The price: $2,995.
For that price, you get your very own lobster trap for the season and all of the crustaceans that you catch (guaranteed minimum: 40), courtesy of Ready Seafoods. The price includes shipping, as well as other accoutrements, including mussels, clams, Maine-made gourmet desserts, bibs, cooking instructions, and gift cards, as you catch a piece of Maine.
Showing posts with label seafood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seafood. Show all posts
Monday, December 03, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Garlic Crab Noodles
A while back, Karen and I went out with a few of our friends to celebrate the beginning of the dungeness crab season, which starts in mid-November and runs well into the new year in this area. We chose to have dinner at PPQ Dungeness Island (2332 Clement Street; 415-386-8266), which specializes in this crustacean delicacy. The restaurant features several different preparations of crab, including roasted, drunken, and curry versions. As tasty as the crab is, a necessary component of the meal has to be a big plate of garlic noodles. The version served at PPQ Dungeness Island is very savory and pairs wonderfully with the sweet and delicate crab meat. Karen just loved these noodles and ate so much at that dinner the she coined a new phrase, garlic noodles full, to describe her state of being afterwards.
Last night, I decided to surprise her with a little treat by making her a crab dinner which included, of course, a large plate of garlic noodles. I thought that it would be an interesting twist simply to add the crab directly to the noodles to create a plate of garlic crab noodles. Yesterday afternoon, I dropped by Costco to pick up some Phillips jumbo lump crab, but they apparently were completely out of stock. Luckily, their Seafood Roadshow was taking place at the store this weekend, so I was able to obtain several nice looking king crab legs.
When I got home, I took half of the crab legs, cracked them, and removed the meat from the shell. (Helpful hint: A pair of kitchen shears come in quite handy for this task.) I would use this crab meat for the noodles. For the remaining legs, I would prepare them using the Alton Brown recommended cooking method and served them alongside the noodles. On my way home from Costco, I had picked up some fresh egg noodles from 99 Ranch Market. I prepped the noodles by quickly dunking them in boiling water, rinsing them with cold water (both to stop the cooking and to remove the excess starch), and draining them in a colander. Now I was ready to made the garlic crab noodles.
I set up my wok on medium-low heat and melted a generous amount of sweet butter. After the butter had melted, I threw in about six cloves of minced garlic and cooked them until they were just about to turn brown, about 3-4 minutes. Next I threw in the drained egg noodles and jacked up the heat to medium-high. Quickly stirring the noodles to mix in the garlic and butter, I poured in about a 1/4 cup of oyster sauce, and a small amount of granulated sugar which I mixed in with a bit of nước mắm, a Vietnamese fish sauce. I stir-fried the noodles for several minutes until they were thoroughly heated through before the final step of mixing in the king crab. Since the crab was already cooked, I didn't want to toughen the meat by overcooking, so I was careful to take the wok off the heat as soon as it got up to temperature. Here were the results:
Karen and I both really liked the noodles, but the next time that I make the dish, I think that I'll make a few tweaks. First, I'll add in some more garlic. I was afraid that I would overpower the crab so I held back a little, but I think that the dish can handle some additional cloves of garlic. Also, I might use an extra-virgin olive oil and butter mixture instead of straight butter to give the flavor a little more depth, though I'm not sure how the taste of the oil will mix with Asian flavors of the oyster and fish sauces. I also wonder if it would be good to add a few flakes of dried chiles to add a little kick to the dish. I guess that we'll all know the next time that I make garlic crab noodles.
Last night, I decided to surprise her with a little treat by making her a crab dinner which included, of course, a large plate of garlic noodles. I thought that it would be an interesting twist simply to add the crab directly to the noodles to create a plate of garlic crab noodles. Yesterday afternoon, I dropped by Costco to pick up some Phillips jumbo lump crab, but they apparently were completely out of stock. Luckily, their Seafood Roadshow was taking place at the store this weekend, so I was able to obtain several nice looking king crab legs.
