New recipes, events...

• Recipes from Nancy's simple birthday dinner, last Saturday, 27 August.
• Caesar and caprese salad
  
• Crab Gumbo
• Ken's Basil Scallops
• Chocolate torte: I cheated on this and bought a beautiful piece at Whole Foods. Serve with vanilla ice cream on the side.
  
• Caesar and caprese salad
• This made a delicious starter.
  
• The Caesar salad, not quite from scratch.
• Romaine lettuce leaves, torn in peices. Red are nice for color, if available. Use "enough" per person. As the size of leaves is quite variable, think about large torn or chopped pieces roughly half a palm size, if you have large hands.
  
• The dressing is special for Nancy, as she loves anchovies.
  
• Take two anchovy fillets in olive oil and put them in salad bowl. Mash around bottom of bowl with a fork until they are coming apart. Add 1 minced garlic clove. Add 1 - 2 tsp. Dijon style mustard and stir together. Add 1 tbsp. mayonnaise or mayonnaise substitute - e.g., Vegenaise worked fine (this is the not quite from scratch part.) Mix with anchovy mustard. Stir in 1-2 tbsp good quality olive oil. Check for taste. If needed, add 1 tsp or more lemon juice to taste.
  
• Mix romaine leaves into dressing until leaves are covered. Arrange on a large display plate.
• The caprese salad
• A sufficiency of fresh mozarella - I used a few pieces collected from the salad bar at Whole Foods. Slice in 1/2 in. pieces.
• A fresh, summery ripe, tomato or two, peeled, juicy and bleeding. Cut in wedges.
• Scatter in little collections of tomato and cheese around the outer edges of the Caesar salad.
  
• Cut a bunch of basil leaves, again, a sufficiency for quantity of salad being prepared, in chiffonade. In this case, don't stint on the sufficiency. You want plenty of basil. Scatter the basil over the cheese and tomatoes.
• Finish by drizzling good extra virgin olive oil over the cheese, tomatoes and basil. You might also sprinkle with a little sea salt or even fleur de sel. A crackle of fresh cracked black pepper makes a nice final touch.
• Serve the combined salad with salad plates and either little forks to pick at, or a serving spatula. Accompany with bread and a nice, cold, dry sauvignon blanc.
  
• Crab gumbo
• Starting with several recipes I read, I made this up from ingredients at hand. I had bought a couple of pounds of backfin crab from North Carolina at Frank's in the morning - they were having a "buy 1 lb. and the 2nd is half price" special. I also had on hand a couple of pounds of beautiful okra I had just picked at Clagett Farm that afternoon, as well as a plentiful supply of fresh tomatoes and fresh sweet and hot peppers. I also had green beans fresh from the Annapolis Farmer's Market.
  
• Ingredients
• 1 lb. backfin or claw crab meat, shells picked out
• 1 lb. fresh okra, tops trimmed off, cut in 1/2 in. pieces
• 1 white or yellow onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 2 sticks celery, diced, with chopped leaves
• 1 - 2 medium peeled white or yellow potatoes, large dice
• 1 - 2 lb fresh tomatoes, peeled, chopped coarsely or 1 large can tomatoes, chopped, with juice
• 1 - 2 sweet peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
• 1 - 2 or more hot peppers, to taste, chopped. Include seeds for more piquancy.
  
• 1 lb . green beans, (optional), ends snapped, cut in 1-2 in. lengths
• 1 lb . summer squash, (optional), cut in 1 in. pieces
  
• 2 tbsp sweet butter
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups stock - I made fish stock using Japanese shaved bonito in 5 cg. packets; many recipes recommend beef or chicken stock
• 1 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
  
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 tbsp soy sauce or 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Directions
• Prepare the stock: for fish stock using bonito flakes, bring 4 cups water to boil and take of heat; open 2 5 cg. packets of bonito flakes and pour into water. Steep for 5 minutes and strain. Dogs or cats find the strained flakes a tasty treat.
  
• In a deep pan or soup pot saute (braise or sweat over medium heat) onions, carrots, celery and peppers in butter and olive oil until onions turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and garlic and sweat another couple of minutes. Add okra and sweat a couple more minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the tomatoes and stir.
• Add stock and cup of wine. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer.
  
• Add bay leaves, Old Bay Seasoning and simmer for 20-30 min. About halfway through add in the summer squash - you want it cooked but still intact. There is no need to overcook the vegetables. Use the green beans as a guide. When they seem done enough, everything else should be about right. If using potatoes, they provide a second check - you want them firm but not crunchy.
• Just before serving, add the crab meat. It will be heated by the body of the soup. It is already cooked so needs no additional cooking. Don't overcook or it may toughen.
• Check seasoning. If salt is needed, the soy sauce works well and disappears as a separate flavor if you don't use too much. Add Worcestershire sauce now, also, and stir in.
  
• Serve soup in bowls or cups. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or basil. Bread alongside is nice for sopping up the delicious juice. This makes a fairly dense soup. You may want to thin with additional stock, water, or white wine.
  
• Ken's Scallops (I don't know who Ken is. 'tis just the name of the recipe I found.)
  
  I made these for Nancy's birthday using very large sea scallops at just 3 each per our two servings. They weighed about 10 oz. altogether. Excellent just lightly bronze colored. Bought these beautiful scallops that morning at Frank's Seafood, Jessup.
  
  
• Quick, simple, delicious! What else do you need? Prep
  Time: approx. 15 Minutes. Cook Time: approx. 4 Minutes.
  Ready in: approx. 19 Minutes. Makes 2 servings.
  Printed from Allrecipes, Submitted by Ken Gouge
  
  1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
  1 clove garlic, minced
  1 bunch fresh basil leaves, chopped
  20 scallops, rinsed and patted dry
  salt
  freshly ground black pepper
  1 wedge lemon
  
  Directions
  1 Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook
  garlic and basil in oil for about 30 seconds, and then add
  scallops. Season with salt and pepper, and squeeze lemon over
  the scallops. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
• I turned scallops over after a minute or so, checking that they had just begun to show some color, then cooked on second side until gold color began to show. Remove from heat as soon as they begin to appear opaque through the center - don't overcook!
  
• The quantity of basil is the indefinite "1 bunch fresh basil leaves." I used a couple of handsful from our kitchen herb garden, cut as a chiffonade.
  
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