Maryland Crab Soup

Since I was a child, Maryland crab soup has been one of my favorite soups to eat.   They would have it every so often at the local grocery store in the hot soup bar and I would check for it every time I was there.  The spicy seafood taste was like nothing else I'd ever had and I fell in love with it.  A couple years ago I was craving this soup- I couldn't find it anywhere the way I remembered it in my Maryland grocery store.  So, I decided to make it on my own and realized that it's really not that hard to do.  I don't know if it's really an "authentic" Maryland crab soup recipe, but that's what I'm calling it.  Last night I cooked up a large batch for a warm winter dinner.  It is delicious and healthy, great as a meal on it's own or along side a sandwich.  If you are serving it for dinner, I recommend cheddar biscuits as a side dish.

Ingredients: (Makes 8 large servings)

4 cups seafood stock

4 cups chicken or beef stock

2 cups water

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup hot sauce

2 t sugar

2 carrots, diced (about a cup)

1 large or two small onions, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1/3 lb green beans, sliced into 1 inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup frozen lima beans

2 T Old Bay seasoning

2 bay leaves

2 t salt

1 t black pepper

3 red potatoes, diced into 1/2 inch cubes

1 lb fresh crab meat

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped 

Directions:

Combine the stock, water, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and sugar in a large soup pot and bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, chop up all of your veggies.  Once they are all chopped, add them to the pot along with the can of tomatoes, corn, lima beans, bay leaves, and Old Bay seasoning. (excluding potatoes)

Stir to combine and bring to a simmer for about 15 minutes.  Next, add the potatoes and bring back to a simmer.  Cover and let it cook for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender.  Add the crab meat to the pot.

Cook for about 10-15 minutes longer.  By now, the smell will be amazing!  Taste for salt and pepper, or more hot sauce.  Garnish with the fresh parsley.  Serve hot with cheddar biscuits on the side.

Linguine with Crab, Lemon, Chiles, and Mint

This is a lighter pasta dish, but the combination of spicy peppers with the rich crab meat and bright acidity of the lemon makes an extremely flavorful meal.  The fresh mint adds some much needed coolness to round out the dish.  Depending on how spicy you want it you can change up the chile peppers.  I found ours to be on the very spicy end, but for Sean who loves spicy food it was just perfect.  Crab meat is pretty expensive, but I recommend going for quality over quantity.  You can find little containers of crab meat in the fish section of the grocery store, and 8oz is all you need for the dish (though more would never hurt!) It's also a pretty quick meal... we didn't time it or anything but I'd say it could be done in 30 minutes if I had to guess.  Serve with a glass of crisp, refreshing white wine.  Recipe adapted from Epicurious.

Ingredients:

1 lb linguine

Kosher salt

2 T unsalted butter

1 large (or two small) thinly sliced shallots

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 jalapenos thinly sliced (seeded if you want to remove some spice)

1 Anaheim pepper (or other low-heat pepper) sliced

3 minced Thai chiles (optional- these are super spicy!)

1 lemon- zested and juiced (should be at least 2 T of juice from one lemon)

Freshly ground black pepper

8 oz crab meat

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

Directions:

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water - heavily salted.  When it is just shy of al dente, drain the noodles, reserving 1 cup of pasta cooking liquid for later.  Meanwhile, heat a large pan to medium and melt butter.  Add shallots with a couple pinches of salt and cook for 2-3 minutes or until softened and fragrant.

Next, add the peppers and garlic to the pan with a little more kosher salt and continue cooking for about 4-5 minutes until the peppers are soft.

Add the juice from half of the lemon and 3 T of the pasta water to the pan and cook until liquid is evaporated.  Add the linguine to the pot and stir to combine with the shallot and pepper mixture.  Add the remaining pasta water and cook over medium high until water is almost evaporated and has a glossy finish.  Continue stirring with tongs every few seconds.  Finally, add the lemon zest, the other half of lemon juice, mint, and crab. (Reserve some zest and mint for garnish if you would like)  Toss with the tongs to combine. 

Sprinkle a heavy dose of freshly ground black pepper on the pasta.  Taste for additional salt as well.  Serve with extra mint and lemon zest on top.  Yum!