Birthday Dinner Surprise!

Jason turned 26 yesterday, Sunday, November 1st. My gift to him was a surprise, homemade, candle-lit, birthday dinner two days before his actual birthday. To throw him off a bit, I told him we had reservations that night at a nice restaurant located nearby (*wink wink*).

Although I was busy preparing for the surprise all week long, he was completely oblivious and didn't suspect a thing! (That's a guy for you!) I tried to be fairly well prepared by getting everything that could be done ahead of time, done well ahead of time. But, there were still lots of small details that had to be left for the last minute - setting the table, lighting the candles and (the big one) getting all the food cooked and plated. As if that wasn't enough pressure, Jason decided to come home early from work that day!

North Carolina Blue Crabs

A few days ago Jason and I took a motorcycle ride down to the Virginia/North Carolina state line to browse the farm stands and to buy these jimmies (male blue crabs). He had heard from his co-worker, Archie, of a good place to buy live crabs that wasn't too far from where we live. Riding down interstate 168, just before passing into North Carolina, we saw signs for "Live Blue Crabs", "$35 a Bushel". I had no idea how much a bushel was but it sounded like a whole lot of crab for not a whole lot of money.

We pulled the bike up to a large trailer hitch parked on the grass off the side of the road. It looked like one of those rentable U-Haul trailers you attach to the back of your truck when you need to move. Except, this one was gigantic and even air-conditioned! Sitting under a make-shift canopy next to the trailer was a friendly couple ready to sell their goods. Inside the trailer were dozens of bushel baskets filled with crabs. By the time we got there that day the Jumbo blue crabs were already gone but they still had jimmies for $12/dozen and sooks (smaller females) for $6/dozen. We went with a dozen jimmies. The nice crab guy bagged them up for us and we gently squeezed them into the bike's saddle bag for the ride home.

Nice crab guy also told us the best way to eat the crabs was to pull off their top shell and steam (not boil) them. Neither Jason nor I had ever cooked live crab before so when we got home we immediately looked up how to prepare and clean live crabs. It took a lot of elbow grease to pry off those shells (Jason did all the hard work, =]) and some more work to pick out the sweet meat but oh, boy was it worth it! By the end of the meal we were two satisfied crab eaters, covered in shattered shell fragments and sticky with their juices.

After prepping and cleaning the crabs, we simply sprinkled on some Old Bay seasoning and steamed them over a water/vinegar mix. The best method for eating: twist and pull off legs and pinchers from the body, munching on any juicy white meat that comes off with them. Then, you can either crack and feast on the lump claw meat or pick out the rest of the body meat. I like to dip the crab meat in a mix of equal parts salt & pepper with a squeeze of lime juice or you can go traditional with simple melted butter.

Next time, we'll definitely try to get the JUMBO blue crabs.

Before: Bright blue, cleaned & ready to steam.

After: Bright pink and ready to eat!

Note: Nice crab guy on I-168 will be there until mid October, when he packs up the crab business and switches over to leading duck hunts.

Virginia Seafood + Seared Scallops

I'm completely ecstatic to learn that Virginia is the 4th largest producer of seafood in the U.S. (1. Alaska, 2. Washington, 3. Louisiana). Most of the goodies, especially the shellfish, come from the Chesapeake Bay - that large body of water right above Norfolk/Hampton Roads. The rest of it comes from the surrounding areas of the Atlantic waters. We've got everything from blue crab and oysters to black sea bass and mackerel! Some species are wild-caught and others are sustainably farmed but everything is always fresh and local.


So in honor of this great accomplishment, I bought some beautifully plumb, juicy, sweet sea scallops from a local fishmonger (Welton Seafoods in Ghent). About 3 times bigger than their baby cousins, the bay scallop, they're also not as tender or sweet, but usually cheaper and a better filler for a dinner dish. I turned some left-over mango salsa into a "relish" by adding olive oil and then heating up the mix in a saucepan. And for a side, I made mashed potatoes with the red russets I bought from the Farm Market awhile ago. Being new potatoes (freshly dug out of the ground) they were less starchy and required less time to boil. For the scallops, I simply seared them in some butter.


To sear the scallops:

• Rinse under cold water to remove sand (I have to admit that I didn't wash mine thoroughly and crunchy sounds were coming out of Jason's mouth!)
• Pat them dry (or else they will steam, instead of sear)
  
• Salt and pepper both sides
  
• Melt 1 tbsp butter in a large pan. Wait until hot and starting to brown.
  
• Sear scallops in butter 1.5 - 2 minutes on each side. Make sure they have breathing room. Don't over cook or they'll be tough! Scallops should be translucent and tender in the middle and opaque and browned at the ends.

Simple and delicious! I later found out that Jason doesn't even like scallops! What a waste... $15.99 a lb... (1/2 lb should feed 2 people, with sides). SIGH.