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FOOD FUN: Stuffed Crab Legs

November 21, 2013 at 7:47 am · Filed under Fish-Seafood-Caviar, Food Fun, Recipes

This isn’t primarily a recipe for stuffed crab legs, but a tip that many things we often discard still have a place on the plate.

Here, the creative chefs at Petrossian made a crab salad with fresh whole crab. Instead of discarding the empty crab legs, they stuffed them and arranged them on the plate: a clever, fun presentation.

Petrossian stuffed the legs with more crab, a quail egg and caviar and served them with a stripe of aïoli (garlic mayonnaise). But you can stuff them with anything, including:

  • Chopped salad
  • Mashed potatoes of “crab mashed potatoes” with some crab mixed in
  • Rice salad
  • Savory custard, simulating bone marrow
    		•   
    Crab legs, stuffed and garnished. Photo courtesy Petrossian.
  • Seasoned, cooked ground beef—an unusual “surf and turf”

    •  

    Garnish the tops with:

  • Caviar or other roe
  • Crumbled bacon
  • Olive or sweet gherkin slices

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    Suggestions for stuffings and garnishes? Let us know.
      

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    Holiday Hot Toddy Recipes With Scotch, Gin & Rum

    November 20, 2013 at 8:42 am · Filed under Chinese/Lunar New Year, Cocktails & Spirits, Thanksgiving & Fall, Tip Of The Day


    [1] Mulled cider can be a cocktail (add gin, rum, or whiskey) or mocktail (photo © Zaya Rum).

    Glass Of Mulled Wine
    [2] Mulled wine is a festive holiday drink (Freepik Photo).

    		   The expression “cup of good cheer” that comes to us from Merrie Olde England refers to hot mulled cider and wine. Whether or not you have a fireplace, horse and sleigh, invite friends over to share that cup, and have one waiting as Thanksgiving guests arrive.

    Warm alcoholic beverages such as glögg, mulled wine and toddies originated in Northern Europe, where beer, cider, wine, and spirits were mulled (heated) with sugar and spices to add some cheer to cold winter days (before central heating, no less).

    Serve a toddy (or one of the related drinks below) instead of egg nog and you’ll save big on calories. A hot toddy is just as festive and is made with mostly water instead of mostly cream and eggs!

    Below, check out these three recipes:

    > Scotch Toddy

    > Hot Gin Cider

    > Spiced Holly Highball

    Plus:

    > The year’s 5+ hot cocktail days.
     
     
    HOT TODDY & ITS RELATIVES

  • Glögg (pronounced like the “eu” sound in French—here’s an audio file pronunciation from a native Swede) is the Scandinavian form of mulled wine, sweetened with sugar and spiced with bitter orange peel, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves, ginger, vanilla pods, and often, almonds and raisins.
  • Hot Buttered Rum is a rum toddy, a favorite drink in Colonial America. The classic recipe contains butter, which adds creaminess and body. Many people use the term “hot buttered rum” when they mean “toddy,” so if you care one way or the other, ask if it contains butter.
  • Hot Cider can be made with or without spirits. You can serve it plain, mulled (with spices) or with gin or other favorite spirit.
  • Mulled Wine is hot and sweet: “Mulled” means to heat, sweeten and flavor with spices. Ale and cider are also mulled.
  • Toddy is a cocktail made with alcohol, boiling water, sugar and spices. Toddies can be made with any spirit—bourbon, brandy, tequila, Scotch and other whiskeys are popular. Back in Merrie Olde England, bourbon and tequila—New World spirits—were not part of the repertoire.

    •  
    While it’s not related to any of the hot drinks above, we’ll add another to the list to clarify the difference:

  • Nog, a beverage made with beaten eggs (“egg nog” is a redundancy, like “hot toddy” [a toddy is made with boiling water] and in another category, “shrimp scampi” [scampi is Italian for “shrimp”]).

    •  
    We have more history and recipes for all of these hot cocktails.

     
    Hot Toddy On A Tray
    [3] Scotch toddy (Gemini Photo).
     
     
    RECIPE #1: SCOTCH TODDY

    This recipe comes from Laphroaig, using its 10-Year-Old Scotch Whisky. We’re big Laphroaig fans—we love that peaty, smoky taste—but you can use whatever Scotch you have. If you’re not a Scotch drinker, substitute your favorite spirit.

    Instead of added spices, this recipe uses ginger liqueur.

    Ingredients Per Drink

  • 1 part Scotch
  • ½ part ginger liqueur
  • 3 parts apple cider
  • Garnishes: lemon wedge studded with cloves, dash of fresh ground cinnamon

    •  
    Preparation

    1. BUILD drink in a pre-heated coffee mug.

    2. GARNISH and serve.
     
    A Mug Of Glogg
    [4] Glögg (photo © Tullamore Dew).
     
     
    RECIPE #2: HOT GIN CIDER

    This drink, from Tanqueray London Dry Gin, is especially attractive in a tall glass mug, as in the photo below.

