#LetsLunch: festive sides/family sides edition

Another month, another late LetsLunch post...

Sadly, I worked nights most of this past week, so I didn't do much cooking of meals, much less than side dishes. With it being my second-to-last week on the job, I used my free mornings instead to meet up with my former team in one of our bureaus for lunch, ran errands and got a spa facial on Friday. :)

I am SUPER excited to get started at my new gig at the Cooking Club. Hopefully that means this blog will start to get a little more love (though, it's entirely possible it goes in the other direction for the first few months while I get settled).

But, I will still continue to meet up with my world-wide LetsLunch group for our virtual food date once a month. This month, we chose festive holiday sides and festive family side dishes (I think...).

I made this for a potluck last night and from the empty dish we brought home at the end of the night, it seems to have been a hit.

This is my mom's Hot Crab Dip. She usually only makes it at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and every year, I think I end up single-handedly devouring at least half of it.




Mom's recipe calls for 1 block of cream cheese to 1 can of lump crab meat. This is a double batch and it fills a medium-sized round corning-ware dish.

Season the drained crab meat with two teaspoons of prepared horseradish (or more, to taste. I use heaping teaspoons). Also preheat your oven or toaster oven to 375.



Dried onion flakes, three teaspoons. You could probably use real onion (though a bit less, they're very strong) or some thinly sliced scallions if you're feeling extra fancy. Also sprinkle some salt and pepper at this point.



Mix in two blocks of cream cheese. This works a lot better when you leave the cream cheese out for a bit, maybe near a warm oven. These were right out of the fridge, and it was a pain to mix.


Finally add milk a spoonful at a time and continue mixing. Add no more than two tablespoons of milk (but usually ends up needing much less).

Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes until warmed through and slightly browned on top. Cool before serving or risk seriously burning the crap out of your mouth. Serve with crackers or bread.

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LetsLunch is a monthly virtual lunch date among food bloggers from around the world. Our fearless leader, Cheryl Tan can be found at www.atigerinthekitchen.com  Want to join us? Search the #LetsLunch hashtag on Twitter and ping any one of us with your info. I'm @emmacarew

Here's a round-up of what everyone else posted this week:
Charissa‘s Coconut Date Balls at Zest Bakery
Cheryl's Auntie Jane's Potato Gratin at A Tiger In the Kitchen
Eleanor‘s Easy Festive Stir-Fry at Wok Star
Ellise‘s Lime-Chipotle Carrots at Cowgirl Chef
Felicia‘s Chinese Butterfly Cookies at Burnt-Out Baker
Grace‘s Fruitcake at HapaMama
Joe‘s Maine Homestead Holiday Dishes at Joe Yonan
Linda‘s Baked Salad at Free Range Cookies
Linda‘s Trinidadian Baked Pastelles at Spicebox Travels
Lisa‘s Potato Latkes at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy‘s “Not My Mama’s” Black-Eyed Peas & Greens at A Cook And Her Books
Maria‘s Grandma Dorothy’s Deviled Eggs at Maria’s Good Things
Patrick‘s Baby Pecan Pies at Patrick G. Lee
Rebecca‘s Grandmother Martha’s Potato Kugel at Grongar Blog
Steff‘s Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble at The Kitchen Trials
Victor‘s Roasted Parsnips, Carrots & Delicata Squash Tossed With Sauteed Mustard Greens at The Taste of Oregon

#LetsLunch July edition: champagne companion bites

Hooray! Another LetsLunch month and this month I did a little work ahead of time (made this on Monday) so I wasn't scrambling at the last minute.

This month, to toast the two-year anniversary of Cheryl Tan and the others' great idea to have a "virtual" lunch date, we chose small bites to go with champagne.

I have been wanting to try cold smoking salmon for a while now and finally took the plunge. I mostly followed this recipe from Serious Eats to "quick cure" but also took some notes from Andrew Zimmern's recipe and technique here. 

Start with Juniper berries. The great thing about these is that I purchased them from the bulk section at my co-op and I only bought about what I would need, rather than buying a whole bottle or bag at a spice store. I think my total cost for a heaping tablespoon of the dried berries was $0.20 or so. I used my mortar and pestle to crush them up a bit

Very thinly sliced fresh salmon

Spice mixture: brown sugar, sea salt, pepper, crushed juniper and dill. I started with about 3:1 ratio of sugar to salt (following David Chang's quick pickles ratio... figured it would probably translate here) and added the pepper, berries and dill. When I tasted later, I found there was too much juniper, so rinsed the salmon and repacked with more sugar, salt and dill. 

