Easy Snow Crab Recipe // Faking Fancy

A lot of times for Father's Day, I like to treat my dad to something different from the usual tie, new music album or clothes he is used to getting - like cooking a nice meal. The hunt for the perfect recipe is always difficult. My mom is an amazing cook and they enjoy eating at restaurants, so finding a recipe that feels special, grand or is a meal they don't usually eat can be really hard to do. In the past I have gone for intricate and labor intensive meals like a seafood risotto with lobster and crab, but this year I found the perfect meal to 'fake fancy' - snow crab legs in just 6 minutes.

CT had made snow crab legs for me the week before Father's Day, and when we were sitting at the tab shamelessly dipping crab into obscene amounts of butter, I couldn't help but think 'What did I do to deserve this." We started talking about the meal and I couldn't believe how easy it was to cook such a delicious dish that can be pretty pricey at restaurants. 

So I'm sharing the secret with you today, and you really only need 4 ingredients - one of which being water!

Ingredients

2 clusters per person - (a cluster is a group of legs attached to the main body)

1 lemon

1 stick of butter for dipping sauce

1/2 inch of water to cover the bottom of the pan

Cookware

Stock Pot - or a pot large enough to hold the crab your cooking with a lid on

Nice-to-Have: Crab Crackers 

Instructions

In a pot large enough to fit all crab with the top on, heat 1/2 inch of water with lemon wedges over medium-high heat until it boils. Once it boils, add crab and cover. You want as little crab as possible to be in the water. It's helpful to position the crab legs on the lemons so they aren't in the water. If some of your crab is in the water, it will just overcook what's in the boiling water. Cook for around 6-8 minutes. Snow crab is caught and cooked on the spot. It is then frozen and shipped to groceries all over, so you are trying to heat the crab up thoroughly without overcooking. 

Once crab is cooked to your liking, I like to serve each pair of clusters with a small bowl of melted butter for dipping. We served our meal with corn and an arugula, parmesan salad.

Enjoy!

Pan-Seared Tuna with Cilantro Lime Dressing

We've just spent our first weekend at the beach and are having a blast being on the coast. The weather is a bit hotter than it usually is this time of the year causing us to spend more time than normal in the ocean. I am definitely not complaining. My nephew just spent his first week at Pawleys officially introducing this beach to a fourth generation of our family. He loved it. 

CT and I love to cook together, so this week I'll be sharing a lot of seafood recipes. First up, is this tuna recipe we made the other night. We love pan-seared tuna and can often have a hard time finding sushi grade in Atlanta. We cooked up this pan-seared tuna with a cilantro, lime, ginger and avocado dressing with some jalepenos to give it a kick. 

Serving Size: 3

Ingredients

3, 6 ounce tuna steaks, sushi grade

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

3 limes, squeezed

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 fresh jalepenos, sliced thinly

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp ginger root, grated

2 ripe avocados

salt and pepper

Directions

1. Rinse tuna steak under water and pat dry. Rub with 1 tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Mix together cilantro, lime juice, garlic, jalepenos, 1 tbsp olive oil, and ginger root in a blender or salad dressing mixer (I used a Herb 'N Serve). Blend on low speed just to mix without pureeing.

3. Cut avocado in half long ways, use 1 1/2 in blender mixing in with above ingredients until mixed not blended. (You should still be able to see some of the cilantro leaves)

4. Slice avocado thinly for garnish.

5. Heat skillet over medium heat. Spray pan with cooking spray or small amount of olive oil. Make sure the pan is hot - a good test for this is to drip water and see if it sizzles. Once pan is hot, cook tuna on each side for 2 minutes and add a spoonful of the dressing to each tuna steak while cooking.This will leave the fish red to pink in the middle. As always consuming raw or undercooked seafood, may increase your risk of food-borne illness, and is not recommended for pregnant women, so cook for longer to cook through.

6. Serve with additional dressing and avocado for garnish.

Check back this week - I'll be sharing a How To Cook Crab Legs In 6 Minutes!

Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi, Soy, Lime Vinaigrette Recipe

Seared Tuna Salad With Wasabi Soy Vinaigrette

By Corbin Page

Published: August 21, 2013

This tuna salad recipe is becoming one of my favorite recipes for a healthy seafood dish. I love seared Tuna and the wasabi soy and lime vinaigrette is a tangy mix of unique flavors. My roommate made this for our Shark Week celebration and I've been hooked ever since.

Prep time: 22 min

Cook time: 3 min max

Total time: 25 min

Yield: 2 servings

INGREDIENTS

Tuna Steak : 1/2 lb

Mixed Baby Lettuce : 2 cups - 2 large handfulls

Avocado, sliced : 1/2

Tomatoes : 1
Asparagus : 1 bunch

Lime, zested : 1
Lime, squeezed : 3 tbsp ( about 1-2 limes)

Wasabi Powder :1/2 teaspoon 

Soy Sauce, Light Sodium : 1 tsp 
Tabasco Hot Sauce : 5 dashes
Olive Oil : 2 tbsp
Ginger for garnish

Salt & Pepper: To Taste
 {adapted from Barefoot Contessa}

DIRECTIONS

1. On two dinner plates, start to compile the desired amount lettuce.
2. Slice avocado and tomato and add to the lettuce.
3. In a medium-sized saucepan, heat a dollop of olive oil. Cut the bottom inch off of the asparagus, add to the saucepan, cover and cook for 10 mins. Stir occasionally.
5. In a medium bowl mix 2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp wasabi powder, 1 tsp soy sauce, 5 dashes hot sauce, 1 lime zested, 3 tbsp squeezed lime juice. Stir and set aside.
4. Rinse and pat tuna dry. Brush both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Heat a medium sized saucepan over high heat. Drop water on pan until it sizzles to tell if it's hot enough.
6. Cook tuna for 1 minute on each side.
7. Slide seared tuna in 1/4 inch slices and lay on top of the two salads.
8. Divvy out asparagus to each salad.
9. Top with ginger and desired amount of dressing.

Sesame Crusted Tuna with Wasabi Butter Mango Sauce

We are having such a great time at the beach, lots of reading. I'm currently half way through The Art Forger, anyone read it?, and a whole lot of cooking! Normally I try to switch up my post topics throughout the week, but I've spent way more time in the kitchen this week than I have browsing online. Hope you don't mind a lot of recipes!

This dish was a huge hit on Father's Day. 

A yummy tropical seafood dish with the perfect summer salad.

**Don't forget to enter the Ginkgo Leaf Cutouts art giveaway! It ends tonight at midnight.**

Ingredients

4,  tuna steaks about 6 ounces each– sashimi grade 

1 mango 

2/3 cup cilantro

4 tbsp unsalted butter

4 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce 

2 teaspoon wasabi paste

2/3 cup scallions

3/4 cup, 2 tsp dry white wine – I used a Sauvignon Blanc

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 tbsp black sesame seeds

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Servings: 4

The tuna will cook quickly, so start with making the sauce first, and start up the grill. Heat the grill to medium-high direct heat. 

To start the sauce, combine red wine vinegar, white wine and finely chopped scallions in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat. Allow mixture to heat until you have about 4 tablespoons of the mixture left. To measure this, you'll really have to eye ball it. I tilt the skillet to the side so I can see the mixture in on spot to eyeball this. It doesn't have to be exact, but as close to 4 tbsp as you can see.

Once heated, remove scallions and set aside. Stir in soy sauce and wasabi paste until it’s mixed in. Reduce heat to low heat on your medium saucepan mixture and add in butter one tbsp at a time. Be careful to not allow your mixture to boil and burn the butter. 

Once all butter has been mixed in, add in cilantro and stir. Remember to keep heat low on simmer.

Next, add in mangoes and keep on very low heat basically just to keep it warm while you cook the fish.

To cook fish, rinse with cold water and pat dry. In a medium flat dish, mix salt, pepper and sesame seeds. Rub olive oil on the edge of the tuna steak and dip in the mixture. Do this for each piece and use remaining olive oil to brush on the flat sides of the fish (top/bottom).

