, and breads

Paired with: Tommasi Poggio al Tufo Rompicollo, Maremma Tuscana, 2004

Second Course

Tagliatelle with Mussels, Clams and Pesto

Paired with: Tamellini Soave, 2005 (excellent wine)

Third Course

Braised Short Ribs with Pumpkin Orzo and Horseradish Gremolata

Paired with: Josetta Saffirio Barolo, 2002

*A special note about the wine: there is this fellow who suggests wine at the place I love to go (Hennepin Lake Liquors in Uptown – their selection and prices are unbeatable) who, in the past, has had a very low success rate at suggesting wines for me. My strategy for Sat? Avoid him AT ALL COSTS. Well…that unfortunately didn’t happen as another worker pointed me directly to him and there was no one else in the store. F*****ck. He ended up suggesting this wine and it was excellent. Thank god. It was $40/bottle and we bought 2. Josetta Saffirio learned how to make wine from her mom and dad, who are both professors of winemaking in Italy. This is her second or third vintage and only makes 3,000 cases a year.

Fourth Course

Various Cheeses: Taleggio served with honeycomb, Pecorino ginepro served with balsamic reduction and olive oil, Sottocenere al Tartufo, Blu del Moncenisio with fig pear spread, Valsesia Toma with fig pear spread, La Tur with honeycomb

Paired with: Ruvei Barbera d’Alba, 2005

Fifth Course

Panna Cotta with fresh strawberries and blackberries

Paired with: Felsina vin Santo Chianti Classico, 1999

recipes after the jump

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It seems like my friends and I have been talking forever about starting a gourmet club. You get a group of people together, everyone cooks, you drink wine, and have a great time. I know, it sounds like every weekend with my friends. But honestly, this is different!

Last fall we finally got our shit together and decided to schedule the first one in January. Ten people decided to join, which includes 4 couples and 2 singles so we paired up into groups of 2. Nicole’s boyfriend wasn’t interested, so she and I got paired up.

The idea is that whoever hosts that night chooses the theme and main course. January was the month of Gascony, France. Home to luxurious ingredients like foie gras and duck confit, as well as fishing, wine making and brandy distilling. The host decided to make duck confit and sent us info on Gascony.

I was responsible for the third course and it turned out that would be salad for the evening. First course was hors d’oeuvres, second course was garlic soup (YUM!) and the last course was dessert.

So the evening turned out pretty nice. Until the oven broke. Hahahah. I know we’ll look back in a couple years and say, “Remember our first gourmet club and Molly’s oven broke? And we had to use her upstairs neighbor’s? Ha!”

We went through plenty of wine and plenty of food…

First Course

Radishes with chive butter

Warm olives with rosemary, garlic and lemon

Escargot in herbed cream served on crostini

Paired with Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Champagne 2004

Second Course

Garlic Soup with truffle oil (yeah, forgot the truffle oil, woops!)

Paired with Chateau Grande Cassagne Rose – Costieres de Nimes 2006 (I’ve had this rose many times and it tasted absolutely scrumptious with this soup!)

Third Course

Baked Goat Cheese Salad

Paired with Villa Burdigala Bordeaux Millesime 2004

Fourth Course

Duck confit with cinnamon sauteed apples and carrots

Paired with 100% Cab Franc – Chinon Les Petites Roches 2006

Fifth Course

Apple Brandy Tatin

Paired with Larressingle Armagnac and Dow’s 10 Year Tawny Port

recipes after the jump

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