We admit to a fondness for molded, layered recipes, like this crab, mango and avocado stack served at The Heathman Restaurant and Bar in Portland, Oregon. Thanks to executive chef Michael Stanton for sharing his recipe, below.

Chef Stanton tops his dish with wild arugula. In the northwest and elsewhere, wild arugula is often found growing in streams, there for the picking. You can substitute cultivated arugula from the market. More substitutions are offered below.

In fact, part of the fun of cooking is taking the recipe in a different direction, with a substitution. No mango? How about fresh pineapple? No avocado? How about tuna tartare?

RECIPE: DUNGENESS CRAB MANGO SALAD

Ingredients Per Serving

 
*If you don’t have/can’t find chive oil, use basil oil or rosemary oil.

RECIPE: CITRUS VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. WHISK ingredients together until well-blended.

The only food ring you’ll need: This one can be adjusted to different diameters. Photo courtesy HIC Brands.

1. MOLD the chopped avocado in 2-3 inch ring atop the serving plate. Place the mango on top, followed by the crab.

2. REMOVE the ring mold, swirl the vinaigrette and chive oil around the plate. Toss wild arugula in fresh olive oil and place on top.
 
MORE AT THE HEATHMAN

If you’re in Portland, stop by for afternoon tea. It’s served in the hotel’s historic Tea Court Lounge; reservations are required.

The traditional tea menu, created by pastry chef John Gayer, includes Smoked Salmon Napoleon, Paté Maison, John’s Famous Lanai Banana Bread and Parisian Opera Cake, along with a wide selection of teas from Fonté Coffee and Tea Company, a Northwest micro roaster based in Seattle.
The children’s Peter Rabbit Tea for Little Sippers sports Ants On A Log, Snickerdoodle Cookie, Devil’s Food Chocolate Cupcake and Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich.

Surf and turf: oyster on the half shell topped
with crumbled bacon. Photo courtesy James
Antrim | IST.

Fresh oysters are available year-round, with caveats.

The advice not to eat oysters during months spelled without an “r” does not refer to spoilage and food poisoning from eating oysters during June, July and August.

Rather, it refers to the oyster’s spawning months, May, June, July and August (in the Northern Hemisphere). The meat from spawning oysters is softer, milkier and more bland than in the fall and winter.

When oysters are fattening up, they load up on glycogen, a polysaccharide that is the principal storage form of glucose. This sugar is greatly depleted when oysters spawn, diminishing the quality of their flesh.

“If oysters don’t spawn, they grow plump and sweet, and can be harvested year-round,” says Michael Kirkpatrick in his article, ‘Duxbury Pearls: Island Creek Oysters,” in Edible Boston, Spring 2007.’ ”

Here’s a tip to enjoy your oysters in the warmer months: Choose oysters from the colder waters of New England and Canada. The oysters don’t spawn, although they grow large as if they were going to.

We contacted oyster Kirkpatrick, who advised: “Oyster colonies naturally die out all the time, which is one reason why many, if not most, commercial oyster beds are re-seeded on a regular basis (another reason: to ensure a reliable harvest).” Reseeding involves obtaining oysters from hatcheries and adding them to the beds.

Thanks, Michael! If you visit the Cooperstown, New York, area, you can stay at Michael’s bed and breakfast, The Farm.

OUR FAVORITE WAYS TO ENJOY OYSTERS

The fresher the oysters, the more they demand to be enjoyed absolutely plain. That’s how you taste their terroir and enjoy the undiluted brine in the cups.

That’s how we like to eat oysters. If there’s any garnish, it’s a bit of caviar—salmon caviar, tobiko, whitefish, sturgeon or other (the different types of caviar).

Need a garnish? Go for a bit of citrus juice (yuzu is the best!) or mignonette sauce: dry white wine, sherry vinegar, chopped shallot and fresh-cracked white pepper. There’s no need to add salt, as oysters have natural salinity.

That’s mignonette (min-yo-NET) sauce in the photo at left. The name is French, derived from the word for dainty.

Sauces and other toppings were created to spruce up oysters that have lost their spanking freshness. When you top an oyster with cocktail sauce, or with herbed bread crumbs, butter and cream, salt, pepper and hot sauce—Oysters Rockefeller—the oyster flavor is buried under other layers.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF OYSTERS

How many types of oysters have you had?
  

[1] Deconstructed blueberry pie à la mode (photo © Linda Anctil).

[2] Another fun take on blueberry pie à la mode by pastry chef Sherry Yard. The crust is made from croissant dough, and the individual “pie” baked in a ramekin (photo © The Tuck Room | NYC).

[3] The classic, made here with a gluten-free pie crust (photo © King Arthur Baking).

We are huge fans of Linda Anctil, a Connecticut-based chef, and caterer whose blog, PlayingWithFireAndWater.com, makes us want to show up at meal time and befriend her. She’s a great deconstructionist chef and caterer, and it’s a pleasure to look at her concepts and photos.

She deconstructed the all-American blueberry pie with:

 
You can see the full recipe here. It requires professional skills and equipment.
 
But you can make an easy version even if your main skills are simply gathering and assembling. We did just that in the recipe below.

April 28th is National Blueberry Pie Day. See all the other food holidays.

Below:

> The recipe.

> Blueberry trivia.

> Below: What is sous vide?

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The history of pie.

> The history of pie à la mode.

> The difference between pies and tarts.

> The history of blueberries.

> Blueberry slab pie recipe.

> The year’s 31 pie holidays.

> The year’s 11 blueberry holidays.
 