 Sear the fish for a 1-2 mins on each side. This will make the fish rare - pink/red in the middle. To cook your fish all the way through, you'll need to reduce the heat or cook indirectly.

I served this dish with a yummy avocado, cilantro, chickpea, tomato summer salad with a lemon vinaigrette. It was too die for a new favorite of mine! They paired perfectly with the cilantro and avocado to complement the tuna. 

NUTRITIONAL INFO - TUNA + SAUCE

Calories: 422.9

Total Fat: 17 g

Carbs: 18.3 g.

Fiber: 2.7 g.

Protein: 41.8 g.

Old Points: 9

PointsPlus: 10

recipe / grouper over seafood risotto with a beurre blanc

I visited friends and family in Atlanta this weekend and followed my usual habit of cooking them dinner on Sunday night. Volunteering to cook dinner on vacation? A sure-fire sign that you love to cook. Plus, my mom's kitchen is absolutely to die for. She has spent the past 15 or so Christmases, Mother's Days and birthdays collecting every kitchen gadget you could possibly want, which makes cooking in her kitchen fun. 

This time I went out on a limb cooking an intricate seafood meal that I had never tried before - Roasted Grouper over Seafood Risotto with a Beurre Blanc sauce.

Those of you up for a cooking challenge...keep reading. The dish is to DIE for. You should read the whole recipe before you start cooking so you know what's coming next. This recipe has a lot of things going on at once, and it SO worth it.

Ingredients

Fish

2 tbsp canola oil

1 lb red grouper

salt & pepper

Seafood Risotto

2 tbsp e.v. olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 tsp minced garlic

2 cups Arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 cups warm chicken stock

1 large fresh lobster tail, diced

1/4 lb fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined, diced

1 small yellow corn husk, use kernels

1/4 cup sliced leeks

2 tablespoons mixed herbs - chervil, tarragon, chives)

3 tablespoons diced tomato

2 tbsp unsalted butter

salt & pepper

Beurre Blanc

1 cup finely sliced shallots

2 cups dry white wine

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 

1 tablespoon orange juice 

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 

2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces 

salt & pepper

Okay, one of the hardest things about cooking is organizing the timing of each piece to make sure everything is ready at the same time.Your first step to making sure everything is timed appropriately is to be your own sous chef so you have everything you need for the dish already ready to cook.

 Or convince your wonderful significant other to help out :)

First things first, preheat your oven to 450°.

Since the fish will cook quickly and the beurre blanc needs about 15-20 minutes to boil and let the wine cook out, I started with the beurre blanc to make sure everything would be timed out to be ready at the same time. Combine the first 8 ingredients needed for the beurre blanc in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. I'd suggest using a back burner, because you'll need to let this cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until liquid has almost evaporated.

While this cooks, start on your risotto. This part requires a lot of attention to make sure you are consistently stirring while it cooks, so use a front burner. In a large saucepan, heat 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add rice, and stir until the oil has coated it. Cook for 2 more minutes. Add wine and cook the mixture, stirring constantly until the wine is absorbed; about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup chicken stock and cook stirring constantly until absorbed; about 1 minute.

Seeing a trend yet? Keeping a consistent stir is important.

Repeat with 1 more cup of chicken stock; about 1 minute. Stir in remaining 1 cup of stock, lobster, shrimp, corn and leeks and cook for 2 minutes.

 Then stir in herbs, tomato, butter. Season with salt and pepper, cover and set aside.

Your beurre blanc mixture should be about ready with most of the liquid having already evaporated. Reduce the heat to low and gradually add the butter. Mix after each addition until melted.

Strain mixture through a strainer and discard solids. Season sauce with salt and pepper, cover and set aside.

Remove fish from the refrigerator, rinse with water,  and cut into 4 relatively even pieces. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat oil in an oven-safe, nonstick skillet over high heat for about a 45-60 secs. Place fish in pan, and reduce heat to medium; cook for 2 minutes.

Transfer skillet to oven, and bake for about 5 minutes or until fish is just cooked through. (Remember the fish will continue to cook once out of the oven in the pan.)

Serve over Seafood Risotto and Beurre Blanc. Enjoy :)

Recipe adapted from: Cooking Light