Redirected: Southern Recipes: Sides

Colorful Spring Salad

Deborah Geering — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:02:00 GMT

The four main ingredients—arugula, fennel, strawberries, and beets—represent everything we love about the spring garden. They're bright and refreshing, tender yet still grounded in their earthiness. They need little dressing; just a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar does the trick. Tip: Roast the beets ahead of time and refrigerate them in their skins for up to 3 days.

2 cups arugula leaves, washed and dried
4 young beets, any color, roasted*, cooled, peeled and sliced
1 small bulb fennel, trimmed, quartered, cored and thinly sliced
1 cup strawberries, washed, stemmed and sliced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper

Arrange the arugula, beets, fennel and berries on a platter or in a serving bowl. In a small jar with a lid, combine the vinegar and oil, a generous pinch of salt and a turn or two of the pepper grinder. Close and shake vigorously. Drizzle the mixture over the salad. Top with more cracked pepper.

*To roast beets: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse beets; trim off stems and long root "tails." Wrap beets in a square of parchment paper, folding over edges. Wrap parchment package in a square of aluminum foil. Place in oven and roast until beets are fork-tender, about 30 to 45 minutes depending on their size.

Wentworth Street Crab Meat

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:00:00 GMT

By Matt Lee and Ted Lee

From The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen

There was a time not too long ago when, from the stoop of our office on Broad Street, we could have witnessed every weekday the 2 p.m. exodus of lawyers, bankers, architects, and insurance and real estate agents, ambling their way south from the business district to their homes for "dinner." Dinner, for traditional Southern families, was the hearty midday meal, served in the dining room with linens on the table—and often with mother's silver. "Supper" was the lighter evening meal, usually a casserole or baked savory item that the hired cook might cover and stash in the fridge before leaving for the day. The dish would then be reheated and served with a soup or salad, and with a simple sweet for dessert. This arrangement of the day's meals has gone the way of the three-martini lunch, with dinner out at a restaurant finding favor as a way to entertain, leaving the workday uninterrupted (and the kitchen clean).

Though we are far from traditional in our habits, we find there are many evenings when we're yearning for a light supper to serve our families with toast and a salad. On those days this creamy, cheesy crab casserole is a favorite with our wives. It is adapted from a popular recipe called "Meeting Street Crab Meat" contributed to Charleston Receipts by Mary Huguenin , the cookbook's co-editor, and presumably named for the street the family lived on, an important north-south corridor on the peninsula. (Mrs. Huguenin's recipe for "Crabmeat au Gratin" appeared in the 1948 Charleston Recipes, a precursor to the later cookbook; see Charleston Recipes, page 52).

The earlier recipe offers a variation in which shrimp is partnered with the crab; the later recipe suggests a substitution of crab for shrimp. We took a few liberties with our own crab gratin recipe—which we've named, in turn, for the location of our sometimes test kitchen—such as dialing bcd the amount of flour in the dish, and lightening the cream base with shellfish broth, which simultaneously amps ups the flavor. And we sauté shallots with a few pinches of nutmeg in making the creamy sauce because, in concert with the zip of the sherry, it creates some intrigue. It's also quite easy to do.

Outside of the supper realm, Wentworth Street Crab Meat makes a great self-serve hors d'oeuvre at a cocktail party, to be spooned by guests onto thin baguette slices or crackers. If you choose that route, prepare this dish in a larger, crocklike vessel (instead of shallow gratin dishes).

Ingredients
3/4 cup fish or shellfish broth
1 tablespoon plus
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons finely diced shallot (about 1 medium)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 pinches of ground nutmeg
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons dry sherry
8 ounces picked U.S. blue crab meat, preferably jumbo lump
2 ounces extra-sharp white Cheddar cheese, grated (3/4 cup)
Paprika or cayenne, for dusting (optional)
Toast or grilled bread, for serving

Instructions
1. Preheat the boiler

2. In a small saucepan, heat the broth over high heat until it simmers. Put the flour in a small bowl or ramekin, spoon 3 tablespoons of the broth into it, and whisk it to a smooth paste with a fork. Pour the rest of the hot broth into a bowl and reserve both broth and paste.

3. Return the saucepan to the heat and melt the butter over medium-low heat until it's frothy and add the shallot, salt, black pepper, and nutmeg. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallot is fragrant and translucent, but not brown, about 3 minutes. Add the cream, sherry, the reserved broth, and reserved flour paste mixture, and whisk to combine. Bring to the gentlest simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cream sends up thick bubbles and is thickened to the consistency of a gravy, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the crab meat and cook just until it is heated through and the sauce coats the crab meat thickly, about 4 minutes.

