This is the continuation of my series on Alaskan King Crab (AKC)
The Alaskan King Crab season is at it’s peak in Vancouver….right now!
If you have not had a chance to try this succulent delicacy, now would be the time. It is priced at the lowest point around $10 per pound. Not exactly cheap, but much more affordable and oh so worth it........even if just once in your life!
Out of season, the price per pound is upwards of $30/pound. The season in Vancouver is short, running from mid February to around the end of March. After this week, prices will likely start to increase. So don't wait......just do it! [after this, we go on diets and wait for the start up of Spot Prawn season:-)]
This recipe is Part 2 of a ongoing series about Vancouver's Alaska King Crab Season.
Part 1 of the Alaskan King Crab Series can be found here. All the recipes will eventually be posted as individual posts. Please check back!
Alaskan King Crabs can look a bit intimidating...they move around, have massive heads and are quite spiny. If you can get past all of that and try cooking this is your own kitchen, you will be rewarded with something really amazing.
OK…work with me here, pour yourself a glass of wine and click on the link for this video before you read any further….come on, just do it……..
let it play, sip your wine, then continue to read. You’ll be glad you did!
No Regrets!
"Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship." Elsa Schiaparelli
I think I would have really liked Elsa Schiaparelli!
It has been a busy time around a Wok in the Tuscan Kitchen. TJD and SJD were in town for a while…hence lots of gathering, fooding and wining took place. We enjoyed their company. I savored every moment of it!
During the course of the week we imbibed in a wee bit o' wine ….sometimes there was stuff left in the bottle….can you imagine?
Well not wanting to be wasteful….and also not too interested in drinking the dregs of assorted bottles, we collected them together, put on Edith Piaf and channeled our inner Julia Child for inspiration.
Viola…….the perfect conditions for something amazingly tasty and comforting!
TJD and I love spending time together in the kitchen.....cooking and chatting. If you want to make your kitchen smell like yummy goodness, you have got to try this. Your family will thank you. Mine did.........
Coq au Vin
Here is the chicken, lightly browned and waiting for it's wine bath!
Ingredients
1 large roasting chicken
or 5 thighs and 5 legs
1 pound pearl onions, peeled (a quick blanch makes peeling easier)
4 shallots
1 clove garlic, minced
4 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 Bottle of your favorite red wine
¼ cup butter, reserve 2 tsp for the mushroom and onion mixture
¼ AP flour
1 lb Crimini or button mushrooms
1-litre chicken stock
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cooking oil (grapeseed is my preference, olive oil is a bit too strong here)
Preheat oven to 350
If using a whole chicken, cut into 8 parts.
Season chicken parts with salt and pepper
In a large Dutch oven or deep skillet with a lid, brown the chicken pieces in cooking oil.
Add butter and shallots after the chicken is lightly browned
Sprinkle flour over chicken pieces, add the butter
Cook for 2 – 3 minutes until a thin paste has formed in the pan
Add garlic, thyme, wine, bay leaves and top up with chicken stock to just cover chicken pieces
Bring to simmer on stove, allow the sauce to thicken
Cover with lid and put into oven for 60 – 70 minutes
While chicken is in the oven..........pour yourself a glass of wine :-)
Melt the 2 tps of reserved butter in a sauté pan
Add the pearl onions and mushrooms with a pinch of salt, sauté for 2 minutes
Add 1/2cup chicken stock simmer for 30 minutes
Pearl Onions and Mushrooms in the sauté pan
Remove the chicken from the oven after one hour and add mushrooms and onions.
Adjust seasonings, sprinkle with parsley and serve with new potatoes and buttered carrots.
Coq au Vin, served with buttered potatoes and carrots
Play more French music, light a candle, gather your people around the table, dig into your Coq au Vin and enjoy another glass or two of your favorite wine!
"Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life
and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship." Elsa Schiaparelli
So if you have read about our Roasted Suckling Pig, you are probably wondering if we actually ate the whole thing. Well, we had 25 pounds of pork plus a whole Southern Menu of accompanying dishes for 10 people. Needless to say, there is a bit of pork hanging about….good thing it was delicious.
