First, let me tell you about three things that I love.
I love to cook. I'd always helped out in the kitchen growing up. Besides being a good guy, my dad is also an incredible cook and a great teacher. To be the best, you have to train with the best. I learned two of my favorite cooking lessons from him: 1) never follow a recipe exactly and 2) cook as if every person you're feeding is eating for three. Now, I may have paraphrased a little there, but these were unspoken rules in our house. He learned them from his giant Italian family where food was such a big part of family gatherings, big or small. We were spoiled with love and laughter when we visited my Nonno, or any of my Zios or Zias, and were fed to our hearts' content and our stomachs' capacity. In our house, my dad would call out "aiutami!" and my sisters and I would be there to help stir the pot of sauce and meatballs on the stove, to help construct his infamous breakfast casserole, or stuff the Thanksgiving turkey with the most delicious stuffing your could ever possibly eat in your life, ever. (Seriously, ever.) Now my dad lives across the country and those big Italian family gatherings are fewer and farther between, but I still feel like I'm paying homage to my family and my roots when I'm cooking. I have big shoes to fill, but I'm doing my best to make them proud. Family - that's the second thing that I love.
Third - I love when people post recipes online; visions of making buffalo chicken lasagna, bacon cheeseburger dip or mini cheesecakes don't come to me in my sleep. I am inspired by the people I follow on social media who knocked it out of the park with their crock pot pulled pork sliders, by the menus I read at restaurants that tell me "you totally can make your own crab cakes at home", and the endless hours of time I spend watching cooking television shows and adding cooking competitions to my bucket list. This blog is for the people, like me, who are inspired by others. I hope you'll enjoy reading this, that you'll keep sharing food ideas with me, and that you'll try some of these at home whether you're cooking for your family of five or it's just a single serving.
Before I share my first recipe, I want to disclose that I am a perfectionist in the kitchen. This is something I have struggled with in the past; I get pretty upset when a meal goes a wry or doesn't taste as delicious as I was intending. It can be frustrating when things go wrong, when you thought you had an ingredient at home so you didn't buy it at the grocery store only to find out you were wrong, or when you spent a lot of time making something that barely seems mediocre. So I'm going to challenge myself to share even the blunders with you and hopefully we can create some changes together! My goal is at least one recipe a week. Let the games (or gas stove flames) begin!
Recipe Number One: Crab Cakes & Rémoulade
This weekend I went out to dinner at Bonefish Grill and have had crab cakes on my brain ever since. I can be pretty impulsive (once I get an idea in my head, I have to do it). This goes the same for cooking - as soon as I thought that I might be able to make crab cakes on my own, I made myself a shopping list and headed to the grocery store after work. It probably wasn't pretty - I went to the store hungry after being on my feet for 8.5 hours but I managed to go to the store, unpack my groceries, and whip up some delicious crab cakes and remoulade (fancy name for dipping sauce or at least that's what I'll say it is) in under an hour and 15 minutes! I'll call that a win any day. I followed this recipe from kitchn loosely to create my dinner! Here's the recipe with my modifications!
Serves 4ish (makes 12 crab cakes)
For the crab cakes:
1 pound lump crab meat
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1 diced fresh jalapeno pepper (sans seeds)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko crumbs, plus additional for dredging
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons mustard powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
For the rémoulade: 1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sweet relish
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Couple dashes of hot sauce
*Disclosure: I didn't actually measure anything - just threw some in and decided when it looked like enough but these are the suggested amounts from the recipes for those who would rather not guess*
For the crab cakes, combine the crab meat and peppers in a large bowl. Add all of the remaining ingredients and mix gently until well-combined. Using a 1/4-cup measuring cup, scoop out crab mixture and form into a patty with your hands. Dredge the cakes in additional panko crumbs until completely covered. Arrange the cakes on a sheet pan and chill until ready to cook.
Heat a few glugs of canola oil in a large aluminum or cast iron skillet over medium-high to high heat. Cook crab cakes (in two batches if necessary, adding more oil as needed) until crispy and light golden-brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Take the cakes out of the hot oil and let them breathe for a few minutes on a plate with some paper towels to soak up extra oil. Serve with a dollop of the delicious rémoulade.
For the rémoulade, combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and you got it!
There you have it friends! My first ever post about food! I'm so glad you decided to read it and hope you will continue to read any upcoming posts!
Happy Cooking!
- Kela
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