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2008

TODAY's CASES:

Chicken Croquettes

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Diane
To: "phaedrus" 
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 10:02 AM
Subject: chicken croquettes

>  Phaed,  Thanks for your wonderful website!  Can't wait to cook some of 
> those dishes!!  As a child, I remember going with my parents to eat, and 
> I'd always order the chicken croquettes.  They were shaped almost like a 
> pointed mound and had a white sauce.  I believe we ate these at Howard 
> Johnsons, but can't be sure.  The outside had a bread crumb texture.  The 
> best I ever had!  Wonder if you could find it for me ?!  Thanks, Diane

Hi Diane,

I can't find a Howard Johnson's clone, but see below.

Phaed

Update 2/26/14: Mark R. sent the HoJo's original recipe. See: HoJo Recipes

Chicken  Croquettes  With  White  Sauce

2 1/2 c. chopped cooked chicken
1 c. chicken broth
1 recipe of white sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/3 c. flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. bread crumbs
Oil

  Mix chicken with white sauce.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place in 
freezer about 1/2 hour to firm.  When mixture is firm, allow 2 tablespoons 
to form each croquette.  Roll in flour and then beaten egg and then in bread 
crumbs.  Fry in oil until light brown.

White Sauce:
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. milk

  Melt butter in pan; stir in flour and seasonings.  Cook on low until 
smooth; stirring constantly, add broth and milk slowly; to maintain 
thickness, stir on medium heat until all milk and broth is added and sauce 
is thick.
-----------------------
Chicken  Croquettes

1 3/4 c. cooked chicken
Salt and pepper
1/4 tsp. celery salt
1 tsp. minced onion
1 tsp. parsley
Bread crumbs
1 c. white sauce
Oil
Approximately 2 eggs, beaten

 White Sauce:
4 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. flour
1 c. milk

   Combine white sauce ingredients (melt butter, add flour and gradually add 
milk) and cook 3 minutes.  Combine white sauce, chicken, celery salt, onion, 
parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  Divide mixture into 6-8 portions and 
shape into croquettes.  Roll in fine bread crumbs, then into egg and again 
in bread crumbs.  Fry in hot oil, turning when browned.  Yields:  4 
servings. 

Hobee Blueberry Cake

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lisa "
To: phaedrus
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 2:52 PM

> Hi,
>
> I am looking for a recipe for Hobee's restaurant's
> blueberry coffee cake?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Lisa

Hello Lisa,

See below.

Phaed

Hobee's Coffee Cake

***Cake***
1 1/2 cups flour, unbleached -- sifted
1 cup sugar, granulated
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup blueberries, fresh, optional
vegetable oil
***Topping***
5 tablespoons sugar, granulated
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon -- ground

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large mixing bowl, re-sift sift flour with baking power, baking soda, 
salt and about 1 cup of sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla.

Add egg mixture to flour mixture and beat until smooth.

Oil a 9-inch square baking pan (you can also use an 8 inch square pan, or 
anything of similar surface area, if you increase the baking time by about 5 
minutes).

Spread the batter in the pan. If you are using fruit or nuts, scatter them 
over the batter and stir a little bit so that they stay in the top layer.

In a small bowl, mix about 5 tbs sugar with the butter and cinnamon with a 
sturdy fork, until they are blended and resemble cornmeal (i. e., you should 
have a mixture of fine crumbs, not a smooth mixture). Sprinkle topping over 
batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a clean toothpick inserted in the center of 
the cake comes out dry.

Cool slightly; serve warm or at room temperature. Don't ruin it by serving 
it with salted butter.

Notes:
All ingredients and bowls should be a room temperature before you start; 
this is particularly true for the butter.

: Time: 10-15 minutes preparation, 20-30 minutes baking. 

Boiled Shrimp

My family moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast back in the late fifties, before Hurricane Katrina, before the casinos appeared, even before Hurricane Camille. I liked living on the coast. I like the ocean, I like seafood, I like salt-water fishing, and I like the smell of salt air blowing in from the sea. I can't say that I like hurricanes very much, but sometimes it seems worth putting up with them to live on a seacoast.

One of the best things about living on the Coast was the availability of fresh shrimp. It was always a real treat to be present when the shrimp boats unloaded their catch at one of the seafood places. I remember going to places where the catch was unloaded onto long conveyor belts and as it moved down the belt, workers sorted the shrimp into large, medium, small, and jumbo, and picked out the wide variety of other sea life that had gotten caught in the nets. It was a real education in marine life. You never knew what was going to come down the belt.

There are lots of ways to eat shrimp. Breaded and fried, grilled, scampi, I like 'em all. What we often did down on the Gulf Coast, though, was to boil them. You get a big pot of water boiling, throw in some Zatarain's Crab and Shrimp Boil (spices), a sliced up lemon or three, and then the shrimp. Medium to large shrimp are best for boiling. Small shrimp are not worth the trouble it takes to peel them as you eat, and jumbo shrimp are best used for other dishes. A big plate of boiled shrimp, maybe an ear of corn or a potato boiled in the same pot of spicy water with the shrimp, some saltine crackers, some cocktail sauce, a beer (or other beverage if you prefer), and you have yourself a feast.

