I think I've made it fairly clear I love to cook. As you can read in a post from last July, I
started learning to cook when I was in junior high when my Mommy was attending
nursing school; I've been experimenting and having fun cooking ever since. In addition to my favorite cookbooks I’ve
written about earlier, I also love cooking magazines. I get a ridiculous number of them (just ask Larry): Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Saveur,
Cooking Light – and before its demise, Gourmet.
I pour over these
magazines each month and while I don’t make something from every issue, even
today I study the articles and use what I learn to improve my cooking. If I do the
math right, I’ve gotten at least one of these magazines for more than 25 years,
starting in the early 1990s when I first started subscribing to Gourmet and discovered the amazing
writing of Laurie Colwin, who tragically died in 1992 at the age of 48.
Of the hundreds of cooking magazines I’ve gotten over the
years, I’ve saved just three.
The first is a Special Collector’s Edition of Bon Appetit from May 1997 that was my
inspiration for tackling real Italian cooking. From it, I learned to make
risotto and Pollo alla Marengo (Chicken with tomatoes, onions and mushrooms),
and discovered how wonderfully diverse the regional cuisines are in this relatively
small country.
The second magazine takes an amazing look at the history of
American food. Also Bon Appetit, this
issue from September 1999 chronicles the American century in food. Starting
with 1900 it takes the reader through a century of food, restaurants,
libations, cooking essentials and made-in-America food products. Its timelines share the years when thousands
of iconic items such as Tabasco (1868), Oreos (1912), Tupperware (1946), Cuisinart
(1973), and Velveeta (1928) were created. The articles on each decade share those years' favorite recipes and the societal changes that impacted the foods Americans
ate and the people who cooked them. It is a fascinating look at our country.
(One of the most interesting articles in the issue is each decade’s take on
apple pie).
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| Crab cakes |
The third cooking magazine I’ve kept is Food and Wine’s 25th Anniversary issue published in
September 2003 that featured what they considered their 25 best recipes ever.
From this issue have come many of our favorites: an amazing macaroni and cheese
with buttery crumbs, spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, molten chocolate cake, and
Mrs. Duvall’s (Robert's mom) pan-fried crab cakes. (Note: Jenni and I
always got a kick out of the irony of the tofu with spicy meat sauce recipe that’s
described as the “tastiest tofu recipe the magazine ever came across” – not hard
to imagine why that tofu tasted good.
LOL).
Over the years, I’ve adapted Mrs. Duvall's crab cake recipe to create
my own version. Here’s the recipe:
Crab cakes with
mustard sauce
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ minced onion
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, drained (break each piece into a couple of smaller pieces, but don’t shred or get pieces too small)
Approximately 2 cups of panko crumbs
¼ minced onion
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, drained (break each piece into a couple of smaller pieces, but don’t shred or get pieces too small)
Approximately 2 cups of panko crumbs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, onion, eggs, Worcestershire
sauce, dry mustard, salt and cayenne. Using your hands, gently fold in crab, being careful to not
break up the crab any further. Start adding in panko crumbs with your hands, a 1/3
cup at a time until the mixture comes together and will form small cakes. Form
into 6-8 crab cakes depending on the size you like. Coat the crab cakes on both
sides with the remaining panko crumbs. (At this point, you can cook right away or
refrigerate for a few hours.
In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter
and two tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat until it foams. Add half
of the crab cakes, cook for 2-3 minutes each side. Place in a warm oven. Wipe
out the skillet and heat another 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons
of oil and cook the remaining crab cakes.
Serve with mustard sauce.
Mustard sauce
1/3 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of English dry mustard
Dash of hot sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of English dry mustard
Dash of hot sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for several hours
for flavors to combine.