What to do with left over roasted pork? Well, at a Wok in the Tuscan Kitchen we make delicious crusty bread rolls and enjoy amazing roast pork sandwiches.
OK, I know some of you will get a bit squeamish about this, but hey….if you eat meat you may as well know it’s not always served to you as a perfect, boneless, skinless filet :-)
Stop reading now, if you are going to be offended! Don't judge me!
On our trip to China we sampled many interesting items. I had big dreams of blogging about all our culinary adventures…but then when I realized that I was unable to access A Wok in the Tuscan Kitchen, I kind of lost interest in documenting our meals. In the end I took a few pictures, so will share some of the highlights.
For me, one particular meal stands out. It was near the end of our time in China. After an incredible day in my family’s village in Zhongshan, Mr. and Mrs. Wong, the owners of Vancouver Chinatown’s Dollar Meat Store, treated us to dinner. If you’re Chinese and grew up in the 60’s, 70’’s or 80’s, I am sure you have had your share of BBQ’d meats from the Dollar Meat Store. They are probably as iconic as The Hong Kong Café for their apple tarts!
The meal the Wong’s hosted was pretty spectacular. What I want to share with you is the incredible Roast Suckling Pig.
Funny Name……..fabulous chicken. This is easy, delicious and really kind of fun!
Your chicken will be perfectly moist with wonderful crispy skin.
We like this best cooked on the BBQ, but it can be done in the oven. Be warned though, your oven will probably need a cleaning afterwards. (grease splatters!)
There are many variations on the rub you can apply to the chicken before cooking. Use your favorite seasonings.
My recipe is a slight variation on the traditional versions. The addition of tomato paste is my signature ..........it's my own twist and we love it this way!
I have always been a lover of good pasta but frankly a little nervous to try my hand at making the noodles from scratch. Well let me tell you......I have overcome my fear.
I have been making fresh pasta for about a year now and it's fabulous and it really isn't difficult.
Nothing beats the taste and texture of fresh homemade pasta. Compared to the dried stuff....I think it's definitely worth the extra bit of effort. We rarely buy pasta anymore and Fresh Pasta seems to appear quite often on the menu around here.
Originally mentioned in this post. This recipe serves 8
Ingredients
1tablespoonbutter or olive oil (15 ml)
1mediumcooking onion, diced
1largecarrot, diced
1stalk celery, diced
2clovesgarlic, minced
1 1/2poundham hock (preferably smoked) (681 g) (we substituted a ham bone we had in the freezer)
2bay leaves
1sprigfresh thyme
Pinch dried chile flakes (optional)
2cupsgreen split peas (375 ml) rinsed
10cupschicken stock (2.5 litres)
Small handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
Coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Additional stock or water, if needed to thin the soup
Directions
Heat the butter/oil in a Dutch oven or large soup pot on medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, leek, and garlic and cook until soft, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the ham hock, bay leaves, thyme, chile flakes and split peas and cook 2 minutes longer. Increase heat to high. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer soup for 2 hours or until split peas are soft, partially covered, stirring occasionally. We simmered the soup on the induction cooker and the peas were soft in an hour.
Remove the ham hock and take meat off bone and reserve. Serve as a garnish with the soup or in the soup whichever you prefer. Discard the bay leaves and thyme stalks.
If the soup is too thick add some more water or stock to loosen. Bring back to a boil and add the chopped parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.
BR had this playing in the background while he was preparing this yummy pot of goodness. Not sure if it is an integral part of his recipe, but lovely all the same.
In my case, it was say "spatchcock" over and over again.... Just count how many times I can use spatchcock in this post!
To spatchcock your chicken, cut down the back and remove the backbone. Lay your split chicken open (bone side down) and press gently on the breast to flatten it out. The purpose of spatchcocking is to promote even quicker cooking. Our 6 lb roaster cooked in 40 minutes. The breast meat was perfectly juicy as were the legs and thighs. One of the greatest advantages to spatchcocking is the perfect, all-over crispy skin!
