Crab Cakes with Salad

This is a great warm weather dinner but is also a good quick meal. Honestly I have never made crab cakes because there are so many options to buy tasty, ready-made crab cakes. You can purchase fresh ones at many seafood markets or counters i.e. in San Francisco you can find them at Whole Foods or Marina Meats. Alternately, you can also find them frozen - I typically buy them frozen at Trader Joe's.

Since I had the frozen crab cakes, I set them out to defrost about an hour before dinner (you can defrost in the microwave as well). When I was ready to assemble everything, I set up each plate with a bit of baby spinach and topped them with some fresh scallions, yellow pepper and shredded carrots. Additionally, I had a package of steamed lentils (yet another Trader Joe's item) so I heated them up and put a small portion on the side.

When we were ready for dinner, I simply heated some lemon-infused olive oil in a large skillet and cooked the crab cakes for about 2-3 minutes per side. Although the crab is typically cooked this step browns and re-heats the cakes .

I serve the salad with a choice of two dressings. My preference is a balsamic vinaigrette while Luis prefers a thicker, Russian dressing. The following are the recipes for both:

RUSSIAN DRESSING (Joy of Cooking 1964 page 316)

(This portion makes enough to fill a 12-ounce bottle that you can keep in the fridge indefinitely.)

Combine;

• 1 cup of mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon of grated horseradish
• 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup of ketchup
• 1 teaspoon of grated onion

Aunt Melanie's One-Cup Salad Dressing

(I tend to double this recipe so that I can store it a 12-ounce bottle and have it in the fridge indefinitely. Ideally you should make a bit beforehand because the flavor of the garlic needs at least 20 minutes to really infuse the dressing.)

Whisk together;

• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• pinch of pepper
• 1 teaspoon of honey
• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• dash each of paprika, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice

While whisking, slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup of olive oil. Add one or two whole, garlic cloves - crushed. Let sit for about 20 minutes.

Re-tooling and Re-using Leftovers

RE-TOOLING

Last week when I made the cornmeal crusted pork I had quite a bit leftover so I decided to re-use it two nights later but with different side dishes. Originally, I used the quinoa with peas and oven roasted cauliflower. Today I decided for something lighter and more summery to accompany the pork.

Since I had only used 3/4 cup of ricotta cheese for the dinner crepes I still had more than half a container to use up. I decided to make the ricotta sauce pasta to complement the cornmeal crusted pork and serve a tomato and red pepper salad with it. The pasta will take about 20 minutes and you will merely heat up the pork briefly in the microwave right before you are ready to serve. Unfortunately, re-heating the pork in the microwave will soften the cornmeal crust but it is an efficient way to get it warm. Alternately a toaster oven might be a good option - I don't happen to own one but if anyone tries it please let me know.

For the pepper and tomato salad, I simply cut one medium tomato in quarters and gently de-seeded it. I repeated the process with a red pepper and then I cut the tomato and pepper into bite-size portions. I tossed them with a bit of olive oil (1 tablespoon) and balsamic vinegar (half a tablespoon). This salad adds a light, crisp complement to the thyme and lemon flavoring of the pork and the cheese sauce of the pasta and is purposely simplistic.

RE-USING

The next night dinner was again made with leftovers. I had enough of the dinner crepes leftover to re-heat for the two of us as well as the last of the vegetable soup. I set to oven to 350 degrees, placed the remaining crepes in a pie plate, and set into the oven to re-heat for 10-15 minutes. I set the soup in a small pan on very low heat on the stove top and set the table for dinner. I rounded it out with some wheat crackers and iberico cheese to go with the soup.

Warming the crepes in the oven is perfect - the bottom side that lays on the pie plate is lightly crisped, the filling is warm all the way through and the top part is soft. The crepes go well with a nice bowl of steaming vegetable soup.

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So with a bit more effort in making dinner sometimes you are rewarded with multiple meals: the pork made dinner one night for four people; three lunches and dinner another night for the two of us. The package of sukiyaki pork wasn't more than 1.5 pounds either. The crepe recipe was good for dinner on two separate nights and two lunches. For flexibility and convenience, I sometimes just freeze leftovers of larger recipes on the same night so we can have them for the future rather than being obligated to eat them the same week. Most of my meals typically serve dinner for two and there is enough for two lunches the next day.

Refreshing Jicama Salad

Making tamales is hard and hungry work so while so there was plenty to nosh on when you wanted to take a break. One of the favorites was a quick jicama salad that my mother made.

She took the medium-sized jicama that I had, washed it (since it is a underground tuber it is a good idea to clean the outer part to prevent food poisoning from e-coli that might have been in the fertilizer), peeled off the skin, and sliced the jicama into french fry sticks.

She then grated the zest of a medium-sized orange over the jicama and then added the juice as well. She finely sliced half a medium-sized red onion and chopped a few sprigs of cilantro. However, she felt it was still missing some tartness so she then grated the zest of a lime and added the juice of the lime as well. Her final ingredient as to add a bit of chili powder over it all.

This salad was crunchy and refreshing and didn't last very long.