Tweet What You Eat - Sunday Inspiration

Last week was my daughter Melissa's birthday and I had to be out of town so we missed our traditional dinner out. My wife suggested that instead of going out, that I cook instead and offer to cook her favorite meal.

"Great idea," said my daughter when I suggested it.
"So, what's your favorite meal?" I asked.
"Well, do you mean what would I want as my last meal, or what would I like to eat every day?" she replied.
"Doesn't matter, pick one."

She picked BBQ Beef Ribs, Mac and Cheese, Spinach and Chocolate Cake. Excellent.

So, yesterday I started the ribs by searing them after rubbing them with a nice mixture of spices, then placed them in the crock pot to simmer in a quart of bloody mary mix - a secret tip. I only let them slow cook for about 4 hours - just enough to tenderize, but not have the meat fall off the bones. Seems that she really likes them when she has to work a bit. After four hours I pulled them out and put them in the fridge. I then took the broth, some minced onion, Hawaiian sugar and balsamic vinegar and boiled it down for about three hours until I had a wonderfully piquant BBQ sauce that I will use to baste them when I finish them off about an hour before service.

The Mac and Cheese, while a wonderful comfort food, was begging for an 'interpretation'. My wife Kymberlee had sent me a link to a restaurant in NYC that only serves Mac and Cheese and I thought, well, what would they do on such a momentous occasion? I guess an answer would be to do a Lobster Mac, but that is a bit upscale, so I came up with some inspiration from a TV show, The Worlds Deadliest Catch, on the show you see how trecherous it is to catch crab. This led me to deciding to do a CrabMac. One thing I didn't tell you about the conversation with my daughter was that her first answer was, "Can dinner just be Bacon?". That's my girl. As Tony Bourdain said when he was here at the Arlington Theater two months ago, "Everything is better with bacon."

So here is the recipe for my (soon to be famous) CrabMac and Cheese.

• 3/4 pound Elbow Mac (old school) or Cellantani (a corkscrew variant of elbow mac), cooked for 11 minutes in rapidly boiling salted water, I used the Cellantini
  
• 1 pound fresh dungeness crab claw meat. Trader Joes has this amazing fresh crab that comes in every morning.
  
• 6 green onions, diced with 6 cloves of garlic, minced and sauteed with 6 slices thick bacon cut in 1/2 inch diced
• 4 cups Bechamel Sauce (melt 4 tablespoons butter, add 4 tablespoons flour, blend until thoroughly cooked, about 4 minutes, add 4 cups of fat free half and half, yeah I know why bother with fat free... add 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika, 1 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper - whisk until velvety smooth)
• 2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

Blend the cooked and cooled pasta with the crab and bacon/onion/garlic mixture. Mix so that everything is well distributed.

Mix the cheddar cheese with the Bechamel Sauce until well blended.

Add the sauce to the pasta and blend well. It should be soupy.

In a casserole dish place half the mixture and put another cup or so of Cheddar Cheese on it. Cover with the remaining pasta mixture.

Cover the top with a bit more cheese and Panko crumbs, or breadcrumbs if you don't have Panko.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350

To compliment the Ribs and the CrabMac I am going to serve steamed asparagus, sauteed spinach and leeks and peas and carrots that I am going to make using petite carrots and sugar snap peas I found at the local produce market this morning. Hopefully the triad of vegetables will counter balance the meaty, cheesy, carbolicious goodness of the main courses.

Dessert will be a Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake served at room temperature to fully appreciate the rich flavors of the chocolate and extra strong black coffee, which is a great way to finish this rich dessert.

I am writing this several hours before dinner, so there are no pictures, except the ones in my mind of everyone licking their lips, wiping their fingers and helping my daughter celebrate the one day of the year that is uniquely her own.

Happy Birthday Melissa.