Month: October 2006

Snow Crabs Legs Seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning

Picture of Snow Crabs Legs with Old Bay Seasoning
Having lived in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US for most of my life, the natural seasoning that comes to my mind for seafood is Old Bay Seasoning. Old Bay is a classic seasoning for Maryland Blue Crabs, Shrimp, and Crawfish. With all of those shelled seafoods that are eaten by hand, you’ll find that the Old Bay is sprinkled on the outside of the seafood. And since there is a shell on the seafood, the seasoning doesn’t get into the meat. So for the seasoning to work, what happens is that the flavor of Old Bay gets into the food by being transferred from outside of the shell to the meat by the hands as the food is eaten. It’s a little messy, but quite tasty too!

One of our favorite seafoods is Snow Crab. The Snow Crab meat has a nice flavor and unlike Blue Crabs, there isn’t too much labor involved in eating the Snow Crab meat. While the Maryland Blue Crab has an aura around these parts, and Crab Feasts are blue crab. Snow Crab has been steadily making it’s way into Maryland Crab Houses and probably for the two reasons just listed, they taste good, and are easy to eat. Since Snow Crab is also already cleaned and cooked, all you really need to do to make them is to heat them up and season.

Adapting Snow Crab to Maryland Style Seafood cooking is quite easy to do and here’s how:

  1. For each serving, you’ll need about 2 pounds frozen Snow Crab legs.
  2. Place the Snow Crabs legs in a large pot – large enough that the Snow Crab Legs can fit inside, and be covered.
  3. Sprinkle a layer of Old Bay Seasoning over the Snow Crab Legs.
  4. Pour 2 quarts boiling water over top of the Snow Crabs, and turn the heat on under the pan.
  5. Sprinkle with some more Old Bay Seasoning.
  6. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, and boil Snow Crab legs over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes.
  7. Meanwhile melt 1/2 stick of butter in the microwave or in a saucepan for dipping.
  8. Remove the Snow Crab legs from the pot with tongs to a large serving dish.

Serve Snow Crabs with the butter dipping sauce and with Baked Potato and Corn on the Cob.

Close up picture of Old Bay Seasoning on Snow Crab LegsIn case you’re wondering about just how much Old Bay Seasoning you need to put on the Snow Crabs, here’s a picture of the proper amount. This isn’t science, so you can use more or less. But if you use too much, it’s a little more messy then using the right amount. If you happen to use too little, simply sprinkle more over top of the Snow Crab legs. Serve with plenty of paper napkins or toweling as the Old Bay will spread to your hands — but that’s the point and is how the seasoning will get to the seafood, transferring from your hands to the seafood.

Tabasco Ham and Cheese Omelet Recipe

Picture of serving of a Ham & Cheese Omelet with Tabasco
Our favorite all around hot sauce is Tabasco Sauce. It’s great in lots of recipes, Tabasco is a key ingredient in the Buffalo Wing recipe in our last post. Besides it’s use in the Buffalo Wings recipe, it’s a necessity in Gumbo, Chili, and Nacho Cheese recipes. But we try to experiment with Tabasco, and find interesting uses for this pepper sauce.

You can always mix 4 or 5 drops of Tabasco into scrambled eggs. Break 2 eggs into a small bowl, add 4 or 5 drops of Tabasco Sauce, and beat well. Pour into a lightly greased non-stick pan, such as T-Fal, or Circulon, and cook just until the eggs begin to set. Then using a spatula, stir the eggs so that they cook evenly. When cooked through, season with a little salt and black pepper and serve.

Making a Tabasco Seasoned Ham and Cheese Omelet
Today, we made a Ham and Cheese Omelet that is pictured above along with hash brown potatoes. We have a post with complete instructions on how to make an omelet in a prior post, so we won’t go into those details. For our Tabasco Seasoned Omelet, add 1/4 tsp of Tabasco Sauce* to 3 eggs in a small bowl, and beat well. Add the egg mixture to a heated lightly oiled non-stick pan over medium heat, cover, and cook until set, then top 1/2 side of the omelet with chopped ham, and shredded Cheddar cheese. Cover, to let cheese melt, then flip the plain half on top of the ham and cheese hal.. Cut the omelet in half before serving. Makes 2 servings.

* You may want to start with 5 drops of Tabasco and adjust to taste to not make this recipe too hot for you and your family.

A Genuine Buffalo Wing Recipe

Buffalo Chicken Wings Serving
Chances are that you’ve had Buffalo Wings at one time or another. But unless you’ve been to Buffalo, New York, you haven’t had the real thing. We have a genuine Buffalo Wing Recipe that we got from a small Buffalo Wing shop located in Buffalo, NY. And it’s a killer recipe. This isn’t a quick to make recipe, the Buffalo Wings need to marinate in the seasoning sauce for 4 hours before cooking. They’re also cooked at 500° F for an hour. Preparation time is about 20 minutes. 4 hours to marinate, and 1 hour to bake makes about 5 1/2 hours from start to finish. There is no rushing this recipe if you want your Buffalo Wings to taste good. If you follow our directions in the Recipe for Buffalo Wings, you will enjoy a delicious meal of Buffalo Wings.

