Je Mange la Ville » Oregon Coast

When Life Gives You Crab, Make Crab Cakes

mlb — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:56:54 +0000

Recently, a coworker (thanks, Kevin!) gave jwa a cooler full of cleaned crab from a crabbing expedition in Tillamook. He then sent me an email during the day warning me of the impending crab that he would be bringing home, which gave me a little bit of notice to come up with something tasty to do with it. This is what I found and yes, it was quite tasty. I really liked the mango sauce. In fact, I have some leftover that I have to figure out what to do with. I don’t think it will be a problem.

After pulling all the crabmeat off, we ended up with a half a pound. I halved the original recipe, which gave us two crabcakes each — perfect. If you want more than 4 crab cakes, double what I have written below and that will give you the amount of the original recipe and 8 crab cakes.

I added the lime and cilantro to the sauce — I think it really brightened that up. I also swapped green onions for chives and added garlic. I used a light hand with the siracha, but that’s just me.

Spicy Crab Cakes with Mango Puree
Adapted from a recipe by Ming Tsai in Food & Wine Magazine
1/2 lb lump crabmeat, well drained and picked over
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh lime juice (plus a squeeze more)
1/4 tsp honey
2 tsp + 1 tsp (or more) Sirachi or other Asian red chili sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into chunks
1 Tbsp + 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small handful cilantro, roughly chopped
All purpose flour, for dredging
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs) or other dry bread crumbs

In a large bowl, combine the crabmeat with the mayonnaise, green onion, garlic, lime juice, honey and 2 teaspoons of the chili sauce; season with salt and pepper. Stir well to break up some of the crabmeat.

Form the mixture into 4 crab cakes, packing them firmly. They will still be a little loose, but that’s okay. Put the crab cakes on a plate and refrigerate until firm, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, puree the mango with 1 tablespoon of the oil, the cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of chili sauce until smooth. Scrape the mango puree into a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.

How to easily dice up a mango — score the flesh side of each cheek and scrape out with a spoon. Easy!

Put a handful of flour into a bowl. Put the egg in another bowl and the panko in a third bowl. Take a crab cake in your hand and carefully dust it all over with flour, shaking off any excess. Dip the crab cake in the beaten egg and then coat it well with the panko. Repeat with the remaining crab cakes. If you are like me you will end up with panko mittens when you are done. That’s okay, it washes off.

In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the crab cakes to the skillet and cook them over moderately high heat until they are browned and crisp, about 3 minutes per side.

Serve the crab cakes with a drizzle of mango sauce, with the rest of the sauce on the side. Some more chopped green onions are also a nice garnish. We made a quick meal out of this with some lemongrass rice and sauteed green beans on the side.

***

I think the next post will be a bunch of photos. I have a lot from the harvest dinner at Red Ridge Farms that we went to a couple of weeks ago and some from Astoria from this weekend.

Miso Glazed Cod and the Oregon Coast

mlb — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 04:32:22 +0000

This is a recipe that is surprisingly good for how simple it is. Really. Make it and you will go, “Wow! I am so surprised. That was so simple.” It makes a great weeknight dinner and reheats well for lunch the next day. I’ll usually either halve the recipe below or if I know for sure I want leftovers for lunch, just go ahead and make a full recipe with all six fillets.

I’m also a big fan of this recipe because I have only recently (within the last couple of years) discovered how wonderful miso is. I have a refrigerator with 3 tubs of miso in it right now: blond miso (which I used for this), red miso and barley miso. Miso, miso, miso!

Miso Glazed Cod
Adapted from a recipe by Ellie Krieger
6 (6-ounce) black cod fillets, or regular cod fillets
1/3 cup low-sodium blond or white miso
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp mirin (Japanese cooking wine)
Cooked brown rice, assorted sauteed vegetables
Toasted sesame seeds and scallions, for garnish

Preheat the broiler, then rinse fish fillets and pat dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, combine the miso, brown sugar, sesame oil and mirin and stir well until brown sugar is fully dissolved.

Brush some miso glaze on each fish fillet, dividing it equally between the fish. Marinate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 1 hour in the refrigerator.

Place fish under broiler for 3 to 4 minutes, or until top is slightly charred and glaze has caramelized.

Lower oven to 375 degrees F. Cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes, until fish is flaky but not overcooked.

You can eat some now and pack up the rest for lunches the next day. When I have this, I also serve some brown rice and sauteed vegetables (I used bell peppers, onions and some cherry tomatoes here) on the side.