When I got home, I took half of the crab legs, cracked them, and removed the meat from the shell. (Helpful hint: A pair of kitchen shears come in quite handy for this task.) I would use this crab meat for the noodles. For the remaining legs, I would prepare them using the Alton Brown recommended cooking method and served them alongside the noodles. On my way home from Costco, I had picked up some fresh egg noodles from 99 Ranch Market. I prepped the noodles by quickly dunking them in boiling water, rinsing them with cold water (both to stop the cooking and to remove the excess starch), and draining them in a colander. Now I was ready to made the garlic crab noodles.
I set up my wok on medium-low heat and melted a generous amount of sweet butter. After the butter had melted, I threw in about six cloves of minced garlic and cooked them until they were just about to turn brown, about 3-4 minutes. Next I threw in the drained egg noodles and jacked up the heat to medium-high. Quickly stirring the noodles to mix in the garlic and butter, I poured in about a 1/4 cup of oyster sauce, and a small amount of granulated sugar which I mixed in with a bit of nước mắm, a Vietnamese fish sauce. I stir-fried the noodles for several minutes until they were thoroughly heated through before the final step of mixing in the king crab. Since the crab was already cooked, I didn't want to toughen the meat by overcooking, so I was careful to take the wok off the heat as soon as it got up to temperature. Here were the results:
Karen and I both really liked the noodles, but the next time that I make the dish, I think that I'll make a few tweaks. First, I'll add in some more garlic. I was afraid that I would overpower the crab so I held back a little, but I think that the dish can handle some additional cloves of garlic. Also, I might use an extra-virgin olive oil and butter mixture instead of straight butter to give the flavor a little more depth, though I'm not sure how the taste of the oil will mix with Asian flavors of the oyster and fish sauces. I also wonder if it would be good to add a few flakes of dried chiles to add a little kick to the dish. I guess that we'll all know the next time that I make garlic crab noodles.
Monday, March 26, 2007
A Stop at the Depot
Today, Karen and I enjoyed an extended weekend as we took our first days off from work in quite a few months, going back to our vacation to Hawaii. We decided to take advantage of the off-day by paying a lunch visit to Swan Oyster Depot (1517 Polk Street; 415-673-1101), the venerable San Francisco dining establishment located in Polk Gulch.
We have been talking about going there for quite a while, as we are both fans of oysters and seafood in general. However, they are only open until 5:30pm on weekdays. During the weekends, they are closed on Sundays and usually have a line out the door and down the block all day Saturday. Fortunately for us, with the cold and rainy weather today, the line was very short. While we waited outside the door for the noontime crowd to empty out, we admired today's assortment of seafood through the front window.
While we stood in line, we saw a number of people coming by to pick up some fresh seafood to go, choosing from a wide assortment of fish and shellfish that included lobster, Dungeness crab, smoked salmon, clams, scallops, shrimp, and mussels. Of course, there was a variety of oysters as well.
After a short wait, a few spots opened up in the twenty some-odd stool counter that constitutes the dining area of the restaurant. We saddled up to the worn white marble-topped bar, which looks like it dates back to the restaurant's opening in 1912. Unfortunately, the bar stools felt like they were just as old. After a quick perusal of the large menu hanging on the wall behind the counter, we decided to start with an assortment of raw oysters. Since they had seven different types of oysters in today, we decided to order two of each. Within a few minutes, we were presented with an ice-lined tray of freshly shucked oysters:
The bar was filled with all of the accoutrements that we would need for our dining experience: lemon wedges, Tabasco sauce, oyster crackers, and grated horseradish that we could use to spice up the cocktail sauce that our server handed to us in a shrimp cocktail glass.
The oysters were wonderful. Our server listed off the types of oysters to us, which we promptly forgot, though I seem to recall some of them were Blue Points, miyaki, and Kumamotos. Though the oysters varied in taste, all of them were fresh and full of briny flavor (which is a good thing!). After polishing off the oysters, we both ordered a bowl of the clam chowder. Karen also ordered a seafood cocktail and I opted for the combination louie salad.
