Crab Cakes and Arugula, Pear and Bacon Salad

Crab Cakes and Arugula, Pear and Bacon Salad

I always thought you needed expensive fancy fresh crab meat to make crab cakes. But you can really make them with the canned crab you can find in the store. Maybe they would be better if they were all fresh and fancy, but you are gonna break it all up anyways. So I don't think it's a big deal.

ingredients:

1 can of crab meat, or lump crab however you can find it
1 egg
1/2 red pepper

1 tbsp flour

salt
ground pepper

1/4 onion (optional)

arugula
bacon
pear
olive oil
white wine vinegar
salt
pepper

directions:

1. Take your crab meat out of the can, and place it in a mix bowl. Break it up with a fork so it isn't in chunks, but nice and flaky. Then add one egg (white and yolk) into the bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix contents of the bowl together.

2. On a cutting board, finely dice red pepper and some onion (though the onion would be optional). Then add these to your bowl of crab. Instead of using bread crumbs to help bind our crab cakes, say like a burger, add a tbsp spoon or soon of flour. Add enough so that the mixture isn't soggy and wet.

3. Form crab mixture into balls that will be flattened into patty size. About the size of a kiwi, or maybe a little bigger. In a frying pan, heat some oil or butter on medium heat, and place your crab balls in pan. After places a ball into a pan, flatten it down a little with a spatula.

4. Cook crab cakes on both sides until you get a brown crust on both sides. To should help to ensure that the crab cake is cooked through.

5. For a side salad, mix some arugula with cut up pear, fried bacon, and an oil and vinegar dressing. You could even add some shavings of parmigiano-reggiano. Either way, arugula is a good accompaniment to the crab cakes.

Pear, Blue Cheese, Caramelized Onions, Prosciutto, Walnuts, Mozzarella Cheese Pizza with Arugula Salad

Pear, Blue Cheese, Caramelized Onions, Prosciutto, Walnuts, Mozzarella Cheese Pizza 
with Arugula Salad

This is possibly the best pizza I have ever had. Pear is one of the most underrated fruits, and tastes amazing on pizza. If you have never tried it before, you should! And this pizza recipe is your chance.

ingredients:

dough
blue cheese
caramelized onion
prosciutto
walnuts
mozzarella
pear
olive oil
pepper
cornmeal
arugula

directions:

pizza dough:

1. Fill a mixing bowl with 1-1 and 1/4 cups of warm water in a bowl.

2. Add 1 tbsp of active dry yeast. Add 1 tbsp of brown sugar, or white sugar if you feel the yeast is old. It will help activate the yeast and give it something to "eat". Let stand for about 10 minutes until white frothy bubbles are on top. Add in 1 tbsp of oil (though probably optional) and 1/2-1 tsp of salt.

3. Mix in 3 cups of flour. You can add more flour if its too sticky. Kneed dough on a flat surface covered with flour. Add more flour to the surface as needed. Maybe kneed for at least 10-15 minutes. Until the dough no longer sticks together on your hand.

4. Form the dough into a ball and coat with olive oil. Put in a covered container in a warm place. Warm is key. I sometimes run the oven for a little while, and then turn the oven off and put it in a pot. Let it sit for at least one hour. Two hours works too. The Longer the better. The dough should double in size.

5. Punch the dough, and cut in half. This pizza recipe will make two pizzas.

6. Oil a pizza pan with butter or margarine. And dust it with cornmeal. The cornmeal will adhere to the grease. And then spread out the dough on the pan.

7. Top pizza with olive oil, pepper, mozzarella cheese, sliced pear, prosciutto, walnuts, caramelized onions, and crumbled blue cheese. Cook in an oven at 400 F for about 30 minutes. Or until the top gets golden brown.

8. Eat with a arugula salad, or top the pizza with arugula after it comes out of the oven.