June 7, 2006 Ask the Chef Article

Q). I love seafood, especially crab. I tuned in on the tail-end of one of your shows called “Lockwood number 1 Stuffed Crab”, too late to get the ingredients. I would love the recipe if I may?
Cheryl, Via e-mail

A). That show featured recipes with Dungeness crab, however, you may substitute Blue Crab, King Crab, Tanner Crab or most any other crab that you know.

Stuffed Crab Recipe
Serves 2 people. You will need:
2 small fresh Dungies – cooked and picked of all the meat (at least 1 1/2 pounds of crab meat). Save the shells for the stuffing
1 chopped medium onion
6 chopped cloves garlic
4 slices of soft bread soaked in milk
2 T. mustard
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
4 tbsp Sensational Seasonings or any blackening spice
extra cayenne pepper
juice from 2 lemons
2 small diced green bell pepper

Sauté onions, garlic, parsley, celery and bell peppers until soft. Remove from heat. Add cheese, spices, lemon juice, mustard and the bread (squeeze out the moisture). Mix well. Mix in 1 egg and then carefully fold in the crabmeat. Stuff the mixture into cleaned out crab shells and bake for 30 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Everything is cooked so you just want to make it hot! Serve with Cole slaw, potato salad and lemon.

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A Reader responds from last weeks column: I happened to read your suggestion about a Sicilian potato salad. Well, the only thing you left out was the vinegar. I think Balsamic vinegar works the best. Or, the lady could add some bacon after it was oven baked, or even some dill pickles. It sure makes the potato salad taste much better. I also use a Knorr chicken cube melted in some hot water and then add the vinegar to it. Also salt and pepper and just mix every thing together. Let stand at room temperature and stir occasionally and then serve.
Mrs. Elisabeth Billingsley
Marina
Via e-mail

Response from Chef: Yep, I forgot the vinegar – but it’s red wine vinegar Lizzy. I appreciate your input but, if we added all

your stuff it would not be Sicilian anymore. Although I do believe you have described a gem of a potato salad, I don’t think you’ll find bacon or pickles in any salad in Sicily.

Chefs Chip and Jan Bates sent me these photos of their wine cellar. A very nice place to have dinner. Hopefully the Bates’ will let us know when they want to rent it out.

Out of the blue we were invited to dinner last Friday night. The place was Mission Ranch in Carmel. The food, the service, the setting - all very, very good - what a pleasant surprise. The last time I was there was at least 15 years ago. I will go back!

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“Marettimo” style barbecue – Last Saturday was barbecue time and friend, collaborator, travel companion and fishing buddy Ronny Aliotti called and said, “Don’t cook because I have a beautiful fresh-caught striped bass. We are on our way over and I’m going to fix the fish Marettimo-style.” Folks, for some unknown reason, Sicilians in Monterey love to put breadcrumbs on everything - meat, fish, chicken, pasta, fried vegetables, stuffed chokes you name it. If it moves, bread it. When I first started the Whaling Station in the early 70’s, I also breaded and grilled all of my fish. Then in walks in Jack Allen of Paulo’s Restaurant in San Jose. He had some questions: “Where did you learn to cook? Why do you people in Monterey bread everything? Why do you call pasta ‘basta’?” Jack became my mentor and taught me a lot about Italian food. But that’s another story. So, do you want to make striped bass Marettimo style?
Striped Bass Marettimo Style Recipe
First you must have seasoned breadcrumbs which have to

include grated cheese, chopped parsley, chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Real fishermen serve fish steaks - not filets. Steaks with bones and skin. Dry the fish well, sprinkle with salt, dip in olive oil and then pat on the breadcrumbs. This is important, don’t dip in the breadcrumbs, but pat it on like you want it to stay there. While your grill is getting hot, make a “bisto” with a mortar and pestle. Start beating 15 garlic cloves and kosher salt and mash it well. Then add 5 medium size ripe tomatoes (remove the skin), 1/2 cup dried oregano and cracked black pepper. Now beat the hell out of it with the pestle. When it is nice and mashed together, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of strong red wine vinegar. Let it sit and have a glass or two of some wine, salted salmon, J. Mercurio’s olives and relax. Now clean the grill and oil it well. Place the fish on top. Whatever you do, don’t press it down and don’t touch it. Let it cook for 4 to 6 minutes, then turn over, and again, don’t touch. After 6 minutes or so, peak inside it should be just about dead. Now spoon on the bisto, lots of it, and finish cooking. Remove and serve with additional sauce on the side. Watch out for the bones.

The fish will be moist and the breadcrumbs will add a toasted flavor to the fish, Best of all, the fresh garlic, tomato and vinegar will have you singing like a Sicilian. We also had a bunch of vegetable dishes, fried rabe, real heirloom tomatoes, red onions, roasted grass, fried zucchini, zucchini frittata, roasted beets, onions and slices of real Serrano Jamon. Ronny (a.k.a. “chef slobats”) did a great job and we all enjoyed ourselves. Try this method with any fish, it works great. I think we use so many crumbs in Monterey because people just hate to throw away bread.

Fruit update: For the last three weeks, I have been visiting the farmer’s market in downtown Monterey. Wow! I’m always on a mission to find sweet ripe fruit and unusual produce. Last week, the apricots found me! The smell hit me from 15 feet away – now that’s what I’m talking about. The quality that I saw was absolutely top-notch and the stuff actually tasted fantastic. Fava beans bursting with flavor, not dried out. I’m hooked.