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Chilled Avocado Soup and Crab Cake with Chipotle Remoulade

Posted on June 21, 2010 by amydeline

Tonight’s meal was initially intended to be two separate meals.

Meal #1: Chilled Avocado Soup
Meal #2: Crab Cake Sandwiches with Chipotle Remoulade

Then, it occurred to me how marvelously the two would go together, like peas and carrots. You see, avocados and crab love, love, love each other! If it were socially acceptable for a fruit to marry a crustacean, the two would run away together and make millions of adorable baby crabocados. Until that day, we’ll just have to settle for joining them in perfect culinary union. With that in mind, tonight we’re making Chilled Avocado Soup decked with a Crabcake and dressed with Chipotle Remoulade.

We’ve really got three separate recipes going on here. And, they’re kind of like those items in your wardrobe that you can mix and match with other outfits in all sorts of ways. Make these recipes together, as I’m doing tonight, or use them in other ways. The crab cakes are fantastic as a sandwich or on their own, served on a bed of slaw. They’re wonderful full-sized or make perfect bite-sized hors d’ oeuvres. Serve them alongside a filet mignon with bernaise sauce for a really special dinner. The remoulade, a seasoned mayonnaise-based sauce, is great on seafood, but would also be delicious with chicken or roast beef. It also makes a great sandwich spread. Even I, the despiser of mayonnaise, enjoy this remoulade. The chilled avocado soup can stand alone (with a little dollop of creme fraiche) or top it with grilled shrimp, lobster, or broiled sea bass. Your options are truly unlimited.

Chilled Avocado Soup

  • 2 Ripe Avocados, skin and seed removed
  • 3/4 cup Chicken Stock (plus more, if desired)*
  • 1/2 cup Creme Fraiche (or sour cream)
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp Lime Juice
  • 1/4 cup Parsley Leaves or Cilantro
  • 1/2 Tbsp Garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp Salt (plus more, if desired)
  • Pepper, to taste
  • 1/2 Jalapeno Pepper, chopped fine (optional)*

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Taste. Add additional salt and pepper, if desired. Add additional broth to make the soup thinner, if desired. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.

*Use vegetable broth for a vegetarian soup.

* To add some spice without compromising the bright green color, add jalapeno pepper.  I did not have a jalapeno on hand when I make this soup today, but my guess is that 1/2 jalapeno should be about right.

Broiled Jumbo Lump Crab Cake

  • 1 pound Jumbo Lump Crab Meat, cooked*
  • 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs (or regular bread crumbs or cracker crumbs)
  • 1 Egg, beaten
  • 2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
  • 2 tsp Old Bay or Creole Seasoning
  • 1 tsp Mustard
  • 1 tsp Garlic, minced

*You can steam and pick your own crabs, if you want. But, I always buy steamed jumbo lump crab meat, that’s been hand-picked and packaged. It’s a time-saving and mess-saving option, which in my opinion, makes very little difference in the quality of the final product.

Preheat broiler. Combine all ingredients, except the crab meat, in a bowl. Mix until well blended. Gently fold the crab meat into the other ingredients, taking care not to break up the chunks too much. Use your hands to form four equal sized balls of the crab mixture. Place the balls on a baking sheet and gently flatten into thick patties. Place under the broiler and cook for about 10 minutes until completely heated through.

Chipotle Remoulade

  • 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
  • 1 Chipotle Pepper (from can of chipotles in adobo)
  • 1 Tbsp Capers
  • 1 Tbsp Chopped Pickle
  • 1 Anchovy fillet*
  • 1 tsp Mustard

*Run your fingers along the anchovy, as you rinse it under running water to check for and remove any larger bones. If you choose to omit the anchovie, you may want to add a dash of salt to the sauce.

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.  Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings, if desired. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To compose the dish:

Ladle some soup into a shallow bowl. (You don’t want the crabcake to drown in the soup, so don’t fill the bowl too deep.) Place the cooked crabcake in the center of the soup. Drizzle chipotle remoulade over the crab cake.