Gulf Coast Shrimp Boil

Big Pot - big enough to hold the quantity of shrimp you're cooking & water to cover them.
Water - enough to cover the shrimp
Medium to Large Shrimp - 1 lb per person is okay, but more is better.
1 lemon, sliced, per 5 lbs of shrimp
1 packet of Zatarain's Crab, Shrimp and Crawfish Boil for each 5 pounds of shrimp
Cleaned ears of corn if desired
small potatoes, if desired

Bring the pot of water to a boil with the Zatarain's, corn, potatoes, lemons, etc. -- and let that 
boil for about 10 minutes, or until the corn and potatoes are tender. Add the shrimp and let it boil 
again for three minutes. Not longer, or the shrimp will get tough. Drain & strain. You can then eat 
hot if you wish, but better to put the shrimp on ice while you get the other stuff ready and set the 
table. Have a beer or a glass of tea while the shrimp chill, then dig in. Give everyone a bowl for 
their shells. Spicy cocktail sauce is great, the kind with horseradish if you like, but a little 
Louisiana style hot sauce is even better.

Comments:
Yes, this stinks up the kitchen, if not the whole house, but it's a good stink. Do it outside 
if you can. Saltine crackers are good with boiled shrimp, but if you're a bread person, French bread is 
nice. A salad is a good accompaniment, too. When you clean up, put all the shrimp shells in a garbage 
bag and tie it up tightly. Best to put it in a garbage can far, far away. If, by some strange twist 
of fate, you have any leftover shrimp, peel them and freeze them in small quantities for use in other 
recipes.

Panned Crab

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kay "
To: phaedrus
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 5:15 PM
Subject: Crab Meat Panned in Butter -- a Carolina Tidewater recipe -- can 
you help me?

> Dear Uncle Phaedrus,
>
> I've looked a long time before asking for help, and I have reached that 
> stage where the places you've looked seem to keep leading back to one 
> another. I also tried the new links I found on your site -- great 
> stuff! --  until it kept leading back to things I'd found. (By the way --  
> it might be temporary, but franks recipes was down when I tried it.)
>
> Anyway, the recipe I've been searching for is "crab meat panned in 
> butter." (Sometimes it's just called "crab panned in butter" and sometimes 
> it's called "back fin crab meat panned in butter." Sometimes crabmeat is 
> made a single word in the title of the dish.) I'm fairly certain that it's 
> a traditional recipe in the tidewater region, possibly ranging from 
> Georgia to Maryland, but  possibly confined mostly to North Carolina.
>
> I live in North Carolina and first ate it in a little shack by the side of 
> the road. I was on the way to Nag's Head in the spring of 1972. The 
> restaurant's decor was plain, but the food was Lucullan. The crab was 
> served with slaw, hush puppies and, I think, a baked potato, but it may 
> have been French fries.
>
> I've eaten crab meat panned in butter over the years in many other
> restaurants -- some fancier and some just as weathered as the first -- all
> in the tidewater region of North Carolina.
>
> Crab Meat Panned in Butter is not a crab cake or a version of Crab 
> Imperial.
> It seemed to consist primarily -- almost solely -- of lump crab meat and
> butter, but all of my attempts to reproduce it by sautéing even the finest
> freshest back fin lump crabmeat don't fill the bill.
>
> The dish is still served today. Links to restaurants with menus, or to 
> sites reviewing restaurants referring to crab shrimp and other seafood "panned 
> in butter" appear at the end of my email.
>
> I have been unable to find is a recipe for panning anything except oysters 
> in  butter. On the other hand, menus show clearly that some people still pan 
> both crabmeat and shrimp in butter, and have a method they consider 
> "panning" as opposed to "baking," "sautéing," or "frying."
>
> (Worse news: oysters are sometimes "panned" by deep frying and sometimes 
> by sautéing! Oysters are panned by a method which, when dissected, is 
> sautéing.
>
> I've looked in cook books and  on the web. You can count on it that I have 
> tried. (I won't bore you with the list, but it is long and includes 
> sources both eclectic and distinguished. This is not my first search. I've 
> looked several times over the years.)
>
> I suspect that "crab meat panned in butter" really is a regional 
> specialty. It's probably rather like clam chowder: nobody needs a recipe for that!
> (Which is why people from Manhattan who marry people from Boston should
> discuss recipes before marriage.)
>
> Here are the restaurant and reviewing links I mentioned:
>
> https://www.thisweekmag.com/RestaurantArchive/NetHouse.htm  "The soft 
> shelled crab stuffed with crabmeat is a must if you're a crabmeat lover. 
> Oh, and  the beautiful white back fin crabmeat or local shrimp panned 
> in butter are  also hard to beat." The back fin crabmeat panned in butter
> sounds like exactly what I'm thinking of.
>
> https://www.thisweekmag.com/RestaurantArchive/Driftwood.htm  "The back fin
> crabmeat panned in butter is delicate and fresh, using only enough butter 
> to accentuate the flavor.  All seafood at the Driftwood is prepared at the
> customer's request; fried, broiled or panned in butter, and all are served
> with choice of potato, coleslaw and hush puppies."
>
> https://morganstavernnewbern.com/3.html Offers lump crabmeat panned in 
> butter as a menu item.
>
> What I cannot find is a recipe for panning anything in butter, let alone
> back fin crabmeat, but it's clear that some people still know how to do 
> it.
>
> If it's of any help in persuading someone to part with a recipe, you may
> say, (and it's true) that I lived part time in New Bern for a while and
> enjoyed ordering and eating crab panned in butter while I was there. I now
> live in the Piedmont, and I haven't been able to find it here. It's 
> clearly a tidewater thing: possibly a North Carolina tidewater thing. I'd go
> down east to a restaurant and blandish, but I'm disabled. 
>
> Disability notwithstanding, there's a market on the way home from one of 
> my doctors' office. Once in a while I could stop on my way home from an
> appointment and buy a pound of crabmeat. I wouldn't be able to cook it 
> that day, but if I had a recipe for crab meat panned in butter, I'd be able to
> cook it the next day, and I'd love that!
>
> Thanking you for any help you can give me, I am
>
> Very sincerely yours,
>
> Kay
>
> (Please feel very free to edit this letter to shreds. After all, if you 
> find a recipe, nobody else will need all of those clues. Thanks, Kay)
> 

