A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [106]
3. Arrange the chicken one layer deep in the casserole and sprinkle with the black pepper and remaining salt. Layer the apples on top, then the onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, currants and their soaking liquid, and garlic. Pour the chicken broth evenly over all, scoop the rice on top, and spread so all ingredients underneath are covered.
4. Cover the casserole snugly with aluminum foil and set over moderate heat for about 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to boil. Slide the casserole onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the chicken is done.
5. Stir the casserole ingredients well, arrange the shrimp on top, cover, and bake 5 to 7 minutes or just until the shrimp are pink.
6. Remove the casserole from the oven and let stand, still covered, at room temperature for 15 minutes.
7. Stir well, scatter with the pecans, and serve.
Tartar sauce can lift a simple fried catfish to the realms of ecstasy, turn a fried oyster into an emperor’s feast, or ennoble a fried shrimp into knighthood.
—PAT CONROY, THE PAT CONROY COOKBOOK: RECIPES OF MY LIFE
EASTERN SHORE CRAB CAKES
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Every Southerner within the sound of the surf has a favorite crab cake recipe. This is my own because the crab cakes are as light as sea foam (not enough bread to weight them down) and they taste like crab instead of green peppers and onion and celery. As a Chesapeake waterman’s wife once told me, “I like to taste the crab!”
1 pound lump or backfin crabmeat, picked over for bits of shell and cartilage, and flaked
2 tablespoons minced parsley
2 tablespoons finely grated yellow onion
2 slices firm-textured white bread, torn into bits and soaked in 1/3 cup milk (don’t squeeze out the milk)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
1. Place all ingredients except the oil and butter in a large bowl and mix lightly with a fork.
2. Shape into 8 crab cakes 1 inch thick, patting each firmly so it holds together. Cover with wax paper, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This chilling helps keep the fragile crab cakes from falling apart as you brown them.
3. Heat the vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a very large, heavy skillet over high heat until sizzling. Ease in the crab cakes, allowing plenty of space between them, and brown 4 to 5 minutes on a side, adding the additional 1 tablespoon butter, if needed. Handle gently; these crab cakes are unusually delicate.
4. Serve hot—no tartar sauce needed.
CHESAPEAKE CRAB BOIL
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
Waterfront fish houses up and down the Chesapeake provide moorings for boats as well as parking for cars. Most serve crab a dozen different ways but a universal favorite is the simplest: live hard-shells boiled (or steamed) in cauldrons with plenty of seasoning served on tables spread with newspaper. Bibs are “standard issue” as are little wooden mallets and metal crackers to deal with the claws. Note: For this recipe you’ll need a large, deep, nonreactive kettle with a rack and a tight-fitting lid–the kind used for clambakes and boiled lobster.
2 cups beer
1 cup white (distilled) vinegar
¼ cup Old Bay or other spicy seafood seasoning
¼ cup salt
1½ dozen live-and-kicking blue crabs
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
1. Combine the beer, vinegar, seafood seasoning, and salt in a medium-size nonreactive bowl and set aside.
2. Place a rack in the bottom of a large, deep, nonreactive kettle. Pile half the crabs on the rack and pour in half the beer mixture. Add the remaining crabs and beer mixture.
3. Set over moderately high heat and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the liquid bubbles gently, cover tight, and steam the crabs for 20 to 25 minutes or until they are bright red.
4. Serve at once with melted butter and