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Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook
By
Published: Jan 01, 2005
Category:
Food and Wine
Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook
“Martha Stewart” is such a hot-button name — love her! hate her! — that it’s hard to recall a time when she slipped on an apron and actually did something creative in a kitchen.
But as logic tells us, she had to do something to become successful and admired — or, if you prefer, rich and arrogant. Some will recall her gardening tips. (Butler has a brown thumb and no interest in greening it.) Others are grateful to her for crafts projects and decorating tips. (Butler flunked shop and, having furnished his home once, does not intend to revisit this chore again.) Which leaves cooking.
Butler cooks. After college, did it professionally, in fact. Assistant chef in a French restaurant in North Bennington, Vermont, if you must know. Made a zillion omelettes, smooth as a baby’s bottom, at lunch. Cooked a thousand ducks that sat on a steam table for dinner. And, after a while, quit — it turns out that a writer needs all day to crank out a few hundred words.
Still, I cooked. And seemed to gravitate to women who did. My first wife read cookbooks as if they had plots. My second loved to give dinners and parties. And the current and final Mrs. B? A restaurant professional, who’s done it all — worked as an expediter in the kitchens of great restaurants, opened a restaurant that’s now a New York landmark, and more.
Funny thing about Mrs B: She’s over “fine dining.” Been there, done that, journaled it, over it. So for our most recent “anniversary dinner,” we went to Gray’s Papaya (4 wonderfully grilled hot dogs and a small papaya drink, $6). Her idea of a meal at a table can mean Cuban-Chinese (dinner for two, $20, tip included). Her X-rated food dreams are about chocolate.
And yet Mrs. B likes to cook. Her Christmas cookies — a Chinese take-out food carton, filled with a wild assortment of tastes and textures — are legendary. And she does a mean cocktail party. Her secret: Martha Stewart.
That’s right. We have 50-75 cookbooks in our collection, but when it comes time to pick a menu for a cocktail party — or for snacks while guests are having drinks — Mrs. B goes right to Martha. I understand why. The first 220 pages of this 500-page book are all photographs: beautifully clear and inspiring. Her instructions are simple and don’t take hours of fuss. And “delicious” is the bottom line of everything we’ve made.
Mrs. B’s signature hors d’oeuvre is Martha’s. Try it. You’ll see why.
CLASSIC CRAB CAKES
makes about 30
12 ounces lump crabmeat, picked over for cartilage
2 slices white bread, broken into very small crumbs
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worchestshire sauce
2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
2 medium jalapeno peppers, seeds and ribs removed, minced
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large shallot, minced
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
zest of 1 lemon freshly ground black pepper
3-4 tablespoons canola oil
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12 x 17-inch baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Combine crabmeat and bread in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In another medium bowl, mix together mustard, Worchestshire, Old Bay, jalapenos, cilantro, egg, shallots, mayonnaise and lemon zest. Add this mixture to the crabmeat and stir. Add pepper to taste.
Using your fingers, shape crabmeat mixture into half-dollar-size rounds (about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons each). [Mrs. B uses a 1/8 cup cooking measure.]
Heat 3 tablespoons of the canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches of 6 to 8, place the crab cakes in the skillet and cook until golden brown on the bottom (30 seconds to 1 minute). Turn the crab cakes and cook until golden brown, about 1 minute more. Transfer the crab cakes to a paper towel to absorb the oil, then transfer them to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. The crab cakes may be held in a warm oven for 30 minutes, or cooled and reheated at serving time. Serve warm.
Oh. One more thing. For cookies — and these crab cakes — Mrs. B uses a French baking mat that’s pure genius. Nothing sticks. Ever. The Silpat Baking Sheet is $12.99 at Amazon. Once you try it, you’ll understand why professional cooks guard these with their sharpest knives.
To buy ” Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy the Silpat Baking Sheet from Amazon.com, click here.