4. With a slotted spoon, divide the crab meat between two 6-to-8 ounce gratin or brûlée dishes and put them on a rimmed baking sheet. Spoon the crab gravy over the crab meat just shy of covering the meat (you may have some left over for sopping with bread; lucky you!). Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the casseroles, and broil about 2 inches from the heat, until the cheese is gently browned and bubbling, about 3 minutes. Remove the casseroles from the oven and dust with paprika, if using.

5. Serve with spoons for scooping the casserole onto the toast.

Serves 2.

Butter Beans with Butter, Mint, and Lime

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:00:00 GMT

By Matt Lee and Ted Lee
From The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen

Along with muscadine grapes, butter beans are among the farmer's market treasures of late summer in Charleston—reason to wake up with gusto to another day of stultifying heat and oxford-soaking humidity. We do all kinds of things with butter beans: we make a hummus-like spread for the cocktail hour, we simmer them with seasoning meats of all sorts, and we compose marinated salads aplenty. But this may be our most simple treatment yet, and one of the most satisfying.

Butter beans come in many varieties, and at stands like Joseph Fields Farm at the Saturday Farmer's Market in Marion Square, shelled beans are kept in large tailgating coolers. Some beans are green with purple speckles, some are reddish brown, a few are ivory colored, and there's a shade of green besides. For this simple side dish, we like to use the small green ones (though you may use frozen baby lima beans if butter beans aren't in season).

Ingredients
Kosher salt
6 cups fresh shelled butter beans or frozen baby lima beans
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Juice of 2 large limes
1 cup loosely packed mint leaves, chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon grated lime zest, for garnish

Instructions
1. In a medium saucepan, bring 6 cups of water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil over high heat. Add the butter beans and cook until tender, 9 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the beans. Drain in a colander, and shake the colander several times to shed as much water from the beans as possible.

2. Put the butter in a large serving bowl, and pour the warm butter beans on top. Toss the beans with the butter until all the butter is melted. Add the lime juice and toss again to distribute. Fold in the mint, season with salt and black pepper, and scatter lime zest over the top. Serve immediately.

Serves 8.

Sweet Potato-Macaroni Soufflé

Susan Puckett — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:35:00 GMT

Darryl Evans's career took shape in the era when fusion was hot, mixing Southern cooking with global flavors in dishes such as whole, sizzling Asian-style catfish or ravioli stuffed with goat cheese and Georgia caviar. The Columbus native helmed the kitchens of high-profile restaurants like Tom Catherall’s 1990s trendsetter Azalea; Midtown’s Spice; and Anthony’s, in a refurbished antebellum Buckhead mansion. Evans re-creates a dish popular during his tenure at Anthony’s, which combines pureed sweet potatoes and a crust of macaroni and cheese into a layered soufflé.

Ingredients
Sweet potato layer:
5 medium sweet potatoes
1–2 cups dark brown sugar
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Macaroni and cheese layer:
6 ounces elbow macaroni
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons granulated garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or 2 minced fresh garlic cloves)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 large eggs
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar, divided
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack, divided

Instructions
1. Prepare the sweet potato layer: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Rinse sweet potatoes, prick in several places with a fork, and place on a baking sheet and roast in oven about 45 minutes, until very tender. Peel skin off sweet potatoes, then place potatoes in a bowl and mash with a potato masher.

3. Add brown sugar (more or less, depending on desired sweetness), butter, and flour, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in cinnamon and allspice.

4. Next, whisk in eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla, then season to taste with salt. Set aside.

5. Prepare macaroni and cheese layer: Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add dry macaroni and cook until al dente; drain and transfer to a large bowl.

6. While pasta is cooking, in a large pot melt butter over medium-low heat. Add flour; whisk 3 to 5 minutes until smooth. Whisk in garlic, salt, and white pepper. Stir in milk, cream, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and red wine vinegar. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off heat.

7. In a small bowl, beat eggs. Add about ½ cup of the white sauce to temper the eggs and whisk until smooth. Add egg mixture to pot and beat until smooth. Whisk in 2 cups of the grated cheddar and 1 cup of the grated Jack. Pour over the cooked macaroni and stir.

8. To assemble: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat two 8-inch spring-loaded cheesecake pans  (or comparably sized casserole dishes) with  nonstick cooking spray on sides and bottom, then place sweet potato mixture into bottoms of pans  and shake down to ensure no air pockets. Spread macaroni and cheese mixture on top. Sprinkle rest of cheese on top of soufflé and place on sheet pans, then add 2 cups of water to bottom of sheet pans.

