Humility is a heavy thing...

Greetings and Salutations one and all!

My deepest apologies for the hiatus between blogs, there is no excuse, just small things accumulating into bigger things thus becoming a distraction keeping me away from my blog.  Nuts!

Last night I had the plan to execute my menu of Crab Cakes and some Popcorn shrimp.  Along with some Steak-cut fries and some Sauvignon Blanc, all had the makings for a fun evening.  But unfortunately at times things happen and adjustments have to be made.

Day started off nice, late Saturday night/early Sunday morning I went out to the Sacramento Softball Complex and watched my friend and teammate on my team, Team Sexy, play with some other people.  It was good to see other teams from out of the area, and see some people that I hadn't seen in a while (Hi Tiffany!). After the game ended around 2:40 or so, this weekend was Midnight Madness, 48 hours of continuous softball, too much for me to play in, I can't handle the games in the wee hours like Dre can.  So on not  a lot of sleep the next morning I watched some football and then began to prep my kitchen for my planned menu.  I went out to Corti Brothers market for the lump crab that is called for in the Crab Cake recipe, unfortunately there was none to be located, a bad omen... Instead I picked up a couple of pounds of Crab Leg meat and would chop it back here, no problem.  Gathered up some Red and Yellow Bell peppers, garlic, and other items needed and returned home did some chopping, and started to saute my onions and garlic, after that was done I set them aside to cool.  While they were cooling I chopped the crab meat and mixed it with some parmeseano-reggiano cheese,parsley, green onion and Creole mustard, which was a pain to track down!  Next I prepared my own mayonnaise, this was accomplished by firing my trusty KitchenAid food processor and putting in 1 egg, juice from a lemon, and while the machine is working, slowly drizzle in 1 cup of vegetable oil.  Season that with some salt and ground pepper, and after a few minutes it will whip into mayo! Pretty cool...

Now its time to assemble.  I first added the sauteed veggies, now they were cooled off sufficiently, into the crab mix, then fold in the mayo, no problems everything going smooth... The next thing called for was 3/4 cup of fine bread crumbs folded into the crab.  Uh-oh. No bread crumbs.  But the genius decided to improvise, I looked in my pantry and found dried stuffing.  "Just as good as bread crumbs, they're the same thing...", was the thought that went through my mind.  The stuffing was not fine it was very coarse.  But I pressed on....

Once I got the mix done it was on to the assembly line, in three bowls I had some seasoned flower, the next had three eggs whisked together, and in the last some seasoned bread crumbs (stuffing).  The game plan called for me to take a handful of crab mixture, roll it into a ball, then flatten it into a pattie, then in succession dredge the pattie into the flour, then the egg wash, and finally the bread crumbs (stuffing).  And from there into a heated pan with vegetable oil hot and ready to go.  Lay them in the pan for 4 minutes a side then transfer to a cool paper towel drain off and repeat.  Sounds simple enough.  However I ran into a couple of problems.  First the crab mix was too moist and wouldn't really allow me to shape it and they would fall apart once they hit the egg wash.  I'm concluding that because I didn't follow the game plan and used stuffing instead of bread crumbs it bit me in the butt! I got them to hold together enough to get them into the pan, once I got them in they started to firm up, but the pan was too hot so the end result was a hockey puck.  Damn.  I reduced the heat and gave up trying to make patties, and instead made them into balls and rolled them in the flour, then the egg wash, and the stuffing. Once the pan had cooled down a bit I put them in and they cooked and by this time I had the process down and as they cooked and flattened out into the pattie shape.  After getting several done it was time to prepare the popcorn shrimp.

The game plan was simple, two eggs, two tablespoons of heavy cream, add some spices to that for the egg wash, then of course I needed more bread crumbs...grrr... So I pulled out my trusty stuffing again and added some spices.  Sounds like a plan, take the shrimp, about 15 or so, let them soak in the egg wash for about five minutes until they are nice and saturated, then while they are marinating take a deep pan or stewing pot and add 3-4 cups of vegetable oil and let it get hot.  As the oil is heating up, remove the shrimp from the egg wash and roll them in the bread crumbs(stuffing) and dip them in the hot oil, let em fry up into golden brown and then its grub time!  Great plan on paper, but once again the lack the of fine bread crumbs has reared its ugly head.  Once I transferred the shrimp to the oil, the "batter" slid right off and sunk to the bottom.  Damn.



Never fear, I only need to be humbled once and I'll learn from it, I will return in TWO weeks and share with you my menu for the premiere of "The Walking Dead" this Halloween on AMC.  Being a die-hard reader of the book, I can't wait for the premiere, so you know I got some pretty fun grub lined up.  And as always, before I take anything out for public consumption I have to give it a test drive. 

Thanks for continued reading and we will chat again in 13 days and 22 hours....

Marc-Big Sexy (..and yes that name has really stuck over the years...pretty cool!)