Packed up and ready for the next day’s lunch.

***

Lincoln City
We spent last Saturday at the coast and had a wonderful time. Lincoln City for a change of scenery (we usually stick to the North coast). The sun was so nice…and sunny. Spring, could you finally be here?

We tried a new place for lodging, The Coho Lodge, which was really comfy and well-appointed. I loved the look of the rooms and they even had freshly ground coffee and a coffee press in the room too (as well as a big picture window of the ocean). Next time, however, I want to spring for a balcony.

For dinner, we headed to the Blackfish Cafe (where we had been once before). Still really liked that place. Crispy calamari with super garlicky dipping aioli, salads, perfectly cooked fish and wine. Uh-oh, it seems Blackfish Cafe is kind of giving Pacific Way Cafe some competition for our favorite coast restaurant.

The Coho Lodge
1635 Northwest Harbor Ave
Lincoln City, OR 97367

Blackfish Cafe
2733 NW HWY 101
Lincoln City, OR 97367

Our room at the Coho Lodge…very nice with a great view!

Dinner special at the Blackfish Cafe — Halibut with crabmeat, gnocchi, asparagus and a beurre blanc. Noble Pig Pinot Gris in the background…

Nehalem River Inn (and the River)

mlb — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:55:09 +0000

This is the time of year, before the HUGE fall cooking season, when I’m always in a bit of a posting slump. This means it’s a perfect time to post pictures of a meal out!

Nehalam River Inn
34910 Highway 53
Nehalem, OR 97131

We finally (finally!) went to the Nehalem River Inn for dinner. The occasion? To celebrate jwa’s 38th birthday! We had a very nice meal and, although we didn’t stay there (they had a 2-night minimum, even on a Sunday night), we found a very nice room at the Wheeler on the Bay Lodge & Marina which was about a mile away.

The Garden Room at the Lodge

But first, back to the food.

We got there a few minutes early for our reservation (we were hungry!) but got seated right away. After perusing the menu for a few minutes, we had a plan. To start, I had the Arugula Salad with Israeli Couscous, Currants, Pepitas, Cherry Tomatoes and Tarragon Aioli. It was very good!

For his first course, jwa decided to have a tasting of both the White Corn Soup with Truffle Oil and the Heirloom Tomato Salad with Organic Greens, Fresh Mozzarella, Chopped Marcona Almonds and Basil Pesto. See, this way, he could get two things, as the ‘tasting’ sizes of the first courses were a bit smaller.

Salad

Soup

For my main dish, I got duck. I get duck a lot when we go out, because I hardly ever cook it at home. Mmmm duck! In this case, it was Roasted Muscovy Duck Breast with Polenta Cake, Haricot Vert, and Pomegranate Sauce. Delicious!

And, because it was his birthday, jwa got steak. But not just any steak — Filet Mignon with Truffled Potato Gratin, Swiss Chard, Hon Shimeji Mushrooms and Balsamic Reduction. Wow, it was so good. An amazing crust on the steak.

We finished with desserts — he got an apricot brioche bread pudding and I got a flourless chocolate cake with strawberries and pecans.

Bread Pudding

Chocolate Cake

The restaurant’s back porch, after dinner

After dinner, we went back to our room in Wheeler, were the lodge cat Zoro was entertaining himself outside our room. jwa spent a bit of time playing with the cat.

Assorted Images from the Next Day and the Drive Home

Apple tree growing along the river bank.

Our room had a balcony that had a great view of the river.

Deck at the Lodge

Oswald State Park Beach, off 101. Lots of surfers…(although, not in this picture…)

Why do all trips to the coast begin or end with Pacific Way Cafe? Oh yeah, because we love it there! We stopped and had lunch on the way home. I forgot to take any pictures of the food…

Bad cats at home. I don’t know what they did while we we’re gone, but I am sure they did something.

September Visit to the Coast

mlb — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:09:54 +0000

Blue Heron taking off in Yachats, OR

We went to the coast last weekend to celebrate jwa’s birthday and here are some pictures. That’s about it. More food coming soon!

Heron before flight. We happened upon him just hanging out in the river bank. As more people started walking by he took off, flying a few yards away to a less congested spot.

We stayed in Yachats at the Shamrock Lodgettes (silly name) in one of the spa cottages. It was nice. Dinner was at Yachats River House (tasty) and the next morning we started a leisurely drive home along the coast from Yachats to Cannon Beach, then cutting inland on 26. But not before…Breakfast!

