Cripple Creek Crab Cakes

In the autumn of last year, I reviewed a fascinating cookbook called Food to Die For; you can read that review here. One of the recipes in the book that intrigued me was one for crab cakes. I don’t know how it is in your area, but I find it very difficult to find good lump crab meat in my area, particularly considering my favorite seafood place (a local icon) closed down a number of years ago. Lo and behold, two days before Christmas I spotted it at Fresh Time, on sale! Christmas dinner, solved!

The beauty of crab cakes is that there’s really not a whole lot to putting them together, and you can make them ahead. They need to be chilled for at least an hour, but I find them more flavorful if you chill them overnight. Imagine how easy your meal would be if the main dish was made ahead of time.

These are wonderful! As crab cakes are one of my favorite things, I’m so pleased to know that no longer will I have to deny myself because of lack of availability of lump crab meat thanks to Fresh Thyme. If you like crab cakes as much as I do, you’re going to want to try this recipe.

Cripple Creek* Crab Cakes

1 lb. lump crab meat
½ red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely diced
½ c. white onion, diced
4 scallions, chopped, including tops
1 garlic clove, minced
1 egg, beaten
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. hot sauce
3 c. bread crumbs, divided
2 to 4 T. of vegetable oil, for frying
Lemon wedges for garnish
Chopped parsley, for garnish

In a large mixing bowl, combine the crab, pepper, onion, scallions, and garlic.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg, mustard, lemon juice, Worcestershire, and hot sauce.
Add the liquids to the crab. Mix in 1/4 cup of the breadcrumbs.

Form the mixture into eight patties, and dredge in the remaining breadcrumbs.
Place the patties on a plate, then cover and chill for at least an hour, preferably overnight.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat (I used a combination of olive oil and butter.). Cook until the patties are golden, about 3 to 4 minutes per side, turning once.

Serve with remoulade and lemon wedges.

 

*Adapted from a recipe in Colorado Collage by the Junior League of Denver, a 1995 a collection of recipes from across the state, inspired by different cities and towns.

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Ghost Bride Martini

 

Sometimes it’s hard to come up with that perfect cocktail for your Halloween, Samhain, Dia de Los Muertos, or other spooky celebration. This recipe, from the recently reviewed Food to Die For, is adapted from one served at the haunted Grand Galvez Hotel in Galveston, TX, and further adapted by me. It honors Audra, the lovelorn bride, who hanged herself in the hotel when her mariner fiancé’s ship went down in a storm and he never returned to marry her. Sadly, he did return a number of days after her death as he had been picked up by another ship. Clearly their love was not to be.

Ghost Bride Martini

1 ½ oz. citrus vodka
¾ oz. Cointreau
¼ oz. Simple syrup
½ oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Run the squeezed lemon around the rim of a martini glass, invert that glass onto a plate of granulated sugar to coat, and chill.

Mix the vodka, Cointreau, simple syrup, and freshly squeezed lemon juice together in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into your sugar rimmed glass and serve immediately.

This recipe makes one cocktail. What you see in the glass on this page is a double.

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Dijon Potato Soup

  

Yesterday I reviewed the unique and fascinating Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places cookbook. Today I am sharing a recipe from that cookbook. This recipe was adapted from Tastes and Treasures: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona produced by the Historical League, Inc., a nonprofit fundraising arm of the Arizona Historical Society, published in 2007, featuring modern recipes from historical places for today’s cooks. It’s an easy soup to make, creamy and delicious, with a lot of complexity to the taste. 

   Potato Dijon Soup

1 yellow onion, chopped,
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced*
3 oz. pancetta, diced
6 c. chicken broth
3 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 c. heavy cream or half-and-half
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh chives, and/or parsley, chopped, for garnish.

In a large stockpot over medium heat, cook the onion, leeks, and pancetta until the vegetables are soft and pancetta is rendered, about 10 minutes.

Add the broth and potatoes, and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Add the mustard, and simmer for five minutes.

Purée the soup using an immersion blender, or in batches in a stand blender. Add the cream or half-and-half, and then simmer until hot. Add the salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with fresh herbs.

* I made it easy on myself and used 2 6-ounce packages of Melissa’s cleaned and sliced leeks.

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Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places, Reviewed

 

Whether you are interested in the paranormal or not, I’ll bet every one of you will admit to loving a good ghost story. I know that I do, and have many fond memories of sitting around a campfire with my fellow Girl Scouts, listening to them. A couple of my own rather strange experiences have pushed me in the direction of believing in the paranormal, if only slightly, versus scoffing at it previously.

 

Those of you interested in the paranormal may be familiar with Ami Bruni, co-star and Executive Producer of the widely successful paranormal series, “Kindred Spirits” wherein she helps frightened people reclaim their homes from the mysteries of the unknown. Bruni, who admits that she grew up in a haunted house, was also one of the stars of the program “Ghost Hunters,” with which everyone is no doubt familiar.

 

Her combined love of vintage regional recipes and the paranormal shine through in this unique and fabulous cookbook, Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places, a book dedicated to Lizbeth “Lizzie” Borden, “…whose killer meatloaf recipe inspired the idea for this book.” I don’t think I have ever enjoyed reading a cookbook as much as I did this one. It combines haunted sights across the country — mysterious hotels, eerie ghost towns, and possessed pubs (one of which was visited by “Ghosthunters” in my town) — pairing these with recipes reflecting happenings on those sites. Case in point, there is a recipe for Lizzie Borden’s meatloaf. What a perfect dish to serve at a Halloween party, proffering slices on the blade of an axe.

  Bruni is not wrong when she says, “Food can bring the dead back to life.” A rather frightening sentiment, but an accurate one, considering that I can’t make fried chicken without thinking about my grandmother. I could really relate to Bruni when she talked about her late mother, her signature dish being a Caesar salad recipe that the family loved, but for which there was no physical recipe. When her mother passed away, the recipe went with her. This caused her to associate food and recipes with the dead and paranormal experiences. She was delighted when she found a Caesar salad recipe from Sheboygan Asylum, that reminded her so much of her mother’s. I’m just going to leave that there. 

The recipes are largely gleaned from other sources, many of which are now out of print. Imagine serving cinnamon sugar cookies from Alcatraz. What a great way to give your kids a tasty dessert and teach them some history at the same time. Many of these recipes do come from penitentiaries, all of which have a haunted past.

If you are looking for a new way to host a dinner party, you need this book. Nothing, I guarantee, will make you as popular in your neighborhood, at family gatherings, or as a member of your gourmet club, but to follow one of the menus and recipes in this book, pairing them with creepy music and a complementary story.

The book is full of wonderful vintage photographs as well as fabulous full color photos, along with recipes from the corresponding haunted places. I was pleased to see two places from Missouri listed in this book, but at the same time surprised that one of the most haunted places in Missouri, namely the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis was not.

 

 If you enjoy entertaining guests in a unique and memorable way, this is the guidebook on how to do it. The book is divided into the following sections:

Eerie Hotels
Horrifying Homes
Otherworldly Watering Holes
Hair-Raising Historic Landmarks
Hellish Institutions
Ghoulish Ghost Towns

It was so much fun learning the creepy history of so many places, as well as seeing the interiors the way these places looked back in the day, and even, in some cases, seeing a photo of their menu. I have to tell you that this book is the best cookbook that I have read all year. This book will appeal to those who love cookbooks as well as those who love the paranormal. It is a must have for either one of these personal libraries.

 

It is available for pre-order with the publication date of July 30, 2024. You can get your own copy (and you know you want to) by clicking here.

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 Disclaimer: I received a complimentary digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.