Well it's finally here. We are bidding a fond farewell to Tuscany for now and eagerly anticipating our arrival in China.
It has been a busy week all around not to mention preparing for our trip.
One of the final chores in Tuscany was picking the last of the tomatoes and harvesting as much of the herb garden as I could. So what to do with all of this? Well really it was a no brainer, gorgeous tomatoes and fragrant basil became this tasty Marinara Sauce.
Here's the Recipe:
Marinara Sauce
A whole bunch of tomatoes off the vine (20 or so), quartered
1 TBSP olive oil
5-6 Cloves chopped garlic
Hot Chili flakes (to taste)
A big handful of Basil leaves
1 small tin of Tomato Paste (156 ml)
Salt and Pepper
Heat the oil in a sauce pan, toss in the tomatoes and garlic, leave on med-high heat until the tomatoes begin to break down, approx 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste, chili flakes and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and let this simmer for at least 30 minutes. I like to treat this like most Italian Mamas.....just leave it to simmer all day.
If tomato skins annoy you, drag out the immersion blender and zuzz it up. Just before serving, snip up the basil and add to the sauce. We like this over pasta drizzled with a tiny bit of fragrant olive oil.
I've got this ready for the freezer. I have a feeling that BR will be very happy to have this waiting for him after three weeks of Asian food.
That's all for today, hopefully next time you check in we will be posting from China.
Zaijian for now!
It was one busy weekend around here.
Garden Guru worked non-stop to get Tuscany tucked away into a perfect slumber.
Among many other jobs, the Harvest Table has been constructed. It sits crowning the back deck, patiently waiting to age over the winter. Funny how I love the look and feel of old genuine things. I think BR just breathed a huge sigh of relief!
The garden makeover started in early Spring with a worker bee weekend and sort of ended with the same. Friends were back and forth this weekend, offering their expertise and hard labor.
I think I got off with the easy bit. As always, I played the supporting role of chief cook and bottle washer.
I think Garden guru had mixed feelings at the end of the weekend. It certainly has been a labor of love........a whole lotta love......but I think Garden Guru is a bit sad to say goodbye for now.
So through all of this I got to know Garden Guru just a little bit more. One of the things that stands out is his newly found love of Kalbi Beef (Korean Shortribs). Who wouda thunk it?
When given a choice, this was the most requested item of the summer. BR wondered why these had never graced our dining table before. Turns out these are a favorite of BR's too!
I have to credit this bit of deliciousness to my cousin/son.
He was here visiting in May and introduced this to us. People who know me well, know that I am not a huge fan of the sticky sweet/sour/savory thing. These shortribs have converted me. I too, have enjoyed a few of these yummy ribs this summer. So thank you T, for the inspiration. Hope you are planning a visit again soon. I so enjoy our lazy afternoons of cooking and feasting. Oh yea....the wine is pretty good too!
It was only fitting that Garden Guru and BR get to enjoy these for lunch on their last weekend of the great garden makeover..........after all, I do want them to come back and finish the job!
The important thing about this recipe is the ratio of soy sauce/sugar and sesame oil. It is best 2:1
2 Soy sauce to 1 Sugar and 1 Sesame Oil. To this add a couple of stems of green onion and a clove or two of garlic (sorry T, you know me and garlic...T doesn't add garlic, but I do!!)
Throw everything together in the blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Pour the mixture over your beef shortribs, mix in a couple of tablespoons of sesame seeds if you like and leave them to marinade for at least two hours. The longer the better.
I use 1/2 cup soy sauce for approx 3lbs of shortribs. (thin cut)
When you are ready to grill, preheat so that the grill is nice and hot. You want to slightly char these ribs and caramelize the sugar in the marinade..........that's what makes them taste so good.
Grill lines=flavor!
3 or 4 minutes on each side should do it.
So I think the Kalbi Beef was a hit, don't you?
Thank you Garden Guru for an amazing summer......what a transformation!
I will eventually post some before and after shots.........but for now, help me honor Garden Guru........raise that glass you are enjoying.
Cin Cin Garden Guru............you are fabulous! Salut!
