The other night, we had Jamie Oliver’s Cabbage and Bread soup for dinner, as I saw it on Food Network last Spring and I’ve been waiting for Fall and colder weather ever since to make it. Now, I know what you are thinking — Bread and Cabbage Soup. Really? But, oh my god, if you had seen the episode you would understand.

I did make that and it is the next post but I thought I’d start with this — Crab Hush Puppies. I made this as sort of a starter for the soup, just because I happened to see the recipe and was intrigued. Here are a few caveats though –

1. I know the inclusion of “just add water” Cornbread Mix gives it that, uh, somewhat Semi-Homemade kind of feel. This will be doubled when you realize the only “just add water” Cornbread mix you can find is by Marie Callendars (not that there’s anything wrong with that…) Just fight it and move on.

2. Crabmeat is damn expensive! We had a 25% off coupon for the Belmont Zupan’s, which is another reason we tried this recipe with fresh crabmeat. But, honestly, you’re already using Cornbread mix — if you can’t get crab on sale or anything, you can try using the imitation crab. I made a half recipe, so I only needed a quarter of a pound of crab. If I had been getting more, I probably would have tried the imitation crab. Another option, which I use for hot crab & artichoke dip, is canned crabmeat. Really, just like the dip, crabmeat is not the star here — the flavor is mixed with the cornbread and curry. Just drain the crab super, super, super well if you use canned.

Okay. That is all. Here’s the recipe.

Crab Hush Puppies
Recipe adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
This is the full recipe (20-24 puppies), halving will give you 10-12 puppies
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 cup just-add-water cornbread mix
1/4 cup bottled clam juice (or chicken broth, which is what I used, for a half recipe, this is 2 tablespoons, hardly worth buying a whole jar of clam juice, imho)
1/2 pound fresh lump crabmeat, diced
5 finely chopped green onions
Peanut or vegetable oil (for frying)

Dipping sauce:
2 parts Dijon Mustard
1 part honey
sprinkle or two of curry powder

Stir mustard, honey, and a little curry powder in small bowl for dipping sauce. Taste. Adjust as needed.

Stir cornbread mix, clam juice or chicken stock, and 1/2 teaspoon curry powder in medium bowl. Mix in crabmeat and the chopped onions.

I did all this, formed the hush puppies, and stored them in the fridge for about 2 hours. So, definitely make-aheadable.

Pour enough oil into medium saucepan to reach depth of 1 1/2 inches (almost a whole bottle of oil, depending on your pan size). Attach deep-fry thermometer to side of pan and heat oil over medium heat to 320 degrees F to 330 degrees F.

Working in batches, drop batter into oil by heaping teaspoonfuls. Fry until golden and cooked through, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Serve with dipping sauce. Both jwa and I thought these were really tasty!

Okay, next post is that amazing soup. Stay tuned…

We made these a while ago and they were quite good. They’ll be a little messy if you eat them right away. Have a something to wipe your fingers on near by. Or, depending upon the company you keep, be prepared to lick you(r)* fingers.

If you stash (hee! — three people will get that) them in the fridge for an hour or two after they cool, the residual butter will solidify and they will be less messy.

Curried Macadamia Nuts
Adapted from a recipe found on Food Network
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 cups roasted, lightly salted macadamia nuts (Trader’s Joe’s brand is good for nuts, for they are lightly salted. If you use another brand, you may want to consider unsalted and add a pinch more salt to the curry butter)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a small skillet, then add the curry powder, brown sugar, salt, and cayenne and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic, about 30 seconds.

Toss the nuts with the curry butter on a baking sheet, spread the nuts in a single layer. Bake until the nuts are hot and shiny, about 10 minutes. All ovens are different, so when you can smell them, give them a peek to make sure they are not burning or anything. Cool to room temperature.

Hmmm…now I want a snack…

* jwa, via email, upon pointing out my typo in the original post:

and so on

** I’d like to point out that in jwa’s email, “impertinence” is spelled wrong. Ha!

I was in New Seasons the other day buying some halibut and as I was walking through the produce sections I saw the cutest thing — garlic tops.

“Oh!” I thought to myself, “need to buy! Cuuute!”

Then I got home and realized I had no idea what to do with them. I did a little online searching and found this page — Mary Jane’s Farm about garlic scapes, which I think are slightly younger versions of my tops but I figured it was close enough.

