Dungeness Crab Cheesecake

This is a savory cheesecake and will be served up with some crackers as an appetizer. It is the same baking process as a dessert cheesecake, except this one is made without a water bath. Frankly, I think the only reason to bake it is so that the eggs get cooked; otherwise, everything else that went into the recipe can be eaten as is. This recipe ratio, minus the onions, is adaapted from the 1999 issue of Taste of Home. I baked this one in a 9" springform pan, like the one used for cakes. For the crab part of the recipe, I steamed a dungeness crab the previous night and reserved the meat.

Dungeness Crab Cheesecake. Looks a little boring.
Tastes like it desperately needs a contrasting flavor or
roasted red peppers added to it.

On the seafood seasoning, you could just use Old Bay seasoning; though in lieu of that, this is what goes into it: celery seed (adds a savory depth to meat rubs), black pepper (spicy), bay leaves (savory), cardamom pods (sweet & spicy), mustard seeds (savory), whole cloves (sweet & spicy), sweet paprika (mild & sweet, mostly for color) and ground mace (sweet).

[edit] This came out tasting terribly bland, like it was just cream cheese mixed with crab. To bring out the flavor more, perhaps next time add in a cup of shredded smoked gouda or fry some red/green/yellow/orange small diced bell peppers into it for color contrasts.

Ingredients

16 oz cream cheese, softened

3 oz sour cream

1 c crushed butter crackers + 1/4 c melted unsalted butter

1 c cooked dungeness crab meat, flaked

3 eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp seafood seasoning (I used ground mace, smoked paprika, pinch of ground cloves)

dash of chili sauce (like a sirracha or Tabasco sauce)

freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, seafood seasoning, and chili sauce. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine cream cheese and sour cream. Beat together until smooth. Add in lightly beaten eggs, lemon juice, seafood seasoning, chili sauce and some freshly ground black pepper. Blend until smooth-ish.

3. Take 25-30 round butter crackers (like Ritz or Trader Joe's) and crush them with your hands, in a food prep, or in a sealable plastic bag with a bottle or rubber mallet. You could also substitute panko crumbs in this step, I suppose. Mix the cracker crumbs with melted butter and gently press into the bottom of a buttered springform cake pan.

4. Bake cracker crust for 10 minutes, remove from oven and turn oven heat down to 325 degrees F.

5. Pour cream cheese mixture into the prepared cake pan and use a spatula to spread the filling evenly. Bake for 35 minutes, until center has set.

6. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Use a butter knife to loosen the cheesecake from the edge of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let refrigerate for an hour or more before serving.

Serve with freshly made bread or crackers.

Clams with Black Bean Sauce (and Fresh Basil)

I've seen this dish served up both ways, with fresh basil and without. It tastes pretty good either way when clams are in season. In this region, Manilla clams are both farm grown and local to the Puget Sound. These clams come from the Hama Hama river delta. Wash the clams in cold water and scrub the shells with a stiff brush before using. This helps to release any dirt in and on the clams.

Clams with Black Bean Sauce and Fresh Basil

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large whole scallion, chopped
1 tbsp fermented black beans, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp dry sherry (or Shaoxing rice cooking wine)
1/4 c fresh basil, sliced into 1/4" thin strips
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 c water
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in water.

Directions

1. In a small prep bowl, combine garlic, ginger and scallions. In a separate prep bowl, have lightly chopped fermented black beans. In a third prep bowl, combine soy sauce, sherry, and sugar. In the fourth prep bowl, combine cornstarch with enough water to dissolve the powder. Set aside until ready to cook.

2. Heat a wok or large heavy skillet (with a lid) over high heat until hot; add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Toss in the garlic, ginger, scallions and black beans; stir rapidly so the garlic does not burn. Add the clams and stir for about a minute. Sprinkle in soy sauce sherry, and sugar mixture; then pour in the water. Cover and let the clams cook for five minutes, until all the clams have opened.

3. Uncover the wok and pour in the cornstarch water. Stir the sauce around and the sauce will thicken. Last, add in the fresh basil and give it a stir. Scoop the clams and the sauce into a serving dish.

(Mock) Rosemary Sourdough Bread

Is it possible to circumvent the slow feeding cycle of a sourdough starter? This recipe method attempts a possibility by substituting some of the water in the dough with plain yogurt to give it a sour taste. Don't know if it'll actually work. So far, the dough hasn't risen nor doubled in bulk in the usual amount of time allotted to the first rise. 

To make a true sourdough bread with a sourdough starter today, I could either buy a premade starter or make one from scratch several days in advance. While milled, unbleached flour is still inexpensive (< $5 for 10#), it seems like a waste to toss half the starter after the first day. Each time the starter is fed, half is thrown out. I suppose you could also just start other starters and that would require more math and patience than I have time for this particular experiment.

I am baking this using a Dutch oven pot in an oven. This baking method seems to work well with getting a moist inside with a hard, crispy crust (without having to spray the bread with water during is baking cycle). The ingredient ratio comes from a few sources. This is my third attempt at a Dutch oven-baked bread; the first two simply did not taste salty enough. I have added a sprinkling of additional kosher salt to the part of the recipe where you roll the dough in flour before baking. In the previous loaf of rosemary bread, I couldn't taste the rosemary, so this one has a full 1/4 cup of fresh whole and chopped rosemary.

Ingredients

1 tbsp active dry yeast + 1/2 c warm water
2-4 c all-purpose unbleached flour, separated
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 tbsp raw honey
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 c fresh rosemary leaves, mostly whole and partially chopped
2 c plain whole milk yogurt

Directions

1. Prep the yeast. Add yeast to 1/2 c warm water (110 degrees F) and let bloom for 10 minutes before adding to the flour.

2. Prep the dough. Combine 2 c flour, salt, honey, and yeast-water in a bowl and mix until well combined. Knead using a stand mixer for 8-10 minutes, or by hand, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic; incorporate up to two more cups of flour so that the dough is less runny.

3. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Turn the dough once so that all the sides of the dough become oiled. Cover with a plate or plastic wrap. Let rise for 1.5-2 hours, until doubled in bulk.

4. Sprinkle some flour and some kosher salt onto a large plate. Empty the dough out onto the plate and gently roll around until the dough is lightly covered with flour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Let Dutch oven pot warm up as the oven heat up.

5. Remove pot from oven and place dough inside. Using a sharp knife or edge of a spatula, make decorative marks across the dough. Replace lid on Dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes covered. Then remove lid and bake for an additional 12 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Tibetan Butter Tea ("po cha")

After landing at the small airport in Lhasa, Tibet in 2001, one of the first beverages consumed was butter tea; graciously offered to us by the hotel our group stayed at. A truly authentic butter tea would be made from yak milk, yak butter, and a special black tea that has been compressed into a brick. In the US, however, yaks are pretty hard to come by and zoos aren't about to give up their yak milk for this recipe. The taste aspect that you lose from using dairy cow milk is the pungent and strong aftertaste from traditional butter tea. You could substitute cow milk for goat milk, I suppose.

2001, Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet
You could say that I am standing on the roof of the "Roof of the World". 

This recipe ratio comes from Lobsang Wangdu, Tibetan cookbook author of "Tibetan Home Cooking".

Serves: 2

Ingredients

4 c water

2 heaping teaspoons of good quality black tea

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp unsalted or salted butter

1/3 c half 'n' half or whole milk

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil in a small pot. Add tea and let steep for a few minutes. Add salt and stir. Then strain out the loose tea, unless using a mesh tea ball or teabags. Add milk. Remove pot from heat.

2. With an immersion blender (or stand blender), mix the tea liquid with butter and churn (or shake in a lidded container) for 2-3 minutes.

Tea is best served when it is very hot.

Crockpot Dark Chocolate Brownies

This recipe is a little bit more hands-on and labor intensive than baking up a batch of the same in an oven. With just over two and a half hours of "baking" to go, the kitchen smells really good right now.. like freshly baked brownies. The brownies cook most of the time with the heat of the ceramic base of the slow cooker and also by steam. The final half hour is done with the lid off the cooker. Hopefully it'll be ready in time for tonight's "slow cooked foods potluck".

Ingredients

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c organic sweet ground cocoa

1/2 c organic granulated sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon chunks

9 oz dark chocolate, chopped into 1/2" chunks

3 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions

1. In a heatproof bowl, microwave butter and dark chocolate together in 30-second intervals, stirring each time until the chocolate is melted. About 1.5 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs together with sugar.

3. In a larger mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add melted butter/chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Add egg mixture and stir to combine.

4. Lightly butter the center of some parchment paper and place in the bottom of the slow cooker. Add the brownie mixture and use a spatula to smooth the top.

5. Cover and set cooker on "low" for 4 hours. Cook with lid on for 3.5 hours, and then with the lid off for another half hour.

6.  Remove brownies from crockpot and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before cutting into.