If you’re having a small New Year’s gathering (or if it’s just the two of you), I’ve got a great suggestion: King Crab Legs with Drawn Butter.

Easy. Elegant. Oh, yes, a bit expensive (which makes it extra special!).

King Crab is sweet and delicious, and unless you live in Alaska or further up north, it’s already cooked (and frozen) when you buy it. All you have to do is thaw, reheat and eat!

There are several ways to prepare King Crab, but I like to steam-reheat them in the oven. For a step-by-step tutorial on how to do it, click here.

Because this is a special night, I like to serve them with drawn butter (also called clarified butter). Drawn butter is butter that has been melted with the milk solids removed. You can also season it with herbs or lemon juice if you like. Drawn butter is also great to drizzle onto steamed vegetables.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial for How To Make Drawn Butter:

Clarified Butter

prep: 5 minutes
cook: 15 minutes

serves 6, 2 tablespoons each

you’ll need… 

½ pound butter

let’s get to it…

1. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan on low heat.

2. Milk solids (in the form of white foam) will cloud the top: DO NOT STIR.

3. When butter is completely melted and small bubbles  begin to form around the edge, turn off heat. Let stand 3 minutes.

4. With a small ladle or spoon, skim off the milk solids.

5. You’ve made drawn butter! Try not to disturb any milk solids remaining on the bottom of the saucepan when you pour it bowls for dipping the crab.

For more Kitchen How-To and Tips, Check out my Extra Helpings Tab!

Here’s a great summertime dish you can “cook” without turning on the oven: Ceviche.

Ceviche (also known as cebiche, sebiche or seviche) is a Latin American dish made with raw fish that is marinated in citrus juice, herbs and spices until the translucent flesh turns opaque and becomes firm.

In Peru (where many people believe this dish originated), tangy ceviche is traditionally eaten in the morning as an eye-opener (read that: hangover cure). Its ingredients are pretty simple: bitter orange juice, onions and thinly sliced hot peppers, like aji amarillo.

I prefer to make my ceviche the Mexican way, with lime juice, cilantro, jalapeños and a little garlic. I serve it on top of fresh crunchy greens. The taste is so fresh and healthy it’s one of my feel-good meals. It’s very easy to learn how to make ceviche!

A few ceviche tips:

• Buy fresh firm-fleshed ocean fish like halibut, grouper, flounder or red snapper that won’t fall apart in the marinade.
• Marinade until the fish loses its translucency, or for about 4-hours.
• Soak the onions for a little bit to take the “bite” out, so they don’t step on the other flavors.
• Remove the seeds and veins from the chili peppers to control the heat.

Funny how the thought of eating raw fish doesn’t sound as absurd as it did a decade ago because, for many of us, sushi and sashimi have become a regular part of our diets!

       Print this recipe.    

Just as we’re all about to make that deep dive into holiday cooking, the Food and Drug Administration says 12-percent of spices brought into the U.S. are contaminated with insects, rodent hairs and who knows what else.

Please… don’t pass the pepper.

The FDA took a hard look at the safety of spice imports and also found that 7-percent were contaminated with the toxic bacteria salmonella (particularly in pepper, sesame seeds and oregano).

The FDA’s report says Mexico and India had the highest amount of contamination. Most of the problems originated in the processing and storage of the spices… not harvesting. Did you know one-quarter of the spices, food colorings and oils used in the U.S. come from India?

So, what can you do to protect your family?

Cooking will take care of the potential for salmonella poisoning, but won’t help with the bits of insects, hair and other detritus.

The BEST solution is to buy whole certified organic spices (like black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.), wash them and grind them at home with an electric grinder. A lot of work, I agree, and not really practical (not to mention expensive).

Another idea is to buy your spices in bulk from reputable spice companies like The Spice House, Frontier Herbs or Mountain Rose Herbs. They tell you exactly where the spices originated so you can make an informed decision as to whether to purchase.

But here’s my question for you: Will the FDA report change how you cook this holiday season?

Here’s a beautiful bouquet for your favorite cook: Garlic Blossoms.

Unlike its brutish big-brother bulb growing underground, these tiny purplish pink blossoms have a gentle flavor that delicately scents salads, vinaigrettes and vegetables.

A quick sauté in a little olive oil, a splash of lemon… that’s all you need to bring out their demure flavor.

So fresh. So easy. So summer.