CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook: Savoring Four Seasons of the Good Life
224
CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook: Savoring Four Seasons of the Good Life
224eBook
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Overview
A cookbook that captures the laid-back, but elegant lifestyle of Nantucket and the wonderful dishes of its locals' and tourists' favorite CRU Oyster Bar.
CRU Oyster Bar’s casually stylish cuisine is an ode to the ocean, local farms, and the seasons, served in a beautiful setting on Nantucket Harbor.
Zircher takes her inspiration from her classical French training, her love of Mediterranean flavors, and family recipes in these 75 never-before-published recipes. With full-sized four-color images of the food and the island, the CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook brings the vibrancy of Nantucket’s spectacular beauty to its pages.
Recipes featured in this cookbook include fluke meunière, harissa grilled tuna with leeks vinaigrette, and crispy fried oysters with radish rémoulade. There’s no shortage of lobster recipes with lobster tail, lobster bisque, lobster salad, and lobster cocktail. And dessert as well! Hazelnut shortbread with wild blackberry jam and vanilla and rum roasted plums with orange-scented pound cake. The cocktails are a draw of their own—both delicious and pretty, there are recipes for season-appropriate drinks that anyone can master.
A gorgeous tribute to the island—complete with sidebars with information only locals know—and to the gem that is CRU, the CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook allows you to enjoy the flavors, places, and luxury of Nantucket every day of the year.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250193667 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 05/21/2019 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 191 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
ERIN ZIRCHER, JANE STODDARD, and CARLOS HIDALGO are the founders and partners of CRU Oyster Bar. Erin is Executive Chef and one of the most celebrated chefs on the island. Her skills have been featured in national media including Saveur, Town&Country, Wine Spectator, and Cooking Channel TV. Jane is Managing Partner and is responsible for ensuring the customer experience at CRU is always exceptional. Carlos is Managing Partner, focusing on the financial aspects of the restaurant and creating its signature wine list and cocktail menu that compliments the food and season.
MARTHA W. MURPHY is the co-writer of the CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook. She is an award-winning writer with a specialty in food, health, and how-to books, including The Low Glycal Diet, The Bed&Breakfast Cookbook, and How to Start and Operate Your Own Bed&Breakfast.
ERIN ZIRCHER, JANE STODDARD, and CARLOS HIDALGO are the founders and partners of CRU Oyster Bar. Jane is Managing Partner and is responsible for ensuring the customer experience at CRU is always exceptional.
ERIN ZIRCHER, JANE STODDARD, and CARLOS HIDALGO are the founders and partners of CRU Oyster Bar. Carlos is Managing Partner, focusing on the financial aspects of the restaurant and creating its signature wine list and cocktail menu that compliments the food and season.
Martha W. Murphy is the owner of Murphy's B&B in Narragansett, Rhode Island. She teaches a seminar based on CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook at Brown University's Learning Community.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
RAW BAR BASICS
A DELICIOUS BALANCING ACT
CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket is renowned for its raw bar. The pristine quality and substantial selection of fresh oysters (our menu features eight to a dozen different varieties daily) and hard-shell clams are why CRU's raw bar is considered the most expansive on the island. Beautifully displayed on beds of crushed ice, everything is expertly shucked to order (never in advance!), and impeccably served with a variety of handmade cocktail sauces and plump wedges of lemon.
Another signature offering at CRU, and unique to the Nantucket food scene: our lavish, chilled seafood towers overflowing with tiers of briny oysters and clams, crudos of local fish, Nantucket scallops on the half shell (when they are available for harvest), and tins of the world's best caviars — hand selected in collaboration with Calvisius caviar.
To complete the raw bar menu, CRU offers a variety of chilled shellfish cocktails: blue crab, lobster, and wild-caught shrimp — all beautifully presented and accompanied by the perfect sauce.
Now, with the recipes in this chapter, you can create a memorable evening with your own raw bar. We recommend including a selection of cooked, chilled shellfish — shrimp, crab, or lobster — with the raw items. Crab claws, whole shrimp, or lobster tails halved down the center are delicious, easy choices. Or, you can re-create a couple of CRU's signature seafood cocktails; check out the recipes that appear later in this chapter.