 
RECIPE: DECONSTRUCTED BLUEBERRY PIE

Ingredients

 
Pre-scoop the small balls of sorbet and larger balls of frozen yogurt or ice cream and place them on a cookie sheet in the freezer for quick assembly.

To assemble, follow Linda’s photo, above.

There are two types of blueberries:

 
The biggest producers:

 
Hammonton, New Jersey claims to be the “Blueberry Capital of the World,” growing more than 80% of New Jersey’s blueberries.
(Source: Wikipedia)
 
 
WHAT IS SOUS VIDE?

Even though we didn’t use the original recipe’s sous vide technique, we thought this was a good place to say a word about it. Serious cooks who are always looking for new and better techniques should know about it.

Sous vide, pronounced soo-VEED and meaning “under vacuum,” is a cooking technique developed in France in the 1980s. Since then, it has been used by the greatest chefs to assure consistency in turning out fine meals.

Portions are prepared in individual, sealed plastic bags that are cooked in a water bath. Previously only available for the professional kitchen, a consumer model debuted in 2009. It’s for the serious cook.

Some benefits of sous vide cooking:

 

[5] The price of sous vide appliances has come down hugely, from hundreds of dollars to less than $50 for this setup, a plastic container, a rack to hold the food, and a wand to create the magic (photo © Homenote | Amazon).
 
 

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

[2] Canned pineapple is easier, but fresh pineapple gives a much, much better flavor (photo © Produce Marketing Guide).

It’s not from the cookbook. Rather, it’s the winner of the “No Bake Recipe Contest” sponsored by Safest Choice Eggs, pasteurized eggs that eliminate the worry of salmonella, especially in:

 
> Here’s more about pasteurized eggs.

> Here are 80 more cheesecake recipes.

> The history of cheesecake.

> The history of pineapple.
 
 
RECIPE: NO-BAKE FROZEN PINEAPPLE CHEESECAKE

The prep time is 35 minutes, freezing time is 6 hours.

Ingredients For 12 Servings

1. COMBINE the gingersnaps and panko in a medium bowl. Add the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are evenly moistened. For easy removal from the pan, first place parchment paper along the bottom of the springform pan. Then press the crust mixture onto the bottom of an 8- or 9-inch springform pan.

2. BEAT the egg whites and cream of tartar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer, until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

3. BEAT the cream cheese and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl, until smooth. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment. Add the egg yolks and beat well. Mix in the pineapple and vanilla.

4. BEAT the cream in another medium bowl until whipped. Fold the egg whites into the cream cheese mixture, then fold in the whipped cream. Pour the filling over the crust and freeze until set, 5 hours or overnight.

Ingredients For The Glaze

Check below for ways to use leftover pineapple juice.

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Add pineapple juice, and stir until cornstarch is dissolved.

2. COOK over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from the heat, add the rum, and cool completely.

3. TO SERVE: Let the cheesecake sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the cheesecake to loosen it; remove the pan sides. Top the cheesecake with the glaze and cut into slices.
 
_________________

*If using a can of crushed pineapple for the torte, you can reserve the pineapple juice for glaze.
 
 
DOES FREEZING KILL SALMONELLA?

Alas, no, as can be seen from the recent outbreak of salmonella poisoning involving an ice cream product, reported food safety expert Dr. Robert Gravani, professor of food science at Cornell University, in The New York Times.

Freezing just keeps the bacteria in a state of suspended animation. When they warm up (in the case of frozen cheesecake, when they hit the digestive tract), they come back to life.

[3] (photo © Dole Food Company).

[3] Look for pasteurized eggs for any recipe with raw eggs (photo © Safe Eggs).

 
 
USES FOR LEFTOVER PINEAPPLE JUICE

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

In Pursuit of Tea is a purveyor of the finest teas from Asia and India. Their monthly newsletter often has a good “tea tip.”

This month, it’s about cold infused tea—the opposite of sun tea. As with sun tea, you simply add tea to water; but you place the container in the fridge, not in the sun.

“Conventional iced tea is a strongly brewed serving, poured over plenty of ice,” says In Pursuit Of Tea founder Sebastian Beckwith. “But there’s another method—cold infusion—that produces an incredibly [naturally] sweet, full-flavored glass with any loose leaf tea—black, green, white or herbal.

“The recipe is foolproof,” he continues. “Since cold infusion is a gentle process, the steeping time is very flexible, and the end result is always delicious.”

Why would you want to brew tea in the fridge rather than the conventional way—steeped in boiling water?

To bring out subtle nuances in the flavor of your tea. If you’re not a volume quaffer of iced tea, this method lets you make 1-2 servings a day, without taking the time to boil, steep, cool, strain and then refrigerate.

Can you use tea bags?

This type of brewing brings out the flavor notes in top quality tea. If you have some truly excellent tea bags, try it (use two bags).

Ingredients For 2 Glasses

 
Preparation

1. STIR tea into cold water. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours. For a stronger brew, add 1-2 hours to infusion time.

2. STRAIN and enjoy.
 
SUN TEA

Cold infused tea is the opposite of sun tea, where one places tea bags and water in a glass or plastic container. The container is placed in the sun for several hours, where solar heat brews the components into a weak tea.

This has historically been a method of necessity, not of choice—for example, with campers. Fine tea needs a fast infusion of boiling or near-boiling water to fully release its aromatic oils and to create a hearty brew.

Or now, a cold infusion.
 
MORE WAYS TO BREW TEA

How to brew the perfect cup of tea.