In the kitchen

Last weekend was really my first date night out since the hospital stint and so we ventured over to Snack Jack's where I had my favorite--snow crab legs.

To be honest, it was surreal just sitting their doing something so enjoyable and so mundane, part of my life before the hospital. Because that's what my life is divided into these days: before and now. Simple things have larger meaning. Like cracking crab legs and dipping meat I worked for into warm butter. But I digress.

I usually order 1/2 lb., but I got a full pound by accident. I thought it would've been too much, but we saved the crab meat we didn't eat and I used it in homemade crab bisque the following day.

So without further ado, here's your recipe to pure yummy-ness, inspired by Snacks and made with pure love for the kitchen:



You will need:

1 cup onion, minced
1/2 cup carrot, grated
1/2 cup corn (from the can is fine)
3/4 cup potatoes, diced
10 1/2 oz. or 2 cans chicken broth (I used thawed leftover broth from a previous meal)
4 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup heavy cream (I made it myself with 3/4 c. milk & 1/3 c. butter, mixed)
1/2 cup cooking sherry (I used apple juice)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
fresh chives, minced
salt
crabmeat

Cooking it:

1. Saute onion, carrot and corn in 2 tablespoons butter until soft. Set aside.

2. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a decent-sized saucepan and add flour, whisking constantly over medium heat until light brown.

3. Slowly add chicken broth, whisking constantly to ensure mixture stays smooth.

4. Add onions, carrots, and corn mixture along with potatoes, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

5. Add cream, sherry (or apple juice), lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, salt, and crab and simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. Just for fun, I also added a little bit of leftover chow har lok, a shrimp dish with a tomato-chili base, that we'd kept in the freezer. We're big on recycling leftovers, can you tell?

6. Garnish with fresh minced chives.

Note: This is a happily bastardized version of a lobster bisque recipe I found on food.com. Double Note: This is my first post in a little over a year and a half. It seemed only fitting that it be full of life and the positive. And, for me, a large part of that is time I can carve out to spend in the kitchen.