Tillamook Crab and Macaroni Bake

I picked up this recipe last year when my friend Jake was visiting and we went out to the Tillamook Cheese Factory (the happiest place on Earth in my opinion). Why it’s taken me this long to make it is anybody’s guess, but I’m glad Aaron and I got this together finally. I modified it a bit, replacing the toasted white bread with panko, making my own seasoning mix instead of using Old Bay, using pepper jack instead of regular Monterey jack, taking out the bell pepper, and replacing the shallots (which I forgot to purchase) with extra onion and garlic. However, I think the general idea is still there and it tastes awesome. I did a half size recipe because the original serves 8-10 and that’s why too much for just two. Do what I did or make it full because it’ll rock for a potluck dinner.

Tillamook Crab and Macaroni Bake modified from the Tillamook Cheese Factory:

Serves 4-5

At least 1 c. panko
1 Tb. olive oil
At least 1 tsp. seasoning mix (celery seed, granulated garlic, oregano, thyme, marjoram)
5 oz. rotini pasta
1½ Tb. butter
1/8 c. flour
1 c. milk
¼ tsp. salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Granulated garlic to taste
2 oz. cream cheese
2 oz. cheddar cheese, grated (I’m a total convert to Tillamook’s white cheddar)
3 oz. pepper jack cheese, grated (also Tillamook, duh)
2 Tb. finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1½ Tb. chopped cilantro
4 oz. crabmeat

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Boil pasta in salted water until tender, drain and set aside. Take about half of the seasoning mix and mix it in with the panko. Set aside.

Melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add flour and whisk until smooth. Continue stirring butter and flour mixture over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until it has a slightly nutty aroma. Pour in milk while whisking and whisk until smooth. Cook while stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes until mixture thickens. Add salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and the rest of the seasoning mix. Add cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat and add the grated cheddar and pepper jack cheese. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in onion, garlic, and cilantro. Stir in pasta and gently fold in crab meat.

Spray a casserole dish (or bread pan, which is what I did) with nonstick spray. Pour in filling and spread out evenly. Sprinkle panko crumbs over top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and bubbling around the edge.

This dish rocks. Seriously, it was so good. I’ve made roux plenty of times now and I never thought to mix in cream cheese. It makes the sauce so silky smooth. I think pepper jack was a great substitution because it adds a hint of spice, which works well with the crab. This is great. End of story.

Alaskan King Crab Legs and Bacon Wrapped Scallops

Aaron and I aren’t all that big into Valentine’s Day anymore. This has a lot to do with the fact that our anniversary is February 2 and his birthday is the week following V-Day (February 21). So we celebrate love an awful lot in such a short month. Well, we do every month. Not the point.

ANYWAY, Alaskan king crab legs were on sale and we had to get them. It’s ALASKAN KING CRAB. I don’t feel like I need to say much more than that. We decided to get a pound and a half and then pick up some sea scallops from Sheridan’s (which has an amazing meat and seafood counter. You should check it out if you’re in the Portland area). When we were in Juneau this past winter, Aaron made bacon wrapped scallops and his mom’s place and they were fantastic, especially since he had never done them before. For a fancy V-Day dinner, they seemed like a good idea. And they were!

Steamed King Crab Legs and Bacon Wrapped Scallops by Becca and Aaron:

1½ lb. Alaskan king crab legs
6 large size sea scallops, gently rinsed
6 pieces of bacon (turkey bacon can work, but it crisps faster, so it’d be a bit more difficult)
Thyme
Rosemary
2-3 garlic cloves, cut in half
¼ c. butter, melted
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Mashed potatoes

Place bacon in a medium skillet and cook until slightly crispy. It should be mostly cooked, but still flexible. Reserve the bacon fat in the skillet.


Wrap the scallops with the bacon and skewer with toothpicks to hold in place. Set aside.

Boil water in a large pot with thyme, rosemary and garlic. If you have a steamer tray, this next part is easy. I had to rig on up, so it was a little harder, but still worked even though I had to cut the legs in half. Add legs to steamer tray or rigged up steamer tray and cover. Steam for about seven minutes, or until you can smell the delicious crab aroma. Crab legs are generally already cooked once when you get them. They do this on the fishing vessel to preserve the supreme freshness and delciousness that is Alaskan king crab. So don’t overcook!

While the crab legs are steaming, reheat the bacon skillet. Place the scallops in the skillet and cook until translucent, flipping a couple of times. Scallops cook really quickly and get tough, so watch it.


Serve crab legs and scallops with melted butter mixed with the minced garlic, mashed potatoes, and lemon wedges.

This was a ridiculously fantastic dinner. The only issue we had was that we don’t have crab crackers, so we had to cut all of our legs open with kitchen scissors, which takes a bit of time. Still, though, worth it. Alaskan king crab is so good and I wish it were always available and not super expensive.

I recommend topping off your evening with a viewing of Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride.

Crab Cake Benedict

I really wanted to start the New Year off well, so I decided to make a fancy breakfast for my husband and me this morning. Last night I made some murmurings about eggs benedict before bed and my husband kindly reminded me this morning. I’ve made hollandaise before, but never really attempted poached eggs. Some books make it sound so complicated, but as I learned today, it’s really not that hard.

