Baked Crab and Artichoke Dip – A Snack So Nice You Finish it Twice

Nothing says, “this party rocks” like a creamy, cheesy, baked dip, and when you’re talking about a hot crab and artichoke dip, people have been known to put an extra choice word or two before “rocks.” If only there were a big event coming up soon to test this theory.

Not only is this additive dip easy to make, it works with any budget. You can load it up with the finest fresh crab, use frozen or pasteurized lump crab meat, or even canned in a pinch. By the way, (and off the record) I’ve had these made with fake crab, and it wasn’t bad at all.

While the loaf of bread base does make for a nice presentation, not to mention recycled after party snack food, you can simply bake this in a casserole dish as well. As I mentioned in the video, I had a little extra leftover, and if this happens to you, give it a try as a stuffing for ravioli, wontons, or other dumpling-like delivery systems.

No matter which team they’re rooting for, all your guests will be cheering for more of this delicious baked dip. By the way, nothing beats watching your friends play tug-o-war with the crust once the dip is gone. I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 portions of Baked Crab and Artichoke Dip:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper

1/3 cup chopped green onions

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp fresh chopped tarragon leaves

zest and juice from 1 lemon

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste

1 pound lump crab meat, drained

1 (14-oz) can artichoke bottoms

6 oz white Cheddar cheese, divided

1 large round or oval loaf sourdough bread

About 30 min at 375 degrees F.

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You Can Count on Monte Cristo Benedict for Mother’s Day Brunch

I always get a ton of food wishes this time of year for creative brunch ideas, and I was thinking about doing some new type of eggs Benedict, when I happened to see a photo of a Monte Cristo sandwich. At first, it just made me want a Monte Cristo sandwich, but after that wore off, I started thinking about how I’d seen these topped with fried eggs before.

Long story short, I decided to simply make an open-faced version of the famous stuffed sandwich, and top it with poached eggs, and hopefully a new American brunch classic was born. Of course, Ill let you decide, but there was nothing I didn’t love about this plate of food. Okay, the salad was kind of phoned in, but the rest was awesome.

The base is a variation of our famous Restaurant Style French Toast recipe, which marries perfectly with the ham, cheddar and havarti. It was so tasty you really don’t even need the poached eggs. Actually, forget I said that. Do the eggs. If only so you can pop those yolks, and watch them run. Besides the eating, that has to be the best part.

I’ve also re-posted a poached eggs demo below, since poaching your eggs ahead of time is the only way to go, especially if you have a larger group. By the way, you can hold the Monte Cristo bases in a warm oven while you pull the rest of the meal together. I hope you give this new Benedict a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 portions:

For the batter:

2 large eggs

1/4 cup cream

1 tbsp sugar

pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice

4 thick slices of French bread
1 tbsp butter

8 slices ham

4 slices cheddar cheese

4 slices havarti cheese

8 poached eggs

chive to garnish

How to Poach Eggs 

 

View the complete Poached Eggs recipe

View the complete Monte Cristo Benedict recipe

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Tarte Tatin – See What the Others Aren’t Willing to Show You

When I looked at some other tarte tatin recipes on YouTube, I noticed that very few showed the “flip on to the plate” step. They would just skip from the out of the oven shot to the final beauty shot. The reason of course, is that very few tarte tatins come out of the hot pan perfectly, and if they showed that, then you may not think they are as awesome as their profile says they are.

So, it’s with much pride that I show you the whole ugly scene that is the tarte tatin dismount. The good news is, it’s very simple to slap everything back on the crust before it cools, and none will be the wiser. This is even easier if you’re doing a version with very soft and tender apples and lots of caramel, which is my preference, as you’ll see.

If you do a Google image search for a classic, old recipe like this, you usually see a lot of photos that look alike, but that’s not necessarily so with tarte tatin. You’ll see an amazingly diverse array, which is fascinating since they were all made with the same few basic ingredients. Most of this is a result of cooking time in the pan before baking.

Some feature firm, barely cooked apples, while others cook the fruit all the way down to a buttery, caramelized jam. The beauty of a recipe that uses just pastry dough, butter, apples and sugar to make the magic, is that no matter how yours comes out you’ll enjoy it. Of course, you’ll want to hedge your bets with some vanilla bean ice cream to be safe. I hope you give this classic French treat a try soon. Enjoy!

3 large apples, quartered

3 tbsp butter

3/4 cup sugar

pie dough for a single crust

View the complete recipe 

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Old Fashioned Cracker Dressing Stuffing – Do You Dare

Here we go again, delving into the treacherous topic of changing up your traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. This time, it’s an old-fashioned cracker dressing vying to be that surprise, uninvited guest.

Sure some you alternative lifestylists may go for the cornbread, but generally, bread-based variations rule the day. There’s a great reason for this; they’re easy, delicious, and most importantly, very familiar. Therein lies the problem.

Why mess with past success? Your loved ones wait all year for your Thanksgiving feast, so why take the chance of disappointing them on the big day? You have the entire rest of the year to do that.

Anyway, I’m not going to try and convince you that this is a superior dressing, or that you should change your regular routine, but if you’re someone whos looking for a change of pace dressing, that’s still very familiar and comforting, this could be the one.