    Ingredients Per Drink

  • 1.25 ounces London Dry Gin
  • .5 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 3 dashes simple syrup
  • 3 dashes bitters
  • Hot apple cider
  • Optional garnish: cinnamon stick or lemon wheel

    •  
    Preparation

    1. COMBINE the first five ingredients in a glass. Top with hot apple cider and stir.

    2. GARNISH with cinnamon stick and serve.
     
     
    RECIPE #3: SPICED HOLLY HIGHBALL

    A chilled cocktail, fun for the holidays, from Cruzan Rum.

    Ingredients

  • 5 cranberries
  • Handful of mint leaves
  • 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon agave or honey
  • 1.5 parts aged dark rum
  • Ice
  • Club soda
  • Garnish: mint sprig

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    Preparation

    1. MUDDLE the cranberries, mint, spice, and agave. Add rum and shake well.

    2. STRAIN over ice into a highball glass. Top with club soda and garnish with a mint sprig and three cranberries.
     
     
    THE YEAR’S 5+ HOT COCKTAIL HOLIDAYS

  • January 11: National Hot Toddy Day
  • January 17: National Hot Buttered Rum Day
  • January 25: National Irish Coffee Day
  • March 3: National Mulled Wine Day
  • September 30: National Hot Mulled Cider Day

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    Plus, you can spike these beverages:

  • January 31: National Hot Chocolate Day
  • November 8: National Cappuccino Day
  • December 3: National Peppermint Latte Day

    •  
    And while eggnog is served chilled, it can be served warm. The Tom and Jerry is a warm, spiced holiday cocktail similar to eggnog, made with a batter of eggs, sugar, and spices, mixed with brandy, rum, and hot milk, and served in a mug, typically garnished with nutmeg.

  • December 24: National Eggnog Day

    •  

    CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

     
     
      

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    GIFT: Foie Gras Slices

    November 19, 2013 at 9:54 am · Filed under Meat & Poultry


    Foie gras, ready to go from freezer to plate
    in two minutes. Photo courtesy D’Artagnan.    		  

    Here’s a luxurious gift for the foie gras lover: flash-frozen foie gras slices from D’Artagnan. They go from freezer to pan for a quick sear: There’s no need to thaw them. That’s our kind of fast food!

    Foie gras lovers can decide at the drop of a hat to indulge in some foie gras—and hopefully, they’ll invite you.

    Premium quality, Grade A foie gras lobes are laser cut into a perfect single-serving size, then are immediately frozen at extremely low temperatures. This high-tech process helps retains the texture and integrity of the delicate foie gras.

    The slices are ready to cook, without all the fuss and bother of cleaning and slicing a whole lobe of foie gras. They go from freezer to plate in two minutes.

    Talk about fast food!

     

    The shipment averages 4.6 pounds of foie fras (30 slices), $257.99. Get yours at DArtagnan.com.

      

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    GIFT: Chocolate For Sports Fans

    November 19, 2013 at 8:42 am · Filed under Chocolate, Giftable

    Pass the pigskin—we want some chocolate.

    This life-size football is available in dark, or white chocolate from fine chocolatier Li-Lac Chocolates.

    At 11 x 6″ x 6.5″ and 2.2 pounds of premium chocolate, the football is $48.00.

    If football isn’t your sport, there are:

  • Chocolate basketballs, a life-size 10″ diameter and 3.5 pounds of chocolate, $65.00.
  • Chocolate baseballs, 3″ diameter, 4.5 ounces (each, box of 2), $18.
  • Chocolate golf balls, 1.5″ diameter and 1 ounce each, box of 6 $18.
    		•   


    Life-size football in premium chocolate. Photo courtesy Li-Lac Chocolates.
     
    There are tennis rackets, baseball gloves and more; each made to order in dark, milk or white chocolate at Li-Lac Chocolates.

    —Steven Gans

      

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    FOOD HOLIDAY: Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day

    November 19, 2013 at 8:16 am · Filed under Beverages, Food Holidays


    Do you know what this is? Chances are,
    you’ve consumed it (and some people
    consume it a lot!). Photo by Bob Walker |
    Wikimedia.    		   Today is National Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day. Yes, some of these official food holidays are quirky. But each one offers a teaching moment.

    There are only six plants on earth that contain caffeine. Quick: close your eyes and try to name them.

    They are:

  • Cacao: the cacao bean (the seeds of a tree fruit) is used to make chocolate and cocoa.
  • Coffee: the leaves, cherries and seeds all contain caffeine; the seeds are roasted to become coffee beans.
  • Kola: the nut of the tree is used to make cola drinks (that’s it in the photo).
  • Guaraná: the seed is extracted as a beverage ingredient; it’s present in just about every energy drink.
  • Tea: the leaf of the plant is an herb that has become a culinary mainstay throughout the world.
    		•
     

  • Yerba maté: the leaf of a tree that’s a member of the holly family, it is brewed like tea and drunk in parts of South America the way some Americans drink coffee: continuously, for vitality and mental clarity (more about yerba maté).

    •  
    What do all of these foods with caffeine have in common?

  • They’re all leaves, nuts or seeds of trees.
  • They’re all used to make beverages.

    •  
    As you sip your caffeinated beverage, think of how much you’ve learned!

      

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