Buffalo Chicken Wings in Half-Pan
Here are some tips to making Buffalo Wings that aren’t in the recipe:

  • Use a blender to mix the seasonings.
  • If you use the Tabasco Sauce, and the 1 1/2 tsp of Cayenne Pepper, you’ll have a mild flavored wing. Use more Cayenne for more heat in the Buffalo Wings.
  • Our recommendation is to start with the middle of the road and use 1 1/2 tsp of Cayeene until you know if that’s too hot for you and your family, and then adjust the seasoning to your tastes for later recipes.
  • We marinated the Chicken Wings in a large gallon sized ZipLoc® bag Turning it over ever 1/2 hour or 45 minutes.
  • It’s easiest to use large 1/2 pan disposable pans lined with non-stick aluminum foil. Without the non-stick foil, the Buffalo Wings will stick to the pan.
  • Only place the wings in the pan. Dispose of the sauce. The wings absorb the sauce, and you’ll see there is plenty of liquid at the end of cooking.
  • Bake the wings covered for the first 45 minutes then remove the aluminum foil cover for the last 15 minutes to let the wings brown.
  • Serve with Blue Cheese Salad Dressing for dipping the wings, along with carrot sticks, celery sticks, and cucumber slices.

How to Grill a Delicious Pot Roast

BBQ Pot Roast RecipeIt seems to us that grilled foods have more flavor than foods that are simply baked or pan fried, so we BBQ our dinners about half of the time. For weeknight barbecues, we cook foods that grill in under an hour, these are the typical foods like steaks, chicken breasts, hamburgers, and pork chops. But when the weekend comes around, and we can start cooking our dinner earlier, we cook more interesting foods like pork roasts, and pot roasts. Earlier this summer we posted here in our blog a recipe for a delicious smoked North Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich, which starts with a pork roast barbecued and smoked. It takes some time to make, but the reward is worthy of the effort.

Another roast that we love to cook on the barbecue is the chuck roast (pot roast). Chuck roasts are a very flavorful cut of beef that must be cooked slow in order to become tender. When baked in an oven, it’s typically roasted at 325° F for 3 hours. It would be a tall order to cook a chuck roast on the barbecue for that long, so we enlist the aid of Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer in order to cut the cooking time by an hour or so. The magic of Adolph’s is Papain (from papaya fruit) that breaks down the tough parts of the roast. Many folks think Adolph’s has MSG in it, since it looks almost the same, but there is no MSG in Adolph’s tenderizer.

So here’s how we make our Grilled Pot Roast:

What You’ll Need To Make a Grilled Pot Roast

  • 3 – 4 Pound Pot Roast
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup black pepper
  • 3 1/2 tsp Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer
  • 1/4 tsp Tabasco Sauce
  • Garlic powder
  • 1 onion, sliced into rings
  • Potatoes (optional)
  • Baby carrots (optional)

How to Prepare the Grilled Pot Roast

  1. Select a nice 3 – 4 pound chuck roast. Look for a roast that has less fat in it.
  2. Combine 3 1/2 tsp Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer with 1/4 tsp Tabasco Sauce, 1/3 cup ground black pepper, and 1/3 cup sugar. Mix the Adolph’s, Sugar, and Pepper together until well blended.
  3. Place the chuck roast on a large plate, and coat all sides with the seasoning mix.
  4. Place the roast in a plastic zippered bag, and refrigerate for an hour or so.
  5. Prepare your grill for cooking. If you’re using a charcoal grill, place the coals only on one side of the grill.
  6. When the grill is ready for cooking, place on your kitchen counter top 2 or 3 layers of wide, heavy duty aluminum foil that are large enough to completely wrap around the pot roast. Place the roast on top of and in the center of the aluminum foil.
  7. Sprinkle the top of the roast with garlic powder, and top with a thick layer of sliced onion.
  8. If you have room, you could toss some 1 1/2″ chunks of peeled potatoes and baby carrots into the foil around the edges of the roast.
  9. Close up the foil tightly, and place on the grill 3 to 4 inches away from the heat.
  10. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, turning every 20 – 30 minutes so that the roast cooks evenly.
  11. When you feel the roast is done, open and test the temperature with a meat thermometer. The temperature should be at least 165° F.

If you cooked this Grilled Pot Roast with the vegetables, you’ll have a complete meal all cooked on the grill. If not, serve with our Tabasco Garlic Mashed Potato Recipe, gravy and a vegetable of your choice.

BBQ Chuck Roast in Foil