Egg, sausage and pesto panini sandwich from the Green Salmon Coffee House. But, it gets better…

Here’s the view! We got the sandwiches and fancy coffee drinks to go and then drove a couple of blocks to the ocean, parked the car and had an awesome breakfast.

A seagull hopped on the hood of my car to check us out. Actually, I was kind of concerned he was going to try and fly in my open window and steal my sandwich.

Me by the tide pools and rocky coast part.

Tide pools

Waves crashing

Coastal flowers that succumbed to the wind and cold

The long sandy beach at Rockaway Beach, during a stop along the drive home,

One day, it would be nice to have a cute, little place on the coast where we can go anytime we want and where I would have more wall space to hang more art…

We’re going to start exploring more coast areas…next up, I think we’ll head towards the Long Beach area of Washington and maybe drive up the peninsula.

This Makes Me So Happy: Bridgewater Bistro

mlb — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 04:31:58 +0000

Bridgewater Bistro
20 Basin Street
Astoria, Oregon
503-325-6777

So, jwa and I headed out to Astoria this weekend (such a pretty drive along highway 30 with the leaves and the sun and all) to have dinner at Bridgewater Bistro. It’s the new restaurant by Ann and Tony Kischner of the Shoalwater Restaurant in Seaview, WA. Not to put any pressure on the meal or anything, but they are catering our wedding at the Hotel Elliott in May and we wanted to go there and eat as many things on our menu as we could. Oh and we did.

First off, the space at Bridgewater is Beautiful. It’s a big, red barn-like building right on the waterfront. There’s a downstairs seating room, an upstairs mezzanine, tons of windows and multiple fireplaces. So warm and inviting. And one thing that I really like is that the space is not over-crowded with too many tables crammed into the space. There’s a nice amount of space between each table.

To start the meal we had a little complimentary glass of crisp fries and ketchup. I would have taken a pictures of these but we ate them too quickly.

One of the appetizers on our menu is halibut cakes with green apple and avocado salsa. While this was not on the current bridgewater menu, they did have fish cakes (halibut, salmon & cod) with a mango-ginger sauce. We tried the two-cake version of this as an appetizer to our meal. Really good — lots of fish. As the bride, I will be demanding extra halibut cakes and green salsa at the wedding. So you know, you’ve been warned. I can come by and steal your halibut cake. Back off — I’m the bride.

Next, jwa did the salad with salalberry vinaigrette and I did the French mushroom soup. Excellent all around. I loved the salad and the soup was really mushroom-y and good. We were trying to decide between a tomato soup and a mushroom soup as the second course and I think we’ll be going with the mushroom. And the salad (the fourth course) will be a great transition between the entree and the wedding cake.

Now, for our main meals — jwa had the salmon (served here with a cranberry-mustard sauce, a side of rice pilaf and sautéed swiss chard) and I had the Moroccan chicken. The salmon on our menu will be grilled (we love grill marks) and finished in the oven with a dill sauce and a side asparagus. That said, the salmon at this meal was very good. And jwa especially loved the rice.

My Moroccan chicken was the surprise hit of the meal. Not that I didn’t think it wouldn’t be good, just that I had already decided that I would get the salmon at the wedding. And we were kind of going back and forth between the Moroccan chicken and coq au vin. Not anymore. Moroccan chicken all the way, baby. So tasty. If I get this at the wedding, I will have to fashion some sort of bridal bib as the sauce is very red and my dress is very ivory and that sort of set up pretty much has disaster written all over it.

Desserts were a pear-fig-honey cobbler with vanilla ice cream and a bourbon-chocolate-pecan tart with vanilla ice cream. They were both delicious.

Price-wise jwa and I were trying to guess (before the check came) if this meal would be over or under what we just spent at Iorio for the Harvest Dinner we attended. And…Bridgewater was about $20 cheaper. We were both kind of surprised as we got a soup, a salad, three entrees (the fish cakes were an entree, not an appetizer) a bottle of wine and two desserts at Bridgewater.

Also, while we were at the restaurant, they were having a wedding reception in the upstairs private dining room! That makes me super happy too — that they can handle a full house of regular diners and also be catering a wedding at the same time. Awesome.

I’m just so happy we chose to go with them for our wedding catering. On top of the food, they’re just so nice to work with while planning a reception ~~meal~~ culinary extranvganza — friendly, calm, knowledgeable and skilled with northwest ingredients. The whole wedding planning can all be so stressful it’s a huge relief to have faith that the meal will be delicious and go smoothly. Hooray for Bridgewater Bistro!