9. Place in oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until macaroni is set. Cool slightly, then remove sides  of pan (if using springform) and serve.

Makes 12 generous servings. This recipe originally appeared in our November 2012 issue.

She-Crab Soup with Hot Butter Crackers

Susan Puckett — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:09:00 GMT

Carvel Grant Gould—a seventh-generation Atlantan whose ancestors include railroad baron Lemuel Pratt Grant, who donated the land for what became Grant Park—grew up immersed in Buckhead’s food world. No baby shower or Christmas party was complete without platters of cheese straws and chocolate eclairs from Henri’s Bakery. When she turned eighteen, Gould made her society debut at the Patio by the River, which was built on the banks of the Chattahoochee using bricks from a nineteenth-century distillery. She never imagined that one day she would be the executive chef at the restaurant on that very spot.

But her strongest recollections stem from the Piedmont Driving Club, where her family have been members for decades. The she-crab soup, a favorite of her mother’s, inspired the version Gould often serves for brunch at Canoe. “I never got their recipe; I just remember those flavors so well,” she says. Crab roe (which you can special order from Star Provisions or Sawicki’s in Decatur) and a liberal dose of Old Bay seasoning are as essential as the lump crabmeat. “The real trick, though, is the cream sherry,” says Gould. “I use it at the beginning to deglaze the pan, and also at the end, so you get two dimensions of alcohol flavor, both raw and cooked.” To honor the memory, she pairs the recipe here with a quirky country club staple: hot buttered saltines. They originated in the early 1970s at the Capital City Club when a chef ran out of oyster crackers, and they grew so popular that other country clubs adopted the idea.

Ingredients
She-Crab Soup:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped yellow onions
2 tablespoons minced celery
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups cream sherry, divided
1 quart fish or chicken stock
2 cups water
1 ounce crab roe
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning, or to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 pounds lump crabmeat
Salt and white pepper, to taste

Hot Buttered Crackers:
1 cup (2 sticks) lightly salted butter
1 sleeve saltine crackers

Instructions
1. Make soup: Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-low heat; add onions, celery, and garlic, and cook over medium heat until translucent. Add 3/4 cup cream sherry and raise the heat to bring to a low boil; reduce liquid by half. Add stock, water, crab roe, and 1 cup of the cream. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat, and keep warm.

2. Meanwhile, make a blond roux: In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes (do not let brown). Pour the roux into the stock mixture; cook, stirring constantly, until the soup is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 8 minutes.

3. Stir in salt, Old Bay, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 cup of the cream sherry. Working in batches, transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to the saucepan and keep warm over low heat.

4. In a mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat remaining 1/2 cup cream with 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cream sherry. Season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, divide crabmeat among 6 to 8 bowls. Ladle soup over each serving. Top with a dollop of whipped cream. Serve with extra cream sherry on the side.

5. Make crackers: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, skimming off white foam until clear and golden. Place crackers in a large bowl. Pour warm clarified butter over crackers and toss gently. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake 3 minutes. Serve warm. (Makes 35 to 40 crackers.)

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Photograph by Iain Bagwell. This recipe originally appeared in our November 2012 issue.

Southern Greens

Susan Puckett — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:02:00 GMT

Linton Hopkins is a proselytizer of Southern produce. He details differences in heirloom varieties to customers in his restaurants, dotes over the stands at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market (he and his wife, Gina, were part of its founding group), and ships the seasonal bounty for fundraiser feasts around the country. But he wasn’t always such a vegetable fan. As a boy, he was more inclined to push aside the collards and squash to save room for an extra helping of barbecue or macaroni and cheese. “I didn’t even like tomatoes,” he says. He always had a fondness for the potlikker from turnip greens, though. With an Atlanta lineage that goes back at least five generations, Hopkins and his relatives would meet up at Mary Mac’s, mostly after church services at St. Luke’s Episcopal, where he was an acolyte. His dad would drink the signature potlikker straight from the bowl. “I preferred it as a dipping sauce for the cornbread muffins,” Hopkins says. “My true love of greens really didn’t take off until I moved to New Orleans and was introduced to gumbo z’herbes. It’s a soup that’s basically like a potlikker thickened with a little roux.”

By the time he returned to Atlanta in 2002 to begin plans for Restaurant Eugene, which opened in 2004, he was a convert. “We grow greens better here than anywhere else,” he says. To prove his point, he gathers a panoply of them into one dazzling dish. Hopkins created a centerpiece with seven different elements; we simplified it to three components for home cooks.