To make it a little more fancy (and also based on what I had on hand this morning), I decided to go with crab cakes benedict. One of my most favorite breakfast places in Portland is Milo’s. If you haven’t been, go now. They do delicious benedicts, including a wonderful crab cake version. I was inspired by this as well as by a recipe in one of my new cookbooks, The Fiddlehead Cookbook, which is filled with recipes from The Fiddlehead Restaurant, a delicious place that used to exist in my hometown. Their description of poached eggs is how I was finally able to figure it out.

It was a good morning. I highly recommend eggs benedicts for fancy breakfasts. It takes a little time, but it looks beautiful and tastes amazing.

Crab Cake Benedict inspired by Milo’s/Crabby Eggs from The Fiddlehead Cookbook:

Serves 2 with extra sauce

Hollandaise Sauce-
3 eggs yolks
2 tsp. lemon juice (I used closer to 4 as I, like my friend Lindsay, prefer a very lemony sauce)
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, cut into small pieces

4 eggs
1 Tb. white wine vinegar

4 small slices of bread or 4 english muffins (I used slices of no-knead bread. It was perfect.)

4 crab cakes (I used this recipe, slightly reduced to make 4)

Prepare crab cakes first. Keep them warm on the pan or in the oven. I was also making country fried potatoes and needed the stove space.



Start the hollandaise. Prepare a double boiler with gently simmering water over low heat. Place egg yolks in top of double boiler and add lemon. Whisk until egg mixture is fluffy, about 1 minute. Continue to whisk gently, adding butter about 1 teaspoon at a time. When at least 6 teaspoons have been added, begin to add butter by tablespoons. This allows it to emulsify properly. If you add too much butter too quickly, it creates too much liquid and won’t be the right consistency for the sauce. Thoroughly incorporate each addition before adding more. I generally remove the top of the double boiler about half way through the butter process to ensure that the sauce does not become too warm and separate. Cover and keep warm until ready. You may need to whisk it a couple more times just before serving.



Lightly oil a large pan and fill with water to a depth of about 1 inch. Add vinegar to pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a very low simmer. Crack each egg into a small bowl and gently slide it into the barely simmering water. Cover the pan and cook for 4 minutes. You can do it longer if you like harder yolks, but I don’t.

While the eggs are poaching, toast your bread/muffins.



Remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon and place on plate/tray lined with absorbent towels. Trim the ragged eggs, if you so choose.



To assemble, place a crab cake on each slice of bread/muffin and add an egg on top of the crab cake. Spoon hollandaise over the top and serve at once with your favorite breakfast side dish, like fried potatoes.

As for the extra sauce, it can be refrigerated and reheated later. To do so, place the sauce in a double boiler and reheat in the same manner it was made: slowly over simmering water. Don’t do it too quickly or it will separate. Hollandaise is great over vegetables or other, simpler breakfast meals. Try it on a breakfast sandwich! It’s just so dang tasty.

Crab Cakes and Aioli

Some time ago I realized that I had two cans of crab in my pantry and not a clue where they had come from. I knew I needed to do something with them and when my husband and I were digging through cookbooks for upcoming meals, I came across the perfect recipe. During college I babysat for this very nice family. They happened to get Cooking Light magazine and I’d copy down recipes from time to time when they looked interesting enough. That’s where this recipe comes from and I’m really glad I finally got to use it.

The recipe pairs crab cakes with red pepper mayonnaise, but I only had one pepper (and yellow at that), so I searched for a good aioli recipe to have with the cakes. The original is here. I served it all up with some celery sticks. Both were really easy recipes and I will try it again.

Crab Cakes from Cooking Light and Aioli from epicurious.com:

Makes about 6 cakes and about 1½ cups aioli

For the aioli-
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (more like 8!)
½ tsp. salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 large egg yolks
Fresh lemon juice

For the cakes-
1/3 c. reduced fat mayonnaise
¼ c. minced red onion
¼ c. minced red bell pepper (I used yellow)
2 Tb. minced celery
1½ fresh lemon juice
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 lb. lump crabmeat, shell pieces removed
1¼ c. panko, divided
2 Tb. butter (I used olive oil instead)
6 lemon wedges, optional





Do the aioli first to let the flavors mingle a bit more. You could even do this a day ahead of time. In blender (I used my mini prep food processor. It was a lot easier than using my huge blender), purée garlic, salt, cayenne pepper, and 2 teaspoons oil until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add yolks (save one of the whites for the crab cakes!) and lemon juice and blend until smooth. With motor running, very slowly add remaining 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons oil in thin, steady stream, blending until aioli is thick, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To prepare the cakes, combine 1/3 cup mayo and next 6 ingredients (through crab) and ¾ cup panko in a large bowl. Stir until well combined.



Form into 6 patties. Dredge patties in reaming ½ cup panko.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter (or olive oil. I use this because I like the taste better) in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add 3 patties, cook 10 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through, turning once. Remove from pan and keep warm. Repeat procedure with remaining butter and patties.



Serve crab cakes with aioli and garnish with lemon wedges if desired.

Like I said before, these were awesome and I will find a way to show them off to friends soon.