Dinner 2017 (Part 2)

[HungryChris]

Snow crab festival Friday.

HC

[Okanagancook]

Not to be combative, but......You know, I'm not fond of king crab.  Maybe because it comes cooked.  I find the flavour lacking.  What do others think?  

Now, give me a Dungeness crab.  Even the ones from our local "Super" Store live from the tank are pretty dang good.

[HungryChris]

46 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Not to be combative, but......You know, I'm not fond of king crab.  Maybe because it comes cooked.  I find the flavour lacking.  What do others think?  

Now, give me a Dungeness crab.  Even the ones from our local "Super" Store live from the tank are pretty dang good.

Dungeness crab is one thing on my have yet to try list. They are hard to find, live in these parts and I am always afraid they have not eaten in weeks and will be empty in the shell. I do want to try them, however.

HC

 

[Okanagancook]

Well, Hungry Chris you will just have to motor to the coast.  And you are correct, they need to be fresh.  They are very sweet and loads of meat on them.  One is plenty for a person.  Garlic Butter, lemon and fresh bread place on a table covered in newspaper and napkins, a fork and pick......go!

 

Ok, I have a favourite story about D crabs.  We were on a scuba diving trip out to Vancouver Island's west coast.  We bought some live D crabs off the dock.  The seller had no bags (they are pretty laid back out there). We had a big paper bag in the hatch back.  In they went, very wet.  Drove 30 minutes back to our motel with the little beggars trying to wriggle out of the bag.  They did get out but thankfully pretty close to our destination.  Got into the motel room and put them in the bath.  The kitchen equipment was grim.  Went to the office begging for a BIG crab pot.  Got a little pot.  Ok.  Filled it with water and brought to a boil.  To the bathroom.  These big fellows had no rubber bands on them.  Managed to nab one without getting bit.  So, crab splayed as big as it can get.  Little pot.  Spoon in hand.  I thought head first he will die.  OMG.  The hairs on the back of my neck are up.  Bang, bang, push, push, into the water my friend.  Finally it stopped moving.  Sheesh.  Two more to go.  Open the wine.  But I have to say those were the best crab we have ever had.  We were stuffed.  We did them proud.  Beautiful creatures.   And they are hard to find.  We went on a crab dive and they hide in the sandy bottom with just a couple of bubbles showing where they are.  Thank god for crab pots.

[liuzhou]

Not that I can get them, but I've never hankered after a Dungeness crab. I'm sure they are delicious,but hte name puts me off. It just makes me think of this.

 

Nuking the crab, dear.

[gfweb]

Dungeness are sweet crabby tasting crabs. The best of their class, to me. All they need is butter...maybe.

 

When I was strapped and visiting SF 40 yrs ago, I'd get a steamed DC for dinner and eat better than I deserved for a few dollars (then).

[Porthos]

Dinner tonight is posted in The Freezer Challenge.

[Okanagancook]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Not that I can get them, but I've never hankered after a Dungeness crab. I'm sure they are delicious,but hte name puts me off. It just makes me think of this.

 

Nuking the crab, dear.

Bummer

contrast to pristine British Columbia crabs

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I really like love  king crab. Snow crab is fine as an appetizer portion, but my fingers become sore trying to eat them for an entree. I can only get either of them frozen, or sometimes the vendor puts them in the fridge case to thaw. I always ask to get some from the freezer in the back for freshness. I'm pretty sure both would be better if I could get them live, but they are fine like they are for me, if quite expensive in the case of my favored kings. We don't have Dungeness over here on the Atlantic coast, except for this outlier, and he has a pretty unappetizing lesion looking thing on the right side of the image on his shell. Interesting that only the males are sold in markets for food. I am sure they are delicious from your descriptions and comparisons, and you have made me quite jealous. 

 

I had a much more humble dinner this evening. Three fluffy scrambled eggs and a half of a humongous bell pepper stuffed with succatosh and topped with cheddar cheese near the end of cooking to melt. It hit the spot, though.

[robirdstx]

 

Shrimp Quesadillas with Mexican Style Rice, Guacamole and Frijoles Charros at Restuarant San Juan in Port Aransas

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Inspired by the NY Times:  three bowls of Rancho Gordo black bean soup.  My new Falk copper pot au feu is just the right size for a pound of beans.  Rather than jalapeno I employed five Peruvian aji panca.  Just enough heat to raise a dainty perspiration.  Beverage is a well deserved glass of Bolivian Singani.

 

For the sake of my coworkers in the morning, I shall stop now.

 

[Duvel]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Not that I can get them, but I've never hankered after a Dungeness crab. I'm sure they are delicious,but hte name puts me off. It just makes me think of this.

 

Nuking the crab, dear.

Don't worry - you can't taste radiation, but it sure helps them to grow

[HungryChris]

2 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

I really like love  king crab. Snow crab is fine as an appetizer portion, but my fingers become sore trying to eat them for an entree. I can only get either of them frozen, or sometimes the vendor puts them in the fridge case to thaw. I always ask to get some from the freezer in the back for freshness. I'm pretty sure both would be better if I could get them live, but they are fine like they are for me, if quite expensive in the case of my favored kings. We don't have Dungeness over here on the Atlantic coast, except for this outlier, and he has a pretty unappetizing lesion looking thing on the right side of the image on his shell. Interesting that only the males are sold in markets for food. I am sure they are delicious from your descriptions and comparisons, and you have made me quite jealous. .