Hello Kay,

I was only able to find two recipes for "panned crab". One was in a book called "Hoppin' John's Low Country Cooking" by John Martin Taylor. However, that one is not panned in butter - it's more like a stew.

The other one is for crab panned in butter, but it has a problem. "Google Books" displays previews of books, and that's where I found this recipe. The part of the recipe shown in the preview doesn't give amounts, and they have "COPYRIGHTED IMAGE" placed strategically over the ingredient list. The book is "Crazy for Crab: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Fabulous Crab" by Fred Thompson. You can view it here:

"Crazy for Crab: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Fabulous Crab" by Fred Thompson.

You may have to purchase the book to get the complete recipe, as the recipe in its entirety does not appear to be on the Internet. You can get the book at Amazon.com.

Kay, while the term "panned in butter" may be local to the east coast - Virginia and North Carolina - crab cooked this way probably is not. It's basically just crabmeat sauteed in butter and spices, and you might find a suitable recipe by looking for "sauteed crab" or "crab sauteed in butter". The spices or flavorings vary from menu to menu and from recipe to recipe. Some are sauteed in butter and lemon juice, and some, like the one in the above book, have hot pepper sauce added.

Phaed

A reader sent this:

From: "muriel"
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: 
Date: Thursday, December 11, 2008 3:55 PM

hi under a seafood food recipe area I found a recipe for hot crabmeat in
butter.

1 lb. Crabmeat seasoned with salt & pepper.1/8 lb butter melted with an
equal amount of water in a hot frying pan.Add crabmeat and heat.Just before
seving season with worstershire sauce to taste.This was submitted by a capt
l.Selden taylor ;norfolk va.
Thanks for a interesting site.
Muriel

Cheese Rolls

Hot Shoppes Cheese Rolls

Margarine			1 tablespoon
Shortening			1 tablespoon
Sugar, granulated 			1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon
Cheddar cheese, shredded		2 cups
Eggs, large	 		3 each
yeast, dry 			2 packets (1/4 oz. each)
Water, lukewarm			1/2 cup
Flour, all-purpose			6 1/2 - 7 cups
Salt				2 teaspoons
Milk				1 1/3 cups

Yield:	Approximately 3 to 4 dozen

Preparation:
1) Cream margarine, shortening, sugar, and cheddar cheese until light.
2) Add eggs slowly, blending well between each addition.
3) Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water (Be sure that water is not too hot)
4) Sift together flour and salt
5) Add half of flour and half of milk to egg and cheese mixture.
6) Add dissolved yeast.
7) Add remainder of milk and flour to make a soft dough.
8) Cover dough; let rest for ten minutes.
9) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 
minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.
10) Place dough in a lightly greased bowl large enough to hold dough when 
doubled in size, turning once to grease the surface.
11) Cover;let rise in a warm place (90°F)until double in size (About 2 hours).
12) Fold dough over from 4 sides. Let rise again until double in size.
13) Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Place each portion on a lightly floured 
surface. Round pieces by kneading until firm and smooth. Cover and let rest for 
15 minutes.
14) Roll each piece of dough into a 12" X 15" elongated log about 3" in diameter.
15) Cut each dough log into 12 to 14 equal portions depending on the size of roll 
desired. Shape into rolls as desired.
16) Place rolls into 13" by 9" by 2" baking pans or muffin tins. Cover; let rise 
until almost doubled in size. (About 45 minutes)
17) Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 15 to 18 minutes or until 
done.
18) Brush tops with melted margarine when removed from oven.
19) Keep warm until time of service.

Notes:
- Yeast takes 5 to 10 minutes to soften. Follow manufacturer's directions for 
dissolving yeast.
- Generally, 1 package of yeast equals 0.6 ounces of cake compressed yeast.
- A heavy duty mixer may be used for mixing the dough. Follow the directions 
given in the manufacturer's instruction booklet. 

More Hot Shoppes Recipes

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