Mix, mix, mix

Completely coat your salmon slices. Then, flatten the bag to a single layer and press it between two plates. Chill for two or more hours, then drain and rinse the salmon.

Serve on dark bread with herbed cream cheese. Cheers! 

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LetsLunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

I'll update with more posts from the other LetsLunch-ers as I find them throughout the day!

Charissa's Bacon, Apple and Swiss Quiche at Zest Bakery
Ellise's Sundried Tomato Pesto Palmiers at Cowgirl Chef
Cheryl's Cheddar Pecan Crisps at A Tiger in the Kitchen
Lisa's Salmon Tartare at Monday Morning Cooking Club

#LetsLunch: Spring small bites edition

This month for Let's Lunch, our group mashed up two ideas: small bites for March Madness and spring recipes for spring.

I'm really glad we pushed back a week, because it allowed Minneapolis to thaw slightly so that it actually DOES look a bit like spring here.

To me, nothing says spring like radishes, which I've really only started to eat in the last year or so. I went to Trader Joe's looking for something creative to pair the radishes with and found a nice piece of "honey chevre." It sounded delicious and I thought the nice floral notes of honey would balance with the bite of radish.

My original intention was to do some kind of puff pastry wrap or layer on toasted baguette. But, as many of you know, I'm recently engaged, so therefore am trying to cut back on white carbs, such as toasted baguette or buttery puff pastry.

Enter mini phyllo cups. My new best friend, at 25 calories for a serving, compared to 170 on the puff pastry.


Problem solved. And, these little bites are delicious, spring-like and super easy.

Let's Lunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day.

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

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RECIPE:


Ingredients:
1 bunch red radishes
1 package of mini phyllo cups (there were 15 in the package I bought)
1 log honey chevre (or any tasty soft cheese -- I found mine at Trader Joe's)
1 scallion, dark green parts (chives would also be tasty)

* Set the phyllo cups in a tin pie pan or on a baking sheet. Preheat your oven to 350
* Wash your radishes and slice off the tops and bottoms. Slice them on a mandoline, or very carefully using a paring knife. If they are larger than a quarter or so in diameter, cut them in half.
* Slice the cheese and use clean fingers to press about 1/2 tsp into the well of each phyllo cup.
* Bake the cups for 6-8 minutes until the cheese is melty.
* Press the radishes into each cup (I used my slices to make "fairy" wings -- like on a cupcake)
* Sprinkle with sliced scallions or chives.

Check out the other #letslunch blogger's offerings this month:

Linda's Breakfast Cookies, at Free Range Cookies
Ellise's Bite-size Black Pepper and Strawberry Scones, at Cowgirl Chef
Karen's Sushi Sushi, at Geofooding
Cheryl's Popiah, at A Tiger in the Kitchen

More links to come as I find them!

A healthier Parmesan artichoke dip

Saturday while preparing my recreation of Momofuku Ssam bar's spicy rice cakes and pork, I was a little peckish, so made this dish to have something to snack on while assembling all the pieces of the Chang dish.

I saw this box of baby artichokes last week and H Mart and just couldn't resist picking them up. I'm always amazed at the amount of waste these little things can produce once you pull the tough outer leaves and stems.

I'm also not a believer in dunking your hearts in vinegar or lemon juice to keep them from browning. One of my favorite food writers, Mark Bittman has written about this.

They steamed for about 12 -15 minutes, or until fork tender. When I sliced them in half, I found I hadn't quite cut away enough of the prickly parts, so quartered the hearts and trimmed them at a diagonal to remove the sharp tips.

I tossed the still warm quartered baby hearts with 2 pats of butter (less than a tablespoon), 1 TBS grated Parmesan cheese, some salt, pepper and chopped dill and taragon (you could, of course use any fresh herbs you had in the house).

The butter and the cheese made it seem a little creamy, and the herbs made it taste so fresh. I suppose you also could have thinly sliced some baby spinach to boost its veggie count. I served it on some water crackers, but they were good plain too. Way healthier than restaurant artichoke dip, but filling and delicious!

Recipe:
Parmesan Artichoke Dip
1 box baby artichokes, trimmed of tough outer leaves and prickles (about 2 dozen)
2 small pats of butter (just less than 1 TBS)
1 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
salt/pepper to taste
2 TBS freshly chopped herbs (I used taragon and dill)

Steam baby artichoke pieces for 12-15 mins until fork tender. Quarter and trim any remaining prickles.
Toss with melted butter, cheese and herbs.
Serve with crackers or toasts.