Ingredients
Slow-Cooked Collards with Mustard Potlikker:
1 bunch collard greens
3 tablespoons sorghum
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 pound smoked fatback or bacon
1/2 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cayenne pepper pod, split (or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

Mustard Green Slaw:
1 bunch mustard greens
1 large carrot
1 bunch Italian parsley
1/4 cup blackberry jam
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon toasted ground caraway seed
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup minced green onion

Turnip Green Puree:
A Vitamix or similar high-performance blender is essential to achieve the emerald color and velvety consistency of Hopkins’s version. If you use a food processor or regular blender, you’ll still get the refreshingly tart taste, but with flecks of green rather than a uniform color.
1 bunch turnip greens
1 cup buttermilk
Salt
1/2 lemon

Instructions
1. Make the collards: Clean, de-stem, and cut collard greens into wide strips. In a large, heavy pot, add sorghum and vinegar and bring to a low boil. Add fatback (or bacon) and onion and cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add greens, chicken stock, and cayenne pepper. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss thoroughly and simmer gently for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very tender. Before serving, drain the potlikker from the collards and whisk in the whole-grain mustard. (Reheat the potlikker on medium-low heat before serving, if necessary.)

2. Make the slaw: Wash, de-stem, and slice mustard greens into very thin strips (as if for cabbage slaw). Shred carrot with medium-sized holes of a box grater. Stem and mince the parsley. Place greens, carrots, and parsley in a large bowl and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the jam, vinegar, and mustard. Whisk in the oil and caraway seed; season to taste with salt and pepper. Add dressing to mustard greens a little at a time, tossing after each addition. Do not overdress the greens; as it sits it will macerate and break down the greens slightly. Depending on the amount of greens used and their degree of heat and/or bitterness, you may need to adjust with a little more vinegar and salt to bring flavors into balance. Fold in green onions just before serving.

4. Make the puree: De-stem and wash the greens, and chop into large pieces. Fill large bowl with ice; set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Place greens in water and cook for 30 seconds. Remove greens from water and place in ice bath to stop cooking and set color. Once cool, drain and squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the greens. Place in blender and blend until very smooth. Place in a large bowl and whisk in buttermilk. Adjust seasoning with salt and a few drops of lemon juice.

5. To plate: Spoon turnip puree onto the bottom of 4 to 6 dishes. On top of the puree, arrange small piles of the collards and mustard green slaw. Drizzle with warm potlikker.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Photograph by Iain Bagwell. This recipe originally appeared in our November 2012 issue.

Ginger-Garlic Green Beans with Cashews

Susan Puckett — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:51:00 GMT

For a Thanksgiving offering, I sought tips from my Facebook friends on how I might transform ordinary green beans into something extraordinary. I got dozens of great suggestions and decided to devise a composite of some of the best of those ideas. The result went over so well I decided to share it. A special thanks, in particular, to my former colleague Andria Simmons and cookbook authors Nancy McDermott and Sheri Castle for their ideas!

Ingredients
2 pounds green beans, trimmed
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Grated zest of 1 medium orange
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons thinly slivered fresh ginger
1 tablespoon thinly slivered fresh garlic
1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted unsalted cashews (or other nuts)
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add beans and blanch until crisp-tender and bright green, 3-5 minutes depending on size of beans. Drain in a colander, then plunge into an ice bath to stop cooking. Drain beans again and pat dry with paper towels. (Beans may be blanched a day ahead and wrapped in paper towels to absorb extra moisture, and then stored in the refrigerator in a plastic bag.)

2. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, orange zest, and red pepper flakes. Meanwhile, set a wok or a skillet over high heat. Add oil; swirl around to coat the pan. When hot, add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry for about 5 seconds, then add beans and soy sauce mixture and cook until liquid is evaporated, 2 or 3 minutes. Add cashews; stir fry 1 minute longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Makes 8 servings.

Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Turnips, and Greens

Deborah Geering — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:05:00 GMT

If it weren't for the comforting balance of the greens, you might be tempted to serve this collection of roasted vegetables for dessert. Choose a sweet salad turnip variety, such as hakurei or white doll, with greens attached. You can find the characteristically round, white turnips at area farmers markets.

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided use
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into uniform, bite-size pieces
Salt and pepper
1 bunch sweet salad turnips with greens
¼ cup dried cranberries

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Drizzle 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons oil in a baking dish, add the sweet potatoes, and toss to coat with the oil. Sprinkle generously with pepper and salt, and roast 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the greens and a few stems from the turnips, chop small, and wash and dry. Set aside. Wash and trim the turnips, and halve or quarter into bite-size pieces. After the sweet potatoes have roasted for 10 minutes, add the turnips and cranberries, toss to coat with some of the oil in the pan, and continue roasting until vegetables are lightly browned, about 10 more minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the greens and sauté, turning occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Toss with the roasted vegetables; adjust seasonings before serving.