A little trick for drizzling the remoulade over your crab cake – Spoon some of the sauce into a small sandwich bag or ziploc. Use a pair of scissors to cut off a tiny bit of one corner.  Squeeze the sauce through the hole onto your crabcake.

Crab Cakes and Avocado. What The Gourmand Mom has joined together, let no one put asunder.

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Posted in Dressings and Condiments, Food, Fruit, Main Course, Recipes, Sauces, Seafood and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Shrimp and Asparagus in a Lemony Basil Alfredo Sauce over Fettucine

Posted on June 16, 2010 by amydeline

Something about the warm weather makes me crave seafood. This is the only time of the year when I think I’d have any chance of making it as a vegetarian, or more accurately a pesceterian. Though, I’d definitely end up missing burgers and grilled steaks and bacon and… Oh, nevermind!  I’d make a terrible vegetarian. But, I do love seafood in the summer! It’s fresh and light and tastes great with summery lemons. With that in mind, I offer you Shrimp and Asparagus in a Lemony Basil Alfredo Sauce over Fettucine.

The sauce is a basic creamy alfredo sauce, with the addition of basil and a little lemon juice and zest. Lemon zest is the bright outer peel of the lemon (not including the bitter, white pith). It is full of concentrated lemon flavor. You can skip the zest, but it really deepens the lemony flavor and looks lovely in the sauce. So, I definitely recommend it. To zest your lemon, thoroughly wash it and then use a zester to remove the thin outer layer of the peel.  If you don’t have a zester, you can use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to carefully remove the outer peel. Then, cut the peel into small strips.

Shrimp and Asparagus in a Lemony Basil Alfredo Sauce over Fettucine

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Shrimp, deveined and peeled
  • 1 small bunch of Asparagus
  • 1 box Fettucine pasta

For the sauce:

  • 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 2-3 Tbsp water
  • 1 Shallot, diced**
  • 5-7 Basil Leaves, chopped**
  • 1 Lemon, zest and juice
  • 1 1/2 cups Light Cream
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • Salt and Pepper

** Chop the shallot the same way you would chop a small onion. Click on the Photo Guides tab to view step-by-step photos of how to chop an onion and how to chiffonade basil leaves.

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the fettucine, al dente, according to the package directions.

Steam asparagus, chop into small pieces, and set aside.

In a large saute pan, heat 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add shrimp to the pan and cook about 5 minutes until they are completely cooked through.  They will be pink and opaque. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside.

Add a small amount of water to the pan, over medium heat, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits of shrimp stuck to the pan. Continue scraping the bottom of the pan until the bits are loosened and water has mostly evaporated. **See note below.**

Then, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan.  Add the chopped shallot and cook until slightly softened, about 3-4 minutes.

Add the cream and the zest.  Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly.

Add the cheese, basil, and  the juice from 1/2 the lemon (about a Tbsp) to the sauce. Stir to combine.

Continue simmering for a few minutes until the sauce begins to thicken. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a bit more cream or milk to thin it out.

Season with salt and pepper. Taste and add a bit more lemon juice, if desired.

Add shrimp and asparagus to the sauce for a few seconds to reheat.  Toss the fettucine in the sauce.

(Serves 4)

** This step is called deglazing. Those little caramelized bits in the pan are called sucs. There’s some yummy flavor in those sucs, as long as you don’t burn them. The cool water will sizzle in the hot pan and help loosen the sucs while you scrape them up. This step will prevent the bits from burning on the bottom, while preserving the shrimpy flavor for the sauce. A bit of stock or white wine would work well for this step too, but water is just fine. If the sucs burn, clean out the pan before cooking the shallot.

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Posted in Culinary Techniques, Food, Fruit, Main Course, Recipes, Seafood, Vegetable and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
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