Creamy Tomato Dungeness Crab Pasta

This recipe was adapted from the Creamy Tomato Crab Pasta recipe at jeanetteshealthyliving.com. The key technique that I learned from the recipe was mixing an egg with the Greek yogurt (yes, this recipe uses yogurt) to prevent breaking when cooked. It actually works! The yogurt provides the creaminess for this dish. The other neat aspect of the recipe was the use of a garlic breadcrumb topping, which really helps to make this dish tasty. I used cooked Dungeness crab to make this dish rather than canned crab meat, but you can use whatever’s available. As is usual for my pasta recipes, I use a wok to stir fry the pasta before adding the sauce. Making a pasta dish is no different to me than making chow mein – the techniques are the same, I’m just using a different sauce to make the noodles.

Enjoy!

Sourdough Cranberry Linguica Oyster Stuffing

 

For the first recipe of 2015, I am posting a recipe that I’ve been making every year for my family’s Christmas dinners and has now has become a standard dish. Like the Chinese Sticky Rice (糯米飯, No⁶ Mai⁵ Faan⁶) recipe, the dish’s preparation starts a few days before cooking and some ingredients are stir fried before assembling the dish to add flavor.

I’ve been making this variant of the original Sourdough-Cranberry Stuffing Recipe at Epicurious.com for many family Christmas dinners. The most notable additions are linguica and dried oysters. Given the aversion of one of my family members to celery, that ingredient is left out of this recipe, but definitely should be included if you make this dish (use the same quantity as the carrots and onions – 1 cup/125 ml.). I was always intrigued by the use of cranberries in this dressing, which is probably why I keep making it year after year.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to get my linguica from the Goulart Sausage Company. They are a small family owned business and I’ve been buying from them for many years (they make other products besides linguica). You know that their products have to be good when you see hardwood, used to smoke their products, stacked at the front of the business and smelling their smoker at work. I keep telling them that I need to visit them more often! Hopefully you can find such a gem of a meat producer, but if you can’t, store bought linguica or Italian sausage are good substitutes in this dish.

Oysters in stuffing is nothing new, but the oysters used are usually fresh. In this case, I’ve added dried oysters, an Asian ingredient, to a traditional American dressing. The dried oysters are of course rehydrated and are much smaller than their fresh counterparts. The oysters are a fairly recent addition to this recipe. I’ve made this stuffing without oysters for many years, so feel free to omit them since I think you’ll still like the results.

The thing about stuffing that I like are that the quantities of ingredients can vary and the resulting dish still tastes good. The recipe is very forgiving if you use too much of one ingredient or not enough of another. Some years I’ve used more linguica because I bought more than I thought I needed. Sometimes the onion I used is just a little too big, so I use it all. I’ve used other root vegetables, like turnips and parsnips, and in the end the dish was still tasty. So what I’m saying, is that you should feel free to experiment with the ingredients and quantities, and after all, you’re only experimenting on your family. 8-)

Enjoy!

Turkey Basil Cheese Burger with Tzatziki Sauce

Turkey burgers are a great alternative to their beef based counterpart. I season and cook turkey burgers just like beef burgers. The seasoning is Asian-inspired, which should be no surprise! This recipe starts with 3 lbs. of ground turkey and makes eight good sized burgers (or a larger number of more petit burgers). You can of course start with a smaller amount ground turkey and the burgers can easily be frozen for later use. I added bell peppers, a slice of pepper jack cheese, and tzatziki sauce to complete the burger. The store-bought tzatziki sauce (Greek yogurt, dill, and other spices) made a great addition to the burger. It’s creamy and provides a different flavor to a burger than the usual condiments. Try it, you’ll like it!

Enjoy!

Salmon and Bell Pepper Garlic Bread Sandwich with Wasabi Mayonnaise

   

This is a quick way to make a hot salmon sandwich. The bell pepper adds the necessary crunch to the dish and the wasabi mayonnaise the necessary kick to the taste buds. You can use any thickly sliced bread for the sandwich, I happen to use the garlic bread you get from Costco.

Enjoy!

Garlic Garlic Bread

If you like garlic, then this is the garlic bread for you. It’s really very simple; you crush cloves of garlic with olive oil on bread with garlic baked into it (like you get at Costco). Toast the bread, and it’s ready to eat. Have the bread with Soy Sauce Chicken and Peach Pasta salad (recipe can be found here), Seafood Pasta Salad (recipe can be found here), or Greek Yogurt Soy Sauce Chicken Pasta Salad (recipe can be found here).

Enjoy!