Boiling Crab, Garden Grove CA

First, to the person who introduced me to possibly the death of me, thanks JO JO! :)   Dedicated to shellfish ranging from oysters, crab, craw fish, and lobster, I’ve had a loved one willing to risk his shellfish allergies for the sake of awesomeness.  Not that I’m saying you should do it if you’re risking anaphylactic shock, but you would be dying in the best seasonings butter can hold.  The way it works is that you have your choices of shellfish, then you select your seasonings: Rajun Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic butter, or the whole She-Bang (a combination of all three).  Then you select your degree of spiciness.  For first timers, go with mild because it does pack a good sized kick. Lastly, do yourself a favor and and just order the whole She-bang.  After you’ve ordered, they throw everything in a bag and serve it to you just like that, and you eat right out of the bag.  Your table cloth is butcher paper and you’ll get a bib.  Your only utensils are your hands and a crab cracker.  So get down and dirty and don’t get a manicure until after.

Here is the fried shrimp and cajun fries basket.  Everything was seasoned well  and the shrimp was not overdone and chewy at all.  It does the job, but this is not what you came for.

Now we’re talking, king crab legs!  Cooked perfectly and even better when you take out the meat and throw back into the whole She-bang.  I can hardly describe how flavorful the whole She-bang butter sauce is.  You really taste all the different seasonings and I love that they throw in big chunks of garlic because the garlic  absorbs all that flavor.  I could even eat the garlic by itself.

A pound of shrimp with an order of corn and red potatoes.  Yes, you will have to work for your food but the rewards make it worth it.  I recommend de-shelling at least half of your shrimp first and then throwing it back in the sauce so it intensifies the flavor.  Also, the great thing about the corn and potatoes is that the sauce and the seasonings get in every nook and cranny, making the veggies just as addicting as the meat.
Rating: 5/5 Lipitors
Budget: $$, probably spending about $20-30 per person.
Tips:  1) Don’t wear your pristine clothes and have a Tide Pen ready.  If you don’t realize until hours later that you’re full of butter spots, get Soil Love from Stater Bros. as a pre-treatment before you throw it the washer.
2) Take your left over sauce home and smother it on veggies, especially mashed potatoes.
3) Be prepared, your bowels are probably not used to this much grease and butter.  I’ll let you figure out the rest.  But I’ve never let anything like that deter me as long as I’m not suffering the symptoms of dehydration :)

Dining In: Dinner is served with sauce

Unfortunately, loving food is not always economical.  Also, my skills as a chef at home are not very complex and quite frankly it’s difficult to take the time to cook dinner.  So after some experimenting and searching on the internet, I have a few dinner suggestions that help the wallet and the clock.  I didn’t intend for everything to have sauce on top but it just happened that way.

 

Peppercorn Steak sauce: comes in a dried mix packet and can be found in most grocery stores.  All you have to do is season any steak with salt and pepper, then cook to your preference and pour the sauce on top.  Here, I used rib eye cooked medium.  The sauce is thick in consistency and is nice and rich from the butter you add.  It’s a nice change from regular steak sauce, not that I mind steak sauce at all but its good if you want to mix it up.  It’s also great over potatoes.

 
In a separate meal, I roasted yams and red onion inspired by “Roasted Vegetables” recipe by Saundra on allrecipes.com.  The original has more veggies that you can use but I stuck with two because that’s all that I had on hand at home.  I peeled and cubed one large yam and sliced up one red onion.  The sauce is 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic, 1/2 tablespoon of dried thyme and 1 tablespoon dried rosemary.  Pour the sauce over the veggies in a mixing bowl and mix by hand.  The lay the veggies over a baking sheet and bake for about 30 mins or until fork tender in 475 degrees.  Lastly, salt and pepper to taste. 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roasted-Vegetables/Detail.aspx

For my main, I used McCormick’s Garlic, Herb and Wine marinate on chicken.  Like the peppercorn sauce, it comes in a dried mix packet.  After you mix up the marinade, I put aside a couple tablespoons so that I can top the chicken with a little extra.  The directions calls for the meat to marinade for only 15 mins, but I did it for two hours to give the chicken more flavor.  This marinate has a lot of great flavor and you can really taste the wine component even though it was dehydrated at one point.
Tip: sear both sides of the chicken on high heat for three minutes each and then bake in the oven at 350 degrees until it reaches an internal temp of 170.


This is one my favorite dinners to make at home, “Heavenly Halibut” by chellebell on allrecipes.com. I have made this at least a dozen times, I actually don’t cook that often, so for me that is a lot.  The sauce is a mayo, parmesan cheese, green onion sauce that goes over the halibut.  The mayo gives it its creamy richness and the parmesan gives the cheesy salty bite.   The only tip I have is to double the recipe so that you have plenty of extra for broccoli, which goes perfectly.  I’ve also tried the sauce on carrots.  Let me spare you the time by saying don’t do it!  With the broccoli, first I steam it, then season it with salt and pepper.  Then I place the broccoli under the broiler and pour the sauce on top so that it melts.  I really do think you can make a broccoli gratin with the same sauce, although I haven’t tried it yet.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Heavenly-Halibut/Detail.aspx