King has always been my favorite, but has recently soared to over $27 pp. That is just way too much for my pocket book. I still remember when I first entered the work force, one of my first purchases was a few pounds of King at 69 cents pp for great big legs and claws at a self serve station at the local A&P. I guess those days are long gone.

HC

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@HungryChris,

 

I can still get frozen king crab legs with claws from my local seafood supplier at about $20 a pound. It is steep for my budget, but considering how low in calories, high in protien, and other nutrients, including the elusive B12, along with how delicious it is, it's still on my menu occasionally. 

 

Sixty-nine cents a pound! Such a lovely fantasy that has never occurred in my real life. Why is everyone making me jealous today?

 

I like just melted butter in my candle powered butter warmers and lemon with this treat.

 

I think I need to visit my seafood monger sooner than later. Molly Malone is speaking to me!

[chromedome]

When I was an adolescent living in northern Newfoundland, crab was a nuisance to the local gillnetters. When a crab gets tangled in the net it struggles to get free, which means it gathers up quite a ball of mesh around itself. That means an attractively scalloped edge at the bottom of the net, where all that mesh has been lifted up, which in turn means hundreds of pounds of fish swimming un-caught through the gaps where that mesh should be. 

 

The usual "fix" was to have a crewman standing at the gunwales with an axe handle or a big stick, and one hand on the lever that starts and stops the net puller (the "Gertie"), usually a small Briggs & Stratton motor. When a crab came over the gunwale this crewman would stop the net puller, smash the crab with his stick, and fling the pieces back into the water. Then he'd restart the Gertie. 

 

In those days the fish you were bringing in typically fetched 12 to 14 cents/pound, so if you went to ol' Skipper Eli and offered him 10 cents/lb for all the crab he wanted to bring in, you'd find yourself the next day with a hundred pounds or more of very fresh snow crab sitting on your doorstep. We'd eat ourselves gaspingly full, then shuck the rest and bag it for the freezer. I still shake my head to think of it...10 cents/lb, even in those days, was a heck of a bargain. 

 

Here in New Brunswick the local Jonah crabs are a by-catch for the lobstermen, and one of my neighbours came to my restaurant once and asked if I'd like some to experiment with. I incautiously agreed to take "a few" for trial purposes, which resulted in a tote filled with 200 lbs. of crab the next day. They turned out to be the cussedest things...not especially sweet or powerful, and with the most heavily armoured shells I've encountered so far. Eventually I learned that their claws are considered the only really useful part of a Jonah crab, and they're often harvested as a sort of poor man's stone crab (or shady man's stone crab, if they're illicitly sold as such).

[liuzhou]

I don't know. I've been feeling kind of uninspired the last week or so. Not much appetite either. I have cooked something every day, but haven't posted anything here for a while. They didn't taste bad, but just looked dull.

 

Tonight's example:

 

 

Pork tenderloin strips marinated overnight with garlic, ginger, green chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns and Shaoxing wine. Stir fried with bitter melon and green onions/scallions. Rice.

I guess we all have our bad weeks. 

Edited March 5, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Shelby]

Crawfish boil last night

 

Ronnie was smoking a pork roast so I hacked off a couple pieces to put in the boil.  They sat in the boil all night.  Should be nice and tender and spicy this morning.

 

 

[HungryChris]

10 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Crawfish boil last night

I do love crawfish, but they are next to impossible to get here, unless you want the precooked and frozen or are willing to pay a huge shipping charge. We visit Las Vegas on a regular basis and a few pounds of crawfish at the Boiling Crab is a regular event for me.

HC

 

[Shelby]

6 minutes ago, HungryChris said:

I do love crawfish, but they are next to impossible to get here, unless you want the precooked and frozen or are willing to pay a huge shipping charge. We visit Las Vegas on a regular basis and a few pounds of crawfish at the Boiling Crab is a regular event for me.

HC

 

Sometimes we just splurge...we don't go on trips so the food has to come to us lol.  I get our crawfish from cajungrocer.com.  10 lbs. of live 'dads for $65 including shipping.  Fedex delivers them by noon.  

[scubadoo97]

Wife was away so last night was more  of a snack but dinner last night was toasted Italian bread, cheese and quickly  fried and crisp prosciutto 

[Duvel]

I do hate starting business trips on a Saturday night. What reconciles me, however, is having Dan Dan Mian, Champagne and one or two Old Fashioned in the Cathay lounge. They do a good job here ...

 

Edited March 4, 2017 by Duvel (log)

[ninagluck]

we had the first warm day after a long and very cold winter. I enjoyed working in the garden, so dinner had to be something quick. Pasta, speck, peas,

[sartoric]

Indian vegetarian feast. 

Sweet and sour chickpeas, pumpkin curry, basmati rice, parathas, fresh tomato chutney, spring onion & mint raita.

 

 

Host's note: for more delicious inspiration, please see the next segment: Dinner 2017 (Part 3)

Edited March 8, 2017 by Smithy
Added host's note (log)