Of course, you can use whatever ingredients you normally add to your bread dressing, and it should work just the same. By the way, I never stuff my turkey, so if you choose to use this as a stuffing, please refer to the roughly one million Thanksgiving turkey cooking guides linked online. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 16 portions:

1 pound saltine crackers (4 sleeves)

1/2 cup butter

1 large or 2 small yellow onions, diced

3 or 4 ribs of celery, diced

1 tsp salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

cayenne to taste

1/2 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

2 3/4 cups chicken or turkey broth

1/2 cup cream or milk

1 or 2 eggs

*Tip: you can cook a small nugget in a pan and taste for seasoning

Bake at 375 degrees F. for bout 45 minutes

View the complete recipe

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30 Minutes Tau Suan With You Tiao 豆爽油条

Whenever you walk into a local hawker center or foodcourt in Singapore, you can easier spot a stall or two selling variety of desserts such as Red Bean Soup, Green Bean Soup, Black Sticky Rice, Ginkgo Barley with Beancurd Sheet, Ice Kachang and etc. Tau suan(豆爽) is also one of the popular item on the list which is a sweet Chinese dessert made of split mung beans which are steamed till soften before being stirred into a pandan infused water then thickened with either potato or water chestnut flour.

Last two weeks so coincidentally I have received about 4 request on this Tau Suan recipe which I thought perhaps I could prepare with some step-by-step photos to share this all time favourite hawker dessert with more readers who is interested in preparing this at home.

This dessert is served warm with crispy sliced fried fritter (you tiao - 油条) and the texture is kind of like porridge consistency where the bean appears in clear thick liquid. Whereas mine was a bit overcooked because I left it in the thermal pot while running some errands before having it a few hours later.

[STEAMING METHOD]
Ingredients: (serves 2 - 4)
100g Spilt Green Bean (hulled mung bean, 去壳绿豆)
2 Knots of Pandan Leaves
1 Litre of Water
Cane Sugar To Taste
1 Pair of Fried Fritter (You Tiao, 油条)

For Thickening:
1/2 - 3/4 Tablespoon Potato/Water Chestnut Flour
100ml Drinking Water

Method:-

1. Soak mung beans for at least 30 minutes in lukewarm water till the bean slightly expand.

2. Drain well, steam mung beans with a knot or small pieces of pandan leaves for about 20 - 30 minutes on medium heat till soft.

3. While waiting for the mung beans to be cooked, in another pot bring about 1 litres of water to boil, add in a knot of pandan leaves together with cane sugar to taste.

3. When the bean is cooked and soften, add it into the prepared syrup water and slowly stir in the flour mixture (mix potato/water chestnut flour with water and give it a stir before adding to the soup) to thicken the water.

4. Turn off the heat and ladle into serving bowls and top with fried fritter/you tiao.

Other than the common way of steaming the mung beans I have learnt another new way from a video on YouTube by Mr KF Seetoh from Makansutra Cooking. He actually fried the mung bean(soaked and drained) with some caster sugar till caramelised before adding it into the pre-cooked pandan water. Then he sweeten the mixture with sugar and thickened it with water chestnut flour mixture before serving.  According to his method the whole process of cooking takes less than 30 minutes so if you are interested you can take a look at the video HERE with cooking instructions and recipe too.

[STIR-FRIED METHOD]
Ingredients: (serves 2 - 4)
100g Spilt Green Bean (hulled mung bean, 去壳绿豆)
2 Knots of Pandan Leaves
1 Litre of Water
1 Tablespoon Caster Sugar
Cane Sugar To Taste
1 Pair of Fried Fritter (You Tiao, 油条)

For Thickening:
1/2 - 3/4 Tablespoon Potato/Water Chestnut Flour
100ml Drinking Water

Method:-

1. Soak mung beans for 10 minutes in lukewarm water till the bean slightly expand. Drain well and set aside.

2. While soaking the mung bean, in another pot bring about 1 litres of water to boil, add in pandan leaves together and simmer for about 5 - 7 minutes till the water change colour. (refer to the photo above)

3. In a non-stick pan or pot, add in drained mung bean together with about 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and fry over medium low heat till the beans are fragrance and caramelised. (according to Mr Seetoh this process will held to firm up the beans while cooking) Turn off the heat and set aside.

4. Remove the pandan leaves from the water, add in the cooked beans and simmer on medium low for about 5 minutes then season it with cane sugar/caster sugar to taste.

5. Lastly lower the heat and quickly stir in the potato/water chestnut flour mixture to thickened it.

6. Turn off the heat and ladle tau suan into serving bowls, top with fried fritter/you tiao and serve.


Overall I preferred the second method where you stir-fried the mung beans with caster sugar to caramelise it for that extra fragrance and colour. And it also speed up the cooking process without the need to pre-soak and steam the beans for at least an hour or so. And in this way, you can easily cook your favourite Tau Suan at anytime of the day in just less than 30 minutes time. If you cant find fried fritter/you tiao in the middle of the night you can always replace it with some ready to eat frozen prata sheet which can be reheat in a couple of minutes. So which method do you prefer, Steaming or Stir-fry?

Once again, thanks for all your "BUZZ(s)" and support friends. Tau Suan With You Tiao(豆爽油条) post has make it to FoodBuzz Todays Top 9, 20th April 2011.(Here)

Featured On: FoodBuzz Todays Top 9, 20th April 2011.(Here)

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