This month I am happy to introduce you to one of SeaPak’s own culinary talents, Chris Tillman. Chris (affectionately known around here as the “Mad Scientist”) works in our Research and Development department developing many of the yummy SeaPak products your family enjoys. When he is not creating new products for SeaPak he loves to teach people about food and cooking. So this month he is answering one of the basic kitchen questions many home cooks have – “What do I do with all those various knives in the knife set I bought?” – and sharing his delicious and simple recipe for Crab Enchiladas. I was lucky enough to get to taste-test the recipe yesterday and let me tell you, it is capital “T” Tasty! I will definitely be making Crab Enchiladas for my gang this weekend.

Hope everyone has a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!

-Jenna

When I tell folks what I do for a living, inevitably the subject of knives comes up. Many times they tell me they don’t know what to do with “all those knives” to which my response is “why so many?”

Almost every kitchen job can be completed with a set of three knives:

- A large 7-10 inch chef’s knife. As large as can be managed comfortably. This knife will handle the majority of all kitchen prep.
- A 3-5 inch utility knife. For peeling, paring and more delicate work.
- A 6-10 inch serrated bread knife. For slicing bread, roasts, delicate pastries, etc.

In many situations the cook will find that the chef’s knife ends up taking the place of the utility which reduces the list to two!

You can practice your knife skills on my easy recipe for Crab Enchiladas. These enchiladas use crab cakes as a base for the filling which cuts out most of your prep work. I like using SeaPak Crab Cakes in this recipe because they are mostly crabmeat with a small amount of breadcrumbs and seasonings added to make the cakes (I may be biased about SeaPak products, but you check the ingredient label for yourself).

My recipe also calls for jalapenos which may make some of you nervous. No need to be afraid of jalapenos! By scraping the seeds out and discarding them you substantially reduce the heat. (If you are feeling truly adventurous though, you can always leave the seeds in if you prefer!) If you really don’t want jalapenos, you can substitute finely diced green pepper for a little added crunch and color.

Give my Crab Enchiladas a try for your Memorial Day dinner and if you have any other kitchen questions please send them in.

Crab Enchiladas

2 packages SeaPak Maryland Style Crab Cakes (aioli sauce included), frozen
4 8-9 inch flour tortillas
8 ounces Mexican cheese, shredded (preferably Queso Quesadilla)
6 ounce can of whole kernel corn
2 8-ounce cans red or green enchilada sauce
2 large jalapenos, seeded and diced very small (optional)
8 ounce container sour cream

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.

THAW the crab cakes in a microwave, approximately 1 1/2 minutes for four cakes. Thaw the aioli sauce (included in crab cake carton) in hot water.

SPRAY a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

EMPTY the sauce packets into a bowl and add 1/4 cup of hot water and mix well to thin out the sauce.

HEAT each tortilla in microwave for ten seconds if needed to soften. Lay the tortillas on a flat surface. Crumble a crab cake onto the center of each tortilla and spread from left to right. Add 1 tablespoon each of the aioli sauce, corn, and shredded cheese. Add 1 teaspoon diced jalapeno.

ROLL-UP up the enchilada and place in the greased baking dish (with ends tucked under so they don’t unroll). Repeat for the other three enchiladas.

POUR the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

COVER and bake for 30-45 minutes. Remove cover, and continue baking 15 minutes. Remove baking dish from the oven.

PLATE the enchiladas and garnish with sour cream. Add other garnishes such as cilantro, tomatoes, lime juice, etc. to taste.

Enjoy !

Mother’s Day is that one day each year where Mom gets pampered and doesn’t have to worry about anything, right? Well … not always. In my experience I see plenty of families try to help Mom out by making brunch or dinner, but Mom ends up needing to step in before the whole house blows up!

So this Mother’s Day we recommend taking the heat off Mom and serving a simple salad for lunch. Our BBLT Salad recipe is so easy even Dad can’t mess it up, and the kids will enjoy helping! Plus, adding jumbo butterfly shrimp to the salad makes it a full meal – what’s easier than that?

SeaPak wishes you all a happy and special Mother’s Day!

BBLT Salad
Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Makes: 4 salads

1 (9 oz) package SeaPak® Jumbo Butterfly Shrimp – Oven Crispy, frozen
1 head of iceberg lettuce
2 Tablespoons precooked bacon (or 2 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tomatoes
Dressing

COOK shrimp according to package instructions.

CHOP lettuce into quarters and portion into serving dishes.

DICE tomatoes and add to lettuce.

SPRINKLE bacon crumbles and cheese over salads.

TOP salads with butterfly shrimp. Add dressing of choice and serve.