The sauces you'll use with seafood cocktails are the same ones you'll set out to accompany the raw oysters and clams on the half shell. This chapter gives you recipes for four delicious, simple-to-make but out-of-the-ordinary-tasting cocktail sauces, plus serving suggestions.
PREPARING YOUR RAW BAR
Ideally, you'll have a partner helping you shuck. Place each shucked oyster or clam, as you go, immediately on a platter of crushed ice. In advance, set out lots of wedges of juicy lemons and dishes of two or more of CRU's distinctive sauces so that as soon as the shucking is done you can wash your hands and serve.
CHEERS! THE BEST SPIRITS TO SERVE WITH YOUR RAW BAR DELICACIES
Our top pick for a white wine is Christian Moreau Chablis. We love its crisp, clean feel in the mouth, its mineral notes, and its acidity. Refreshing but possessing a complexity worthy of oysters on the half shell, this Chablis from a renowned vineyard in France is one of the reasons the wine list at CRU wins awards every year.
Another white wine we love, Clos Mireille (from Domaines Ott, a house that produces some of the world's most prestigious wines, and a favorite of ours), will complement the ocean flavors of oysters and the other items at your raw bar. From its delicate, fruity nose of white peach and apricot mixed with passion fruit and mango to its fresh, crisp, full taste, this wine is a perfect match for the salinity and melon tones of our Fifth Bend Nantucket oysters.
For a rosé, Château de Selle (also a Domaines Ott wine) is crisp yet uniquely soft, with notes of citrus fruit and orchard flowers. This wine pairs beautifully with our award-winning Crab Cocktail.
A dry champagne, like Pol Roger, is another excellent accompaniment.
In addition to offering your guests wine or champagne, a classic gin martini with a lemon twist, icy cold, served straight-up, is a great choice. The distinct bite of gin and dry vermouth makes an excellent accompaniment to the delicate but rich flavors of oysters, clams, and seafood cocktails.
RECIPES FOR RAW BAR BASICS
Creating a Raw Bar for Your Guests Classic Cocktail Sauce Horseradish Crème Fraîche Mignonette Key Lime Dijonnaise Shrimp Cocktail Crab Cocktail
CREATING A RAW BAR FOR YOUR GUESTS
• Plan on four to six oysters and three to five littlenecks per person.
• Include Crab Cocktail or crab claws, cooked shrimp or Shrimp Cocktail, and/or lobster (tails split lengthwise, or lobster cocktail) with the iced oysters and clams on the half shell.
• Prepare one cooked seafood item as a cocktail and present the others in a different form so that your raw bar offers as much variety as possible.
• Make at least three different cocktail sauces to accompany the seafood (this chapter contains four recipes), purchase the plumpest lemons you can find, and be sure to have sufficient wine and champagne thoroughly chilled.
SAUCES FOR YOUR RAW BAR
CLASSIC COCKTAIL SAUCE
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP
If you like horseradish, you'll really like our cocktail sauce. This is the classic we all know and love, with a little extra punch. Delicious with oysters and clams on the half shell, it's also wonderful in a crab or shrimp cocktail.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup prepared horseradish
½ cup ketchup
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Combine all the ingredients thoroughly. Transfer to a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate until completely chilled before serving. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
HORSERADISH CRÈME FRAÎCHE
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP
This sauce is incredibly versatile. We serve it with potato pancakes, on top of our smoked salmon tartine, and most importantly, as the very special second sauce in our crab cocktail.
INGREDIENTS
2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup crème fraîche
2 tablespoons heavy cream
¼ cup prepared horseradish
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the cream cheese until it is completely smooth. Add the crème fraîche and heavy cream and whip on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Stir in the horseradish, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
MIGNONETTE
MAKES ABOUT 2/3 CUP
There are a million different versions of mignonette out there, but I prefer some things to remain just the way I remember having them for the first time. This is one of those recipes. Perfect with oysters on the half shell; you need only a very small amount with your oyster.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup red wine vinegar
2