I made the pesto, using half parm and half feta. I also added some pine nuts. Wow! The garlic! It burns! (But in a good way). I mixed about a tablespoon into a big bowl of hot pasta with some olive oil to start, as it did seem a little strong. But — by the middle of the meal, jwa and I were spreading the extra pesto on bread and mixing more of it into the pasta. So, so good. Just make sure you really like garlic.

Garlic Tops Pesto
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1/4 lb scapes (garlic tops)
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Puree the garlic tops and olive oil in a food processor until smooth. Add the Parmesan, feta, lemon juice and pine nuts and process it all until nice and smooth.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on bread, crackers or with pasta (or all of the above).

So what else did we have with our garlic top pesto and pasta? Grilled halibut with this awesome marinade.

Awesome & Simple Halibut Marinade
4 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Let fish marinate in the fridge for about an hour. Salt and pepper liberally, then grill in the ol’ grill pan.

It turned out really nice and moist and was excellent with the side of pasta, tossed with cherry tomatoes, spinach and garlic top pesto.

I even brought out the balsamic glaze and drizzled a little over the fish and pasta to make it all look pretty.

See? Pretty!

***
In wedding news, I made the lodging reservations for most of the honeymoon in Victoria here. It’ll be nice to have a kitchen while we’re there. We’re also going to rent a car and drive up to Tofino for 3-4 days. We’re going to splurge and stay here. So very excited!

Also, I finished making the save the date cards and I should be able to get them in the mail in early/mid June (waiting on vellum envelopes and nifty return address stamp).

This month’s Sugar High Friday 31 is hosted by Seven Spoons and the theme is — “Shades of White.” Fun! Of course, it would have been nice if I had realized that my post was supposed to be up at the beginning of the week but I read the announcement wrong…Hopefully, I can sneak my entry in!

This is a neutral shade and S-I-M-P-L-E to make. Chocolate. Nuts. Assorted flavor whatnots (lavender + orange zest). That is all.

White Chocolate Clusters with Lavender & Orange Zest
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup cashews (edited to add: I used roasted, lightly salted)
1/2 tsp dried lavender
1/2 tsp orange zest

To begin, put the chips, orange zest and lavender in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30 second increments, stirring between each time, until the chocolate is melted. You could also, of course, use a double-boiler for this.

Add the cashews to the melted chocolate and mix until all the nuts are coated.

Scoop 3-4 cashews out in a cluster. I found using two spoons worked well for this. Drop the clusters on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Let cool for about 15 minutes, then pop into the refrigerator to completely firm up — about 30 more minutes.

Because of the orange zest and Spring weather, I would store these in the fridge. I doubt they will last longer than a few days (because you will eat them all, not because they will go bad).

Thanks again to Seven Spoons for hosting SHF31!

Midnight Fig
Here, finally is my Sugar High Friday#22 entry — only two days late. Not too bad. This month, the theme was — Can you can? Well, no, probably not. But, I can throw a bunch of ingredients into a pot, bring to a boil and store them in my refrigerator for a month. Does that count? I hope so!*

This recipe is based on one from Gourmet magazine. I found it at epicurious.com. One of the things I really like about that site is that the comments have all kinds of helpful hints and ideas. There it was suggested to use orange instead of lemon and to add some cinnamon to the mix. These were excellent suggestions!

My title image are the labels that I made for this SHF. That was the issue that made my entry late. I did the jam last week but procrastinated on painting, scanning and texting the labels until Saturday night — I was working on this until about midnight. And there you go.

Midnight Fig: Fig-Orange Jam with Cinnamon & Sesame Seeds
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 orange — zest it first though)
1/4 cup water
1 lb firm-ripe fresh figs, trimmed and quartered (about 2 pint-sized containers)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Simmer the sugar and orange juice, plus the water in a large heavy saucepan, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Next, gently stir in figs, cinnamon and zest, and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thick and syrupy, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

I think mine took about an hour and 15 minutes. When it’s done, stir in sesame seeds.

The original directions stated that this would keep about a month in the refrigerator. This is also excellent on crackers or slices of baguette, along with some creamy goat cheese.

Also, I’ve discovered that if you slather about two tablespoons of the jam on a pork tenderloin, along with some salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves and then pan sear it in some olive oil, it is very good.

Finish it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the temperature is about 140-145. Mmmm!

Check out all the SHF entries here. Thanks to Delicious Days for hosting the event!

* Standard Disclaimer: I’d like to state that this is in no way “real” canning or preserving. I didn’t sterlize anything and this went right in the refrigerator like any leftover or homemade sauce.