Stone Crab Stew, Mango goodies, Avo-Skyr-Egg Salad

Enchilado de Cangre de piedra 

(Cuban Stone Crab Stew)

That's enchilado not enchilada. No tortillas were harmed in making this dish!

Enchilado in Spanish means piquant or spicy. In Cuba it's a spicy tomato-based Cuban seafood stew; in this case featuring Stone Crab claws.

Stone crabs are unique in the world of seafood. They're a renewable resource! That's right. Renewable. Catch your legal-sized crab (2.75” claw). Remove the large fighting claw (if you take both claws the crab will starve to death). Throw the crab back in the water. The claw will re-grow and can be harvested again when it regenerates.

Normally here in Florida we usually steam the claws and dip the meat in some sort of sauce. But after you've had Stone Crab that way a few dozen times, the sauces all begin to taste the same, and you begin to yearn for something more.

We were gifted two dozen Medium to Large claws by the same person who gave us spiny lobsters a couple weeks ago. Many, many thanks!! The donor thought my Lobster Bisque was pretty good, and wants to see what I can do with Stone Crab. So this week it's Stone Crab Enchilado, and who knows what next week will bring!

I wanted my Enchilado to have lots of vegetables – like the upcountry Cuban Ajiaco stew but with tomatoes and seafood instead of beef and pork, so here's what I used:

12 medium to large Stone Crab Claws, steamed and cracked or sawn

3 lbs medium-to-large Tomatoes, diced

1 can Tomato Paste

1 Sweet Onion, chopped

2 Red Bell Peppers, sliced

1/2 cup chopped Cilantro

1-1/2 cup Yuca cubed

1 cup Plantain, peeled and sliced into rounds

1 cup Boniato, cubed

2 cups Sweet Potato

4-6 cloves Garlic, sliced

2 tsp Cumin

1/2 teaspoon each:

* Smoked Paprika

* Hot Paprika

* Cayenne Pepper

* Cajun Spice Blend

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 Lime, juiced

4 cups Broth – chicken or seafood

I prefer to use powdered chiles (cayenne, paprika, etc) rather than fresh because it's easier to control the amount of heat that each adds to the synergy of the dish.

Cook down the diced tomatoes for a few minutes on medium heat, with the cumin, cilantro, black pepper and a pinch of salt. Add the onion and lime juice, and cook 10-15 minutes until everything is soft.

Now add the spiciness – paprikas, cayenne, cajun blend, etc.  You can certainly go hotter if you wish.  Mash the tomato-onion-spice mixture – use a stick blender, jar blender, or a star masher (I love my Pampered Chef tm Star masher!) Do not totally puree things, you still want a chunky tomato soup texture.

Taste – the tomato sauce should be a bit spicier than you want the finished product because you'll be diluting it later. Stir in the tomato paste. Reduce heat to low, and simmer some more; say 20 minutes...

Add the broth and "chunky vegetables", yuca, boniato, yam and plantain; cook until they're tender (45 minutes or so). You can par-cook them in the microwave (6 minutes), to speed up the process.

Plantain on the left, round Boniato center, elongated Yuca above center

If you can't find fresh or frozen Caribbean vegetables at your mega market, you can substitute potatoes, carrots, turnips and rutabagas (Swedes), but it won't be quite the same.

With things at a boil, add the crab claws – I used 6 for bowl garnish and a further 6 as follows. After 10 minutes at a boil, the claws should be done. I took the six prettiest claws and put them aside, then cracked the other six, removed the meat, chopped it into pieces and returned the meat to the stew. I saved all the shell bits for the future (seafood stock? Bisque?).

Add the bell peppers, and simmer another 15 minutes until the peppers are just done.   Plate with a single claw for garnish and serve with crusty bread to mop up all the  goodness.  Use a cracker to get the meat out of the garnish and add it to the stew before you dive in!

No-Bake Mango Pie (tart)

We've had a huge harvest of mangoes this year, and I realized I hadn't made a mango pie or upside down cake yet. So here goes:

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 envelope unflavored Knox Gelatin tm

1/2cup Hot Water to dissolve the gelatin

8z bar of Cream Cheese, softened

2 cups soft-ripe Mango pulp

Pre-made Crust (I like the Oreo cookie one)

Bloom the gelatin in the hot water, stirring like mad until it all dissolves, and allow it to cool. Combine the milk, mango, cream cheese and gelatin using beaters or a blender (best). Fill the crust and put it in the fridge to firm up for an hour or more.  

Mango Bread

More mango mania – this is really simple and reaaaalllyyy tasty!

2 cups AP Flour

2 tsp ground Nutmeg

2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup Sugar

2 large Eggs

3/4 cup Vegetable Oil

2-1/2 cups Mango cubed, puree or both

1 tsp Lemon Juice

1/2 cup Raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all of the dry ingredients.

Beat eggs with oil and add to flour mixture. Add the mango, lemon juice and raisins. Mix well.

Pour into loaf pans. I used 6 of those mini-loaf pans and a couple silicon cupcake cups.  

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

Siggi's Avocado-Skyr Egg Salad

I combined two recipes from the Siggi's website www.siggisdairy.com, to make enough egg salad for two large sandwiches:

1 Hass Avocado, or 1/8 of a large Florida Avocado (I used a Red Avocado)

4 Hardboiled Eggs

4 Tbsp Siggi's Plain 0% Skyr yogurt

Fresh cracked Black Pepper to taste

Florida Hardee cultivar avocados have red skins when ripe but normal green-yellow interiors 

Chop everything together. If you mash too much the salad loses its texture.