Devour this

Shout out to MD crabs, and losing pie contests

I really think I've done it.  This may only be my second or third attempt to develop an original recipe, but I truly think this one (Maryland Crab Soup Pie) is a winner.  Martha Stewart may not have thought so last Saturday, or rather the Blue Hill at Stone Barns chefs didn't, but in my mind, I conquered. 

What:  "Seasonal Pie Bake-off" with Martha Stewart as "special guest judge"

Here's Martha Stewart viewing pies (not mine):

Where: Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture gorgeous bucolic farm in Westchester County, NY

Here are the other pies: (Pizza pie, who knew?)

Results:  Check out my post on The Feed, TimeOut New York's food blog

Want more "full-disclosure" details?  Yes, nutty me drove from NYC to Baltimore, MD and back last Thursday evening (after work!) just to gather the true Maryland blue crabs I needed to make my pie authentic (and at 192 miles, pretty local, right?) --Oh, I was also visiting my best friend who'd minutes before flown into BWI from LAX and immediately headed to this restaurant to eat crabs loaded up with rock salt and Old Bay (holla! if you're from MD) with some friends and family, so I'm not completely nutty.  From the USQ Greenmarket I gleaned all my veggies:  decent pale-yellow corn, plump lima beans, thin French green beans, heavy red tomatoes, hefty, rough-and-tumble carrots, a staunch head of cabbage, firm, smiling celery, dusty onions, and some perky little potatoes, oh, and some peas (disclaimer:  being it's not pea season, an organic and frozen variety of those snuck in).

I chopped and chopped, picked apart little crab bodies and claws for hours,

and stewed everything up until my whole apartment building was filled with the rich, nose-tingly scent of seafood, spices, and seasonal harvest. 

Meanwhile, I also made pie crusts, lots of them.  The chosen one: Melissa Clark's  All-Butter Pie Crust from the New York Times. Fat meltingly delicious...do you see all the spots of butter in there??

Slapping it all together with some roux to thicken

and without a thought about presentation (OK, I thought about it and was going to have 2 crab claws coming out of the top as my friend's mother suggested, but it just didn't work out.  I accidentally threw the crab claws away that I was saving for this...it was a looong night, believe me), I lugged my two pies (one for presentation -- I know, I know) all the way to Tarrytown, NY.  If you read my short TimeOut blog post, you know how things ended...

Nevertheless, I had many a compliment on my pie that day.  The best part of the Harvest Fest was the pie free-for-all at the end of the day.  Competitive pie bakers, plastic forks, and dozens of pies...it was a germophobe's nightmare and a pie lover's heaven.  More than a few people told me my pie was their favorite.  One woman even asked me for my card to see if the pie would be available to be shipped to her!  Hmph, so there!  Really, I lack competitive spirit, but when you know you done good, you just know it.

Ode to summer in fall and cookie-ish crackers

Please, it's not fall yet.  The calendar may say so, but the weather has something else in mind.  Consecutive drippy days of heavy heat, hanging thickly between each breath.  No, it's not that bad.  New York's been a bit muggy, but I'm still welcoming the warmth with open windows and open bare arms.
And summery snacks of plump figs, spicy cheese, crumbly crackers, and the perfect "session beer."  On a recent trip to Cooperstown's Ommegang Brewery, a case of variety brews was captured and brought home to extend lazy summer Sundays.  I think the Hennepin Farmhouse Saison is my favorite for its cooling  properties and citrusy-spicy tingling on my tongue.  It's good to the last drop and that's important to me.

I know fig season is all but gone to rot, but the Korean grocer on my corner managed to wrap up some beauties and talk them up enough for me to fork over some green and tote them home.  They were better than passable, with a few memorable seedy bites -- crunching those seeds produces such a nostalgic feeling for anyone who snacked on Fig Newtons as a kid.

The cheese, a downright hot jalapeno cheddar and a blander smoked swiss, came from Whole(ly expensive) Foods -- each brought what the other didn't.  But the crackers stole the show.  Let's see if you can get a closer look.

Can you see the breadth, the thickness?  Close to shortbread material!  They contained the absolute maximum sweetness one would ever desire in a cracker and held their own quite beautifully.  Ahhh, lazy Sundays in the sun...

Indian summer, I hope you're listening.

p.s. If you're a beer aficionado, definitely check out Ultimate Beer by Michael Jackson.  And if you're not, definitely check it out and impress all those beer geeks at your local pub.

Kimbap...the world's perfect travel food

There's nothing quite like assembling familiar ingredients with their recognizable tactile qualities and nostalgic smells and memorable tastes to create a dish that was once so familiar I used to groan at the sight of it.  My mom and her friends would often make kimbap (pictured above) for our traveling families to snack on in the car during long trips.  How silly I feel now when remembering how I whined to stop at McDonald's instead. 

But it's good to know I've grown up a tiny bit.  While preparing for a little road trip these colorful, healthful bites kept appearing in my mind.  I realized it was high time I recreated the dish for my  own traveling companions.

Off I went to Han Ah Rheum, the compact Korean grocery store in Manhattan's darling Korea Town.  I bought some ingredients I wouldn't be able to find elsewhere:  dackwong (pickled radish, yellow from miscellaneous dye, I believe -- I haven't yet discovered the reason for it), some flattened fish cake, and kim (Korean for "seaweed"). 

Incidentally, bap is the Korean word for "rice."  Now you know why so many of your favorite Korean dishes (bibimbap, kimchi bokeum bap, and soon--kimbap) end in bap!  Language lesson of the day.  Bap can also mean "meal."  But back to the food.


You can see the bap above.  That's the rice I grew up eating.  Milky white, super sticky, and delicately flavored.  I can't help loving this rice above all other healthier, more colorful rice.  It's a cinch to make -- just be sure to buy Japanese- or Korean- style rice, sometimes labeled "sushi" rice.  Rinse the rice a few times in cold water until the water runs more clear than cloudy.  I don't know the reason behind this, just that it's what my mother taught me and I've stuck by her method -- it hasn't steered me wrong (honestly, I make perfect sticky white rice every time).  Cover the rice with approximately a 1/2 inch of water (I'll show a pic of the finger-measuring method next time) and place over high heat until boiling.  Immediately reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, covered.  Don't be tempted to lift the lid until the 20 minutes has passed.  You'll be rewarded with steaming, fluffy Korean-style rice. I added a little rice wine vinegar and some salt.

While the rice is cooking, you can steam your greens (I used spinach this time), pan-fry your fishcake (I did this because mine had been frozen and I was hoping to lose some of that freezer taste), and cut your carrots (quickly boiled in some sugar-vinegar water) and dackwong into thick strips.  If you're full of energy, you should also cook up some omelet to slice up and throw into your kimbap. 


You'll want to drop some toasted sesame oil onto a sheet of kim and  smooth on a thin layer of rice with your fingers.  Line your accoutrements up in the center and roll into a long tube.  Dab some water on the edge and press gently to seal.  Voila!  It's like sushi, but it's not...it's kimbap!


With a serrated knife, carefully use  a sawing motion to cut the rounds.  Hopefully you'll be able to cut them faster than you can pop them in your mouth.  Regardless, you won't be hungry anymore by the time the preparation is over.  But that's okay!  You'll have plenty left over to pack along for your road trip.


P.S. And the great thing is, you can roll up just about anything in these goodies!  Green onion, sauteed zucchini, cucumber, bulgogi, kimchi, ... possibilities are limitless. Go crazy or keep it simple.  The choice is up to you (as long as it's not McDonald's). 
Happy eating!  Leave a comment or e-mail me for a more exact recipe!