Day Changing Dish

It was a stressful day - spent a horrific amount of time reading government white papers and websites trying to fill out a form finishing a government contract. One of the papers was 61 pages long and still didn't define small businesses in a way that normal humans could understand.

But at the end of the bad day, I came home and cleaned the kitchen (housemates returning tomorrow night) and cooked a nice dinner. I made Crab Newburg and frenched green beans. The Newburg I made from scratch...the beans came from a can (but I added a little of this and that). The original plan was to make crepes with the crab newburg inside. I copped out and served it over toast. And kinda forgot that the crepes were also part of the dessert course. So I just gave my dining companion some blackberries.

I have to say - Newburg is a kick-ass sauce to learn. And pretty darn easy. Brown half a stick of butter, add about a tablespoon of flour and cook for a minute to get the paste flavor out. Then add a cup of half & half or light cream or milk if you must. Cook that until it coats the back of a spoon. You need to stir pretty often so it isn't lumpy. Then slowly add this mixture: 3 egg yolks whisked together with 2 tablespoons of sherry or dry white wine, a pinch of paprika and a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon (no seeds please). Would be a really good idea to create the egg yolk mixture before you start browning the butter. I (of course) failed at that...so I was trying to keep the cream sauce from getting too thick while I was trying to separate eggs with the other hand. Pulled it off...but just barely. That is probably why I didn't feel like making the damn crepes. So - just to clarify...you add (slowly) the yolk mixture to the hot white cream sauce. And keep whisking or you're going to have scrambled eggs and have to start over. Once it is incorporated then you taste and add a little salt or a little pepper or a little more wine/sherry.

Then just fold in a pound of your favorite seafood. My favorite is lobster...but I like crab and it sure is a lot easier than steaming lobsters and harvesting the meat. Crab comes pasteurized in cans in the seafood section. It also comes fresh at the seafood market...picked out of thousands (well dozens anyway) of crabs by people whose job I do not want.

Even over toast - it was good. You should try it - the ingredients for the newberg are cheap enough: butter, flour, cream, egg yolks and sherry. Someday soon I'm going to conquer hollandaise - hollandaise that doesn't come in a packet sold next to gravy mix.

Well - there is a post about nothing. I feel like Seinfeld. But for today, the hamsters have been beaten. And that cat was briefly abused...but not by me. A story for another day.