The chowder came steaming hot in large bowls. The consistency was a bit thinner that what I'm used to in a clam chowder, but it was flavorful and a nice soup for the cool and rainy weather today. Karen's seafood cocktail varied from the more common shrimp version by including Olympia oysters and lump crabmeat, all smothered under a generous amount of cocktail sauce. My salad was made from a huge portion of bay shrimp, prawns, and lump crabmeat heaped on top of a bed of iceberg lettuce layered with louie sauce. The seafood in the cocktail and in the salad was fresh and very tasty. Both the salad and cocktail were quite good and filled us up. Nevertheless, we decided to finish off the meal with a "dessert" of our favorite oyster from the raw bar, the Blue Point.
The food at Swan Oyster was very good, especially the freshly shucked oysters. The next time that I go back (and I definitely hope that there will be a next time), I might end up just ordering raw oysters. The service was quite fast and the people very friendly. During our lunch, we were helped at one time or another by every person working behind the bar. It was a nice dining experience and one that I hope to repeat soon.
Now, if they would only do something about those bar stools...
We have been talking about going there for quite a while, as we are both fans of oysters and seafood in general. However, they are only open until 5:30pm on weekdays. During the weekends, they are closed on Sundays and usually have a line out the door and down the block all day Saturday. Fortunately for us, with the cold and rainy weather today, the line was very short. While we waited outside the door for the noontime crowd to empty out, we admired today's assortment of seafood through the front window.
While we stood in line, we saw a number of people coming by to pick up some fresh seafood to go, choosing from a wide assortment of fish and shellfish that included lobster, Dungeness crab, smoked salmon, clams, scallops, shrimp, and mussels. Of course, there was a variety of oysters as well.
After a short wait, a few spots opened up in the twenty some-odd stool counter that constitutes the dining area of the restaurant. We saddled up to the worn white marble-topped bar, which looks like it dates back to the restaurant's opening in 1912. Unfortunately, the bar stools felt like they were just as old. After a quick perusal of the large menu hanging on the wall behind the counter, we decided to start with an assortment of raw oysters. Since they had seven different types of oysters in today, we decided to order two of each. Within a few minutes, we were presented with an ice-lined tray of freshly shucked oysters:
The bar was filled with all of the accoutrements that we would need for our dining experience: lemon wedges, Tabasco sauce, oyster crackers, and grated horseradish that we could use to spice up the cocktail sauce that our server handed to us in a shrimp cocktail glass.
The oysters were wonderful. Our server listed off the types of oysters to us, which we promptly forgot, though I seem to recall some of them were Blue Points, miyaki, and Kumamotos. Though the oysters varied in taste, all of them were fresh and full of briny flavor (which is a good thing!). After polishing off the oysters, we both ordered a bowl of the clam chowder. Karen also ordered a seafood cocktail and I opted for the combination louie salad.
The chowder came steaming hot in large bowls. The consistency was a bit thinner that what I'm used to in a clam chowder, but it was flavorful and a nice soup for the cool and rainy weather today. Karen's seafood cocktail varied from the more common shrimp version by including Olympia oysters and lump crabmeat, all smothered under a generous amount of cocktail sauce. My salad was made from a huge portion of bay shrimp, prawns, and lump crabmeat heaped on top of a bed of iceberg lettuce layered with louie sauce. The seafood in the cocktail and in the salad was fresh and very tasty. Both the salad and cocktail were quite good and filled us up. Nevertheless, we decided to finish off the meal with a "dessert" of our favorite oyster from the raw bar, the Blue Point.
The food at Swan Oyster was very good, especially the freshly shucked oysters. The next time that I go back (and I definitely hope that there will be a next time), I might end up just ordering raw oysters. The service was quite fast and the people very friendly. During our lunch, we were helped at one time or another by every person working behind the bar. It was a nice dining experience and one that I hope to repeat soon.
Now, if they would only do something about those bar stools...
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