Crab in garlic sauce. Not some wimpy garlic sauce, mind you, but one suitable to ward off creatures of the night. And, as an experiment, I made this with no butter, and no oil. A low calorie, low-fat sauce, if you’re looking for something like that.

Ingredients:

• 2 Dungeness Crab, cooked
• 2 cups of peeled and minced garlic (you may want to use a food processor for this)
• 1/2 onion, chopped or minced
• 2 cups of soy sauce
• 1 cup of water
• 4 Tbsp dried hot pepper powder/flakes
• 2 Tbsp ginger powder, or 2″ of chopped fresh ginger

Directions:

• Open the cooked crab
• Remove and put aside the butter, the brown/green material found there. Seriously, it’s wonderful. Don’t confuse that with the lungs, the butter is the consistancy of soft butter, not an organ.
• Clean and crack the crab, breaking the body into two pieces.
• Check out this video, if you haven’t cleaned a crab before, but don’t toss the butter
• Put the onion and minced garlic in a wok/deep pan, and cook for a minute over medium-high heat until fragrant
• Add soy, hot pepper, ginger, and 1/2 cup of water, and bring to a simmer/low boil
• Add the reserved crab butter, stir in. Gives the sauce a wonderfully intense crab flavor.
• You’ll heat the crab in stages…
• Start putting in the crab parts, heat in the simmering liquid for 2-3 minutes, move to a plate/bowl, and put in the next load of crab
• If the sauce starts to reduce too much, getting too thick, add remaining 1/2 cup of water, bring back to a simmer, and continue
• Once crab is all heated, reduce remaining sauce to desired thickness (if needed), and pour over crab
• You can also reserve some of the sauce for dipping bowls, if you’d prefer
• Sleep well, knowing you’re safe from those pesky nocturnal visitors, at least for one night

Hard to tie down to any set of ingredients, you can make this with lots of different toss-ins. Generally, I like crispy veggies (in the picture are baby bok choy, celery, broccoli). Some onions, garlic, optionally meat if you want. It’s a great thing to throw together with leftover veggies or meat in smaller quantities than you’d use for a dish of them.

Ingredients (as pictured, but make it up!):

• Broccoli
• Bok Choy
• Celery
• Onion
• Garlic cloves (whole or sliced)
• Sausage
• Thinly sliced meat (beef, pork, chicken)
• 2-3 Tbsp Oil (Canola or Olive or Peanut work well)
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
• A handfull of whole chili peppers (optional)
• 1 Tbsp chili powder (optiona)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

• Chop all veggies to bite-sized pieces
• If using meat, thinly slice and cut into bite-sized pieces
• Put oil in the bottom of a wok or deep frying pan over medium to high heat until oil is hot
• If using meat, add to oil and cook for a minute until partially cooked, remove meat and place aside
• Add veggies, stir in oil until warmed but still with a bit of crunch. Time will depend on the veggies you’re using
• Add soy, rice wine vinegar, chili powder, salt, pepper, and optional reserved meat
• Continue to stir for another minute
• Serve on a platter, or on indivdual plates or bowls. Optionally over rice, if you’d like.

A fairly easy entree, and one of the most delicious ways to enjoy ahi. Measurements are for one 8-12 ounce, 1″ thick steak. Adjust as necessary for a thicker or thinner cut.

Ingredients:

• 1 fresh ahi steak, sushi-grade
• 2 Tbsp coursly ground black pepper
• 2 tsp course salt

Directions:

• Heat a heavy skillet (cast iron is ideal) over medium high heat. Searing the ahi in a skillet on the stove may generate a bit of smoke, if that might be an issue, see my alternate searing method below.
• If you don’t have a seasoned cast iron skillet, put a couple turns of canola oil in the pan. Don’t use olive oil, it can’t handle the high heat needed to sear.
• Alternate method: If you don’t have a good blower on your stove, pre-heat the cast-iron skillet by putting it in a cold oven, then warm it to 500 degrees. Carefully move it outside to a gas BBQ set to high (don’t use this method unless you are using a skillet that can handle this kind of heat).
• While the skillet is heating up, sprinkle the steak with salt, then coat one side with pepper, pressing gently onto the steak so it sticks. Flip the steak, and season the other side in the same way.
• Now that the skillet is up to temp, put the steak(s) on, cooking for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes per side. This will give you the amount of searing you see in the picture. If that’s too rare for you (but really, if you’re buying sushi-grade tuna, this is the right amount of searing), you can sear for 4 minutes a side, but the tuna will be mostly cooked, and not the melt-in-your-mouth tender a light searing imparts.
• And, you’re done! I like to serve with soy sauce and wasabi for dipping, another alternative which is pretty good is to melt 2 Tbsp of unsalted butter, and combine with 1-2 Tbsp of prepared wasabi paste, and use that for a dip. The tuna is also delightful with no sauce, these are entirely optional.

I’ve made a version of this with Rib Eye, and with a NY Steak, both were 1-1/2 inch thick USDA Prime cuts, so a really nice cut of meat. Still haven’t gotten it fully reproducible, and one method I’ve used needs way more kitchen ventilation than I have available, but this is a good all-around version that works well, without creating a smoke cloud, and still results in a great steak.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Rib Eye or New York steaks
• 1 tsp course salt
• 2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• Optional butter glaze:
  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 cloves finely chopped or crushed garlic
  • 2 tsp finely chopped parsley

Directions:

• Take steak(s) out of the refrigerator, let them sit for an hour to come up to room temperature
• If using the optional butter glaze, simply melt butter in a pan, and stir in the chopped garlic and parsley 
• Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees
• Heat a seasoned cast iron pan over high heat. 
  • If you don’t own a seasoned cast iron pan, go get one, because you can’t use this recipe without one!
• Put some course salt and pepper on both sides of the steak(s)
• Put steak(s) on the pan, don’t touch them for 3 minutes!
• Flip steak(s)
• Optionally, put 1/2 of the butter/parsley/garlic mixture on the steak(s)
• Put pan in the oven, leave in oven for 3 more minutes, remove, optionally put butter mixture on the steak(s)
• Set on a plate/cutting board to rest for 5 minutes, covered with aluminum foil (although some people like to let them rest uncovered)
  • One trick I saw Alton Brown use was to put down a big plate, invert a small plate on top of that, and put the steak on top of the small plate, that lets any juices that flow out not hang around and moisten up the great crust you got on the steak in the initial steps.

This timing will get you a rare to medium rare steak. You can put them on for a little less to get a fully rare steak. If you want your steak well done, this isn’t the recipe for you. In fact, perhaps you should pick a different meal, since good steaks need to be rare or at most medium rare to enjoy their full flavor.

Here’s a photo album. First, the Rib Eye:

And now, the NY Steak:

The national dish of both Peru and Ecuador, Ceviche can be made with a wide variety of ingredients, depending on your preference. If using fish, it works well with a fish with firm meat, Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, Sea Bass. Also excellent are scallops and shrimp. Since the fish will be lightly cooked, I always use sushi-grade fish that’d I’d be comfortable eating raw. I also lightly pre-cook shrimp, to make sure it’s cooked through. 

The basic concept is to cook the fish using citrius juice, lemons and limes primarily.

This is how I make one of my favorite combinations…

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 90-120 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients: