Olympia Seafood Co.
Hot Crab Dip + Crab Ragoon Appetizers
Thanksgiving Week/2013

  

Hello Everyone!

 

Let me just start by saying... Happy Thanksgiving!  My personal list of things to be thankful for starts with something humble like thick wool socks and ends with the multi-faceted treasure that is my daughter.  In between are infinite possibilities of things to appreciate, but certainly a nice section dedicated to our friends and customers that shop with us.  If you're reading along, I am thankful for you!  Wishing you a full heart, warm toes and a beautiful meal to celebrate with friends and family.  Happy, happy Thanksgiving!

Bite-sized Crab Ragoons!

 

Now - what are we going to eat?! 

 

You can bet that my Mama is cooking up a turkey this year, as she does every year, but I know a lot of you have tossed out tradition and are going fish!  As it stands, we'll have a beautiful display of amazing seafood to choose from, but this week we're featuring something a little fancy that slides easily into the roll of 'side dish' - our local Dungeness crab meat.  If you're bringing the salad or the dip (or even the main course), there isn't much better than Dungeness.  Read on for a couple of fat and sassy side dish recipes and all the details!

 

Knock-your-socks-off Crab Dip!

In the case this week we'll have two tasty salmon options - a wild Bristol Bay sockeye salmon and a wild ocean-caught king salmon from just a bit north of us, sourced from the Canadian Pacific.  For white fish we'll have nice thick Alaskan halibut, fresh true cod, fresh rock cod, fresh petrale sole, fresh sablefish and fresh whole rainbow trout.  Our Hawaiian fish this week will be our standard sushi fish - ahi tuna - and along with it some lovely swordfish for searing or grilling.  The Pilgrims in the back are making plenty of crab cakes, salmon burgers and cod burgers... and they've triple batched our almost-famous smoked salmon dip for all your ready-to-dip needs.  Fresh shellfish is looking amazing and includes local steamer clams, local mussels, local Pacific oysters and local Kumamoto oysters - all sourced from the Totten Inlet zone.  Looking for crab?  We've got fresh whole cooked and live Dungeness direct from Captain Kevin on the F/V Seagonia in Blaine and our picked lump crab meat is on special this week.  Grab your turkey feather and scallop shell and come see us!

~Kira

  

 

  
  
 Crab Ragoon Bites
 

I just love the word 'ragoon'.  (say it aloud, slowly, with feeling... )  There's something about it that inspires a piratey sort of sultry deep seaness atmosphere to seep in and make a simple appetizer feel a bit romantic and dangerous.  Since they're also delicious (and bite sized!) these are clearly an excellent choice.  :) 

 

And you'll have to forgive me - I try not to offer up ideas that require the use or purchase of 'specialty' cookware, (my kitchen is tiny!) but this one utilizes a mini cupcake pan.  If you don't own one of these pans already, you can either purchase one at Bed, Bath and Beyond or feel free to skip the bite-sized option and just put the crab mixture in a dish, bake and serve with chips. 

 

serves 4-8 for appetizers

1 package wonton wrappers (find these by the mushrooms or sprouts in most grocery store produce isles)

4oz Dungeness crab meat

8oz block of cream cheese

1 big spoonful (about 1/4 cup) sour cream

3 small green onions, minced

1 tsp finely minced garlic (or a couple of shakes of garlic powder)

1 T Worchestershire sauce

1/2 of a lemon, juiced

 

Preheat your oven to 350 and fold/push/shove the wonton wrappers into the mini cupcake pan depressions.  Bake for 5 minutes (set your timer!) and then set aside.  This should firm them up a little bit but not brown the edges too much...

 

In a bowl, microwave the cream cheese until just softened.  Add the remaining ingredients and fold to combine.  Drop spoonfuls of the crab mixture into the wonton wrappers (it should divide up pretty evenly) and simply slide back into the oven.  Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until the edges of your ragoons are a nice toasty brown.  Let them cool for a minute or two, then serve! 

 

p.s.  This recipe uses about half of a package of wonton wrappers, which makes one full pan of  ragoon bites.  If you double this recipe you can use up the entire package of wrappers and just run two rounds of baking.  Plus, then you have more ragoon bites!  :)


Hot Crab Dip
 

From the recipe archives - 2012 

 

If you're thinking of serving something 'light' for an appetizer, this is not the dip for you. This dip is flat out heavy, but in the most delicious way possible. Cheesy, creamy, crabby - it's going in my book next to the Lobster Mac 'n Cheese, filed under Ridiculously Rich. It's a treat. If you're looking to lure in a less social party guest to the snack table this is your ace in the hole. Serve it with the 'good' crackers or a thin slice of fresh, crusty bread and something bubbly.

 

serves 6-8 for appetizers

8oz cream cheese

2 T mayo

1 T whipping cream

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 T lemon juice

� tsp hot pepper sauce

1/3 cup grated parmesan

3 green onions, minced

1 T minced parsley

� lb fresh Dungeness crab meat

cracked black pepper to taste

 

Turn your oven on to 400 degrees and find a nice baking dish that will hold about 4 cups. (A 1 quart casserole will work excellently.) In a large bowl, tip your cream cheese in and give it a stir. (If your cream cheese is cold and hard just pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds so you don't have to wait or fight with it too much.) Now we're going to add the next five ingredients,  but give the whole thing a stir between each addition so it ends up relatively smooth. Mayo, cream, Worcestershire , lemon juice and the hot sauce - all in the bowl. Grate your cheese, mince your onion and parsley and fold those into the bowl. Give your crab meat a quick glance-over to check for any stray shell bits, and then into the bowl with that as well. Nice and easy, stir and fold the dip so that your crab stays in big chunks - don't fuss with it too much. Add a bit of cracked black pepper if you like (I skip the salt because the crabmeat is salty enough for me) and then spoon it all into your baking dish. Tuck it into the oven and set your timer for 20 minutes. It gets a little bubbly at the end so if your dish is full to the top you might want to set a piece of foil under it to catch any drips. Enjoy your dip nirvana!

Tony and Kira DeRito
The Olympia Seafood Company, Inc.

411 Columbia St NW  Olympia  WA  98501
360 570 8816

www.olympiaseafood.com

Tues 12-6

Wednesday thru Sat 10- 6

Sun 11-4

Closed Mondays!

Closed Thanksgiving Day, but open and ready to be awesome

on the 27th and the 29th.  We are happy to take your holiday pre-order!

 

 

Ssomeone passing through relatively quickly, someone dependent on friendship, hospitality and help from friends and strangers alike, someone for whom the nature of the destination changes step by step as it approaches, and someone who is subject to the vagaries of wind and weather along the way. 

~ the modern "pilgrim", as defined by poet David Whyte
Special Pricing on Dungeness Crab Meat! $27.99lb. 
 Our crab meat is picked from whole cooked crab in Seattle by some hard workin' magic makers and shipped to us in 5# cans.  It's a 40% leg meat and 60% body meat combo so there's always a nice stack of big chunks in there!  Regular pricing is $29.99 per pound so save two bucks on 16oz this week.  Yay!
Offer Expires: Sunday, December 1st or while supplies last - no need to print this coupon, the special pricing is for everyone!