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Review of Crab Bisque recipe by Paula Deen

A friend who is a big fan of Paula Deen found a recipe by Paula Deen for Crab Bisque and asked if I could make it. I am also a big fan of Paula Deen. However, the recipe calls for adding canned soup and I prefer not to use pre-made items in my food preparation. I’m sure the recipe by Paula Deen for Crab Bisque would taste really good and is designed to make the preparation easy. However, I decided to add my own personal touches to the recipe.

Using the recipe by Paula Deen as my inspiration, I went about concocting my own without using canned soups. It turned out quite tasty and I have no doubt it is something you will want to try for yourself, your family, and friends. My friend took what was left to work and everyone loved it.

Here is my recipe:

CRAB BISQUE

Ingredients
2 T Butter
2 Green Onions, chopped
1 stalk Celery, thinly sliced
1 lb. Asparagus, chopped
½ lb. Mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced

3 T Butter
4 T Flour
2 c Cream
3 c Chicken Broth
1 t Salt, Kosher
1 t Cracked pepper

12 oz. Crabmeat (this can be two 6 oz. cans)

Instructions Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a pan and sauté the green onions and celery. Once they have begun to soften add the asparagus and cook until heated, then the mushrooms and garlic. Do not overcook the vegetables. You want them to have a crunch in the soup.

While the vegetables are cooking combine 3 tablespoons of butter with the flour and stir until smooth. Add the cream and chicken broth and whisk making sure all is combined and there are no lumps of flour.

Continue cooking on low heat until warm. Once the vegetables have been sautéed to the correct degree, remove half and puree them in a blender (I used my nifty Ninja which was given to me for the holidays).

Pour the puree into the cream mixture and stir until thoroughly heated. Add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper and fold to combine.

When all is heated through add the crabmeat.

Do not stir heavily, especially if you are using canned, because you want to retain some of the crabmeat in bits.

Continue cooking until heated. Be careful not to let it boil.

Serve with garlic bread.

French Toast for Two

It can be really difficult to just cook for two people as many couples (both young and the more mature), empty nesters, and seniors will attest. It seems that when I am preparing food for parties where quite a number of people will attend, it is much easier than preparing those everyday meals for just a few people.

With our aging population I believe this group is becoming larger every day and will continue to do so for quite some time.

Cutting down a recipe is often more complicated than simply dividing the amounts of the ingredients. So with this blog I am starting a series on Cooking for Two with tested recipes which are simple to make yet delicious and work perfectly for just two people. Who knows, perhaps you will find here just the recipe for that next special quiet date at home.

With this inaugural blog for the Cooking for Two Series, I begin with a tasty recipe for French Toast.

FRENCH TOAST FOR TWO

Ingredients

2 Eggs
½ c Milk or Cream
1 T Sugar
1 t Cinnamon
1 t Vanilla
Pinch Salt

4 Slices bread
Butter

Instructions
Combine eggs, milk (or cream), sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Soak bread slices one at a time in egg mixture and place in pan. Cook until golden brown on both sides. Sprinkle with powdered sugar for a garnish. Serve with honey or syrup.

Pork Chops with Pineapple Mustard Sauce

Weekends are special around our home. That is a time when we try new dishes and new twists on existing ones.

This weekend I prepared Pork Chops on the grill and ate them with two dishes a friend prepared: Rustic Roasted Garden Vegetables and “Turnover Salad.”

Before grilling, the Pork Chops were brought to room temperature and seasoned with salt, ground pepper, garlic powder, and rubbed sage. The way to add sage to a dish is pour it out in your hands and rub your hands together over the dish allowing the sage to drop down seasoning the chops.

What makes this dish special is the sauce.

PINEAPPLE MUSTARD SAUCE

Ingredients
1 c Pineapple pieces
1/3 c Mustard, spicy
2 t Sugar

Instructions
Place pineapple pieces in food processor and process until liquefied (I used my Ninja). Place liquefied pineapple in small pot with mustard and sugar and heat thoroughly. Spoon over grilled Pork Chops and Serve.

Crescent Roll Crust – Asparagus and Ham Quiche

I wanted to prepare quiche for breakfast but was looking for a lighter alternative for the crust since most quiche recipes call for a standard pie crust. Standard pie crusts are made with a lot of fat and tend to be somewhat heavy and have a flaky, crumbly texture.

I considered using puff pastry, but it is very high in fat and would not have provided the texture of the crust I had in mind. Another possibility I considered was phyllo dough, but that would have resulted in a crispy flaky crust. Plus, although phyllo dough itself is low in fat, in order to achieve the layers it is necessary to brush between each, usually with either melted butter or olive oil.

A friend (who not so coincidentally loves them) suggested using crescent rolls for the crust. Unaware of any other examples of using crescent rolls as crust for a quiche, I decide to try an experiment and use them.

Here are the results.

CRESCENT ROLL CRUST – ASPARAGUS AND HAM QUICHE

Ingredients
5 Crescent Rolls (I used low fat)

1 T Butter
8 Asparagus Spears, fresh
¼ Ham cubed
2 T Jalapeno pickled, chopped canned
1 c Spinach leaves, fresh chopped

4 Eggs
1 c Cream, heavy whipping
½ t Pepper

Smoked Gouda

Instructions
Open the package of crescent rolls. Lay out 5 of them into a 9 inch pie pan starting around the top edge and pressing the dough until it forms a complete crust.

Bake crescent roll pie crust in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Trim off the fibrous end of the asparagus spears and cut into 1/2 inch segments. Saute in butter until soft, add cubed ham and cook until lightly browned. Heat jalapeno pieces with asparagus and ham then place in baked pie crust.

Whip eggs with cream and pepper then pour over asparagus, ham, and jalapenos.

Thinly slice smoked gouda and lay over the top totally covering the quiche.

Bake Quiche in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until jiggling the pan indicates the middle is firm. The cheese will also start to brown.

This recipe resulted in a very creamy quiche with a perfect crust. I will definitely make this again.

NOTE: You will need to either use a collar of aluminum foil or a pie crust shield to prevent the crust from burning while the quiche is baking. I got my pie crust shield for a reasonable price at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Check after 15 minutes of baking and if the crust edge is browning cover with foil or pie crust shield for the remainder of the time in the oven.

BTW – I baked the remaining 3 crescent rolls on a separate pan while cooking the crust the first time.

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