The Art of Eating Crab (legs)

Two weekends ago, Glenn and I went to Todai , a Japanese buffet chain restaurant, in Woodfield Mall. Let me just be perfectly honest here. I have a deep aversion to Todai because of previous traumatic experiences. Plus, I am admittedly a buffet snob and a seafood snob. When you've eaten at Las Vegas buffets, the best buffets in the world, it's hard to appreciate anything else. Also, when you're used to fresh seafood, it's difficult to enjoy the not so fresh sea food in the Midwest. That's one of the downfalls of living in Illinois - we are nowhere near my beloved ocean.

Anyways, Glenn hearts Todai big time and had a coupon for a free meal that was going to expire. So, against my better judgement, we went to eat at Todai. When we got there, I decided to make the most of it and eat lots of the unlimited crab legs.

The crabs I'm showing here are Dungeness Crabs but they also served Snow Crab legs and soft shell Blue Crabs.
Although I was excited to eat crab meat, my initial feeling could be best described as disgruntled. Just look at my face. What does that say to you? DISGRUNTLED.

This is because I prefer to eat the whole Dungeness crab and not just the claws and legs. What a waste! I don't understand why they don't give us the whole crab or people's wariness of the meat in the body of the crab.
Just look at this wonderful example of the tasty goodness crabs can offer. This picture is from my 2007 trip to the Philippines. Here you can see the fat and the orange crab eggs. In Waray, this is called Aligi (maybe in Tagalog too, not sure though). This whole time, I just refered to it as aligi, and didn't know exactly what it was. Only recently did I discover that it's fat and crab eggs. Woooo cholesterol! This is my favorite part of any crab. It has the most flavor and the texture has this buttery quality to it. I love to pour all the insides over steamed rice and make riceballs out of them. I love to eat cholesterol. No joke. Also, as I said before, I am used to picking out my own crabs and knowing that they are fresh and alive when I pick them out. That sounds a bit sad - like I'm a crab murderer. That's ok, I can live with the guilt.
But, I'll take what I can get. I had to push these negative feelings away and concentrate on the process of cracking crab legs. It takes skill and patience. Two things I have when it comes to eating crab. You have to crack it just right, with just the right amount of pressure. You want to get through the shell, but you don't want to break the meat. Also you want to do it in the right spot, so that when you split open the crab shell, you can pull out a huge chunk of unbroken crab meat.

Don't feel bad if you don't have these qualities. It has taken me years and years of practice.

It's been awhile though, so I did feel a little self-doubt.

Can I do it? Can I rise to the occasion? My pride is on the line here.

Concentrate. Concentrate.

Did I get it? Did I get it?

OHHHHH! VICTORY!!!!!!

Glenn didn't get a chance to take a picture of the huge chunk of crab meat because I popped it in my mouth immediately. My excitement and hunger took over and I forgot that he was documenting the process.

A note about the flavor. Crab meat, especially in Dungeness crabs, should have a subtle sweetness to it. It shouldn't need any additional flavoring or butter or whatever. However, this sweetness can only be obtained in fresh crab. So the chefs here at Woodfield's Todai had to put lots of salt in the water they boiled the crab in to hide the fact that there was no sweetness to be found.

Atleast it didn't smell like fishy ice. I hate that. Overall, it was a good experience for eating all you can eat crab legs in the Midwest.

But I promise you, right here right now, that I will go to Redondo Beach pier during the winter break and take you through the crab eating process with oh so delicious freshly caught crab.

Ricotta Cheese and Spinach Tart

After making the goat cheese tart, I still had a left-over puff pastry, lots of left over ricotta cheese, and a few roma tomatoes. Luckily, there was some frozen spinach in my freezer, allowing me to fulfill my original plans of making a yummy ricotta cheese and spinach tart. MmMmMm.

It was actually a lot easier than the previous recipe and almost just as good. I say almost because I really loooooove goat cheese. However, Glenn liked the ricotta spinach mix better. I suppose it really just boils down to personal choice.

Anyways, preheat the oven to about 400 degrees.
Heat up the frozen spinach in the microwave. Slice the tomatoes. When the spinach is done, drain the excess water. If you don't do this, the pastry will become soggy and gross. Who wants a gross soggy puff pastry?! Not I!

Mix the spinach with about 3/4 cup of ricotta cheese. Add garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Cut the puff pastry sheet in half and score the edges. Spread the spinach/cheese mixture evenly onto the pastry sheets. Add the sliced tomatoes.
EDIT: Drizzle Olive Oil over the pastries (this was suggested to me by Brian. Thanks Brian!)

Bake for 15 minutes.

So easy, it's ridiculous.

Roasted Tomato, Basil and Goat's Cheese Tart

I found this recipe in a magazine called Donna Hay Magazine: Special Made Simple (issue 40). It's an easy recipe and super delicious! For those of you who claim to not like goat cheese, you really should give it a chance. In this particular recipe, the taste of the cheese is more subtle because of all the other flavors; like the onions, the puff pastry, and basil. But if you really have a strong aversion to goat cheese, then I think you can also do a mostly ricotta filling. Tomorrow, I'm going to mix my left over ricotta with spinach and use the last of the puff pastry sheets. We'll see how that goes.