Sauteed Carrots and Mustard Greens

Deborah Geering — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:54:00 GMT

A dash of nutmeg bridges the pungent greens with the sweet carrots. If you like the bite of mustard greens, then take care not to overcook them, as the flavor tends to fade if they are cooked too long. On the other hand, if you fear the bitter, then add a pinch of sugar to the pan with the greens.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 bunch fresh carrots, trimmed and sliced ¼ inch thick on the bias
Coarsely ground pepper
Coarse salt
1 bunch tender mustard greens, chopped, rinsed and drained (but not dried)
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1 fresh lemon wedge

Instructions
Heat oil in sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the carrots; sprinkle generously with pepper and a pinch of salt. Cook without stirring 2 to 3 minutes, then toss and cook until just fork-tender, 2-3 more minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. Add greens, stir, then cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until just tender. Return carrots to the pan, sprinkle with a grating of nutmeg, add a squirt of lemon juice and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Home Plates: Jay Swift's Crab Cakes

Susan Puckett — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:29:00 GMT

Jay Swift, chef-owner of 4th & Swift, and his son Jeb Aldrich, chef de cuisine at 4th & Swift, are Baltimore natives with fond memories of weekend fishing trips on Chesapeake Bay and raucous get-togethers around picnic tables piled high with freshly steamed blue crabs. Leftovers ensured the luxurious bonus of crab cakes the next day. “It’s still a treat,” says Aldrich, extracting bits of shell from a bowlful of lump crabmeat on the kitchen counter at his dad’s house in Marietta.

The father-son duo brings different ideas to the menus they compose together for the restaurant. “I’m more of a classicist,” says Swift. “Jeb’s the modernist.”

They are of one mind, however, when it comes to preparing Maryland’s emblematic dish. “Crab cakes are ubiquitous in Baltimore, and the recipes don’t vary much from one to the next,” Swift says. “We broil ours; I don’t know of anyone in Baltimore who pan-fries them. We’d never add corn kernels or red bell pepper or any other such silliness. And we always season with Old Bay. It’s a staple in every pantry there. I remember when the McCormick spice factory was downtown, and the entire city would smell like Old Bay.”

>> GALLERY:
See the father and son team prepare this recipe

Aldrich seasons the crab mixture generously with the ruddy spice blend, and then adds a few extra shakes to the top before popping them in the oven. The chefs do modify the recipe slightly from the ones Swift’s mother used to make for the family: Dijon instead of yellow mustard, fresh bread cubes instead of saltine cracker crumbs, steamed lump crabmeat instead of boiled—unpasteurized, if possible. Boiled crabmeat, Swift adds, can be watery.

Rather than tartar sauce, Swift and Aldrich chef it up a bit by setting the patties atop a pool of mustard beurre blanc. And if your patties don’t hold together? Don’t sweat it, says Swift. “A good crab cake is going to fall apart. If it drops on the floor and remains intact, it wasn’t a good crab cake.”

Ingredients
1 large egg
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning (plus more for sprinkling)
Kosher salt to taste
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat (preferably unpasteurized and steamed, rather than boiled), picked through to remove shells
5 slices firm, white sandwich bread, crust removed and cut into 1/4-inch dice (place in freezer about 20 minutes for easier cutting)
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons melted butter (plus more for greasing the pan)

Mustard Beurre Blanc:
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt

Instructions
1. In a small bowl, beat the egg with the mayonnaise until well blended. Stir in mustard, Worcestershire, lemon juice, Old Bay, and kosher salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine crabmeat and bread cubes. Gradually add wet ingredients to the crab mixture until very well moistened. Let stand 15 to 20 minutes, or until the bread soaks up the liquid.

3. Preheat broiler with rack set 4 to 6 inches from heat source. With cupped hands, gently form the mixture into 3 or 4 thick patties. Place on a buttered baking sheet, brush tops of crab cakes with melted butter, and sprinkle with additional Old Bay. Broil 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

4. If desired, prepare mustard beurre blanc while crab cakes are broiling. In a medium saucepan, combine the wine and the chopped onion. Simmer over medium heat until almost all the liquid has evaporated, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat. Whisk in the butter, a few pieces at a time, until thoroughly emulsified after each addition. Whisk in the Dijon mustard; season with salt to taste. Serve immediately. Spoon a little of the sauce on each plate; top with crab cake.

Photograph by Greg DuPree. This is an extended version of the article that ran in our October 2012 issue.

Susan Puckett gathers heirloom Southern recipes for our monthly Home Plates column.
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