For this month’s Coastal Dish I am so excited to share with you all one of my favorite food bloggers, Andrea Goto, The Culinary Coward from PaulaDeen.com! Andrea lives and writes in Savannah, Georgia—just up the road from SeaPak’s coastal headquarters! She likes to say that her “kitchen experiments (known as ‘cooking’ in more conventional homes) most often end with a mushroom cloud of smoke or a call to Poison Control.” In spite of this, she has the gift of making everyday duties entertaining, accessible, and fun! Check out her guest blog and see how she fared making SeaPak’s Shrimp Diavolo.

-Jenna

I wasn’t having a stellar weekend.

On Friday night my 4-year-old daughter woke with a fever. I gave her some Tylenol and tucked her back in. An hour later she called out for water.

“Fresh-new-water-that’s-not-too-cold-in-a-cup-that-doesn’t-leak!” It’s the same request every night. I can recite it with her.

Ten minutes later she summons me again, just to hand me the cup. Then my husband, who believes he has the plague, begins the coughing fit that has inconvenienced him—and consequently me—for five nights. Repeat this cycle a dozen times over, sprinkle it with some vomiting, and you have my weekend.

By Sunday evening my daughter is crashed out on the sofa, still feverish. But at least in her sleep she doesn’t complain when I move more than three inches away from her. My husband is about to ask what I have in mind for dinner, to which I will respond, “Whatever you can find.” Momma ain’t cooking. Momma is tired.

But his question is preempted by another coughing jag. He braces himself on the kitchen counter and blows the gale-force winds in my direction at which point I make a mental note to buy Lysol.

“Maybe a hot shower would help,” I suggest.

He nods in agreement (or maybe that’s his head recoiling from the coughing) and works his way to the bathroom as if he’s reinacting Hamlet’s death scene. Once I hear the shower running, I realize that I’m left with the beautiful promise of 20 minutes—all to myself.

I decide to use this time to make myself dinner. Just one thing stands in my way: I can’t actually cook.

Some people can create a restaurant-quality dish in their own kitchen. I can’t. I once tried to recreate “Thanksgiving Dinner” by pouring a jar of brown gravy over deli meat.

I also find it hard to handle uncooked meat because it’s too easy to imagine it with fur, hooves, a tail, friends, cousins—well, you get the point. And deveining shrimp—or pulling the life force from the little suckers—is a real appetite killer. I’m not vegan; I’m just very comfortable eating food from a box.

SeaPak Shrimp Scampi to the rescue.

It looked and smelled like 5-star restaurant cuisine and tasted even better. Plus, I didn’t have to actually see or touch the shrimp prior to eating. They were hidden inside a thick buttery coating, looking more corn dog than once-living creature.

After hearing me sing my SeaPak praise, a friend suggested that I try one of their recipes. I thought the set of directions on the back of the box was the recipe, but she explained that I could use the scampi to make a bunch of other easy dishes. “Even you can make them,” she added. (This may sound hurtful, but she was actually being quite generous.)

So tonight I decide to make Shrimp Diavolo. I don’t know what “diavolo” means but the recipe allows me to bail from my no-refined carbs kick and it calls for white wine. As if I need another excuse.

The timing is the trickiest part of the recipe and since I lack any natural cooking instincts, I rely heavily on the timer. I set and reset it so often that the beeping sounds like an electrocardiogram.

There’s no room in my omelet pan to toss in the noodles, so I haul out a plastic, red mixing bowl that looks like the bucket I took to the beach when I was kid—the one that my sister would use to wash the sand from her shockingly large toes (an untimely memory). It’s not the prettiest presentation, but who’s going to complain?

I plate the Diavowhatever, sprinkle some Parmesan and pour a (big) glass of wine.

If I weren’t sitting in the kitchen, hunched over my plate and listening to Dr. Phil over the sounds of my child moaning and my husband hacking, I can almost believe that I am dining alone in an elegant Italian restaurant. On days like these, “almost” is “good enough.”

(Need more Andrea? Follow her at http://www.andreagoto.com.)

Shrimp Diavolo
Prep Time: 8 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes Makes: 2-3 servings

• 1 (16 oz) package SeaPak® Shrimp Scampi – Tails On, frozen
• 1/2 lb linguine, uncooked
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings
• 1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper (add more or less to taste)
• 1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (if desired)

COOK linguini according to package directions until it is al dente.

SAUTÉ shrimp in a large non-stick skillet on medium for 6 minutes.

SCOOP shrimp out of pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Return pan with scampi sauce to stove and turn heat up to medium high. Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes until onions are translucent.

ADD diced tomatoes (including juice), wine, Italian seasoning, and red pepper to onions. Bring mixture to a low rolling boil. Boil mixture for seven minutes stirring occasionally.

ADD shrimp to pan with tomato sauce and continue sautéing for three minutes. Add cooked linguini and toss to coat and serve with shredded Parmesan, if desired.