Ingredients:

• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 200g goat cheese
• 1/4 cup fresh ricotta
• 2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 sheet store-bought puff pastry
• extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Directions from the Magazine:

• Preheat oven to 390 degrees
• Combine the onion, tomato, garlic and oil in a baking dish. Roast for 20-25 minutes.
• Combine the goat's cheese, ricotta, basil, lemon, salt, pepper and roasted garlic in a bowl.
  
• Cut pastry sheet in half and score the edges with a knife to make a border.
• Place on a baking tray, spread over the goat's chesse mixture and top with onion mixture. Drizzle with oil and bake for 15 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden.
• Serves 2
  

Let's go through it step-by-step.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (Yes, I know the directions say 390, but my oven doesn't have a 390 knob).
While the oven warmed up, I chopped the red onion and garlic then sliced the tomatoes. Afterwards, I put the onion, tomato, and garlic in a baking dish that I covered in olive oil, then popped it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

While the vegetables baked, I mixed the goat cheese, ricotta, basil, salt and pepper in a bowl. The goat cheese was difficult to mix at first, so I placed it on top of my stove top so the that the heat of the oven would soften up the cheese a bit.Afterwards, I cut a sheet of the puff pastry in half and scored the edges. Then, I spread the cheese mix onto the puff pastry. Eww, please don't judge me for wearing my ugly winter sweater. It's comfy and I was just chillin' at home. Hooray for pang bahay.
Then place the baked veggies on top of the cheese. Drizzle olive oil over the pastry.

Place back into the oven for about 15 minutes.
Done! Now you have a beautiful tart - flaky, light, buttery and bursting with flavor.



ENJOY!

Ultimate Comfort Food: Apple Donuts (and Pulled Pork)

After the emotional roller coaster of this year's elections, the historical moment of Obama's victory and the tragedy of the passing of Prop 8 (wow, really Californians?! but you can redeem yourselves by signing this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/seg5130/petition.html), I felt the need to seek comfort in food. Typical.

So, I decided to take Tessa to the Curtis Orchard and Pumpkin Patch!!


Last year, Jen , Kevin, Glenn and I went there to pick apples and pumpkins and we had such a good time that I felt that I needed to revisit a happy place. See? Look how I excited I am.

Here's Kevin pulling Jen in a radioflyer wagon to the pumpkin patch.
Look at Glenn meandering through the pumpkin patch trying to look country, but failing because he's still wearing his beloved designer jeans. But aren't our mini pumpkins adorable?
When I say we went apple picking, I suppose I should clarify. Glenn picked the apples and I stood there cheering him on because I couldn't reach the good ones.
The apples were crisp and sweet.
So when I returned to Curtis Orchard with Tessa in tow, I felt an instant surge of happiness. Who wouldn't feel excitement entering the Flying "R" Corral?


Here's Tessa learning more about the process of making honey.But my stomach demanded that we go check out the goodies in the country store and cafe.
The whole place is Wizard of Oz themed, hence the name "Flying Monkey Cafe"
Look! The Ladies who wear purple and red hats!! Who are they? I forgot what their club is called.

Finally, I got my comfort food. Six freshly baked Apple Donuts and a BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich. The pork was so tender, I felt like the meat was practically melting when I chewed on it.

And the donuts, ohhh, the donuts. They were crispy on the outside, cakey but light on the inside, with an explosion of apples and cinnamon with every bite. Perfection. And when I dipped my donuts in my perfect cup of coffee, and took that first bite, Tessa said I looked ridiculously happy and satisfied.

EEEK! Guilt-free Brownies!!!!

Yesterday, I felt mopey because I would be spending my Halloween alone, studying at home. For those of you who don't know, Glenn is on a business trip in Australia, leaving me here, making me feel extremely jealous.
Anyways, to make myself feel better, I decided to bake something chocolatey and decadent. Something that the Barefoot Contessa would make. I would use my heavy duty Kitchen Aid mixer, maybe make some orange colored frosting.
However, when I went to Trader Joe's to buy my ingredients, I found the most amazing find ... EVER! Here it is - the No Pudge Fat Free Brownie Mix!!!!!!!!!!!


On the box, there are three important claims that I wanted, no NEEDED to examine for myself.

They claim that these brownies are:

1. Decadent (Yes, they are very decadent)
2. Fudgy (Indeed!)
3. Chewy (So, true! They are extremely chewy)

I'm totally in love with these brownies because all you have to do is add fat free vanilla yogurt - and voila! Amazing tasting brownies.

I do suggest that you use a hand-held mixer when making these brownies. The batter is very thick and difficult to mix because the yogurt doesn't break up the dry mix right away.



I already ate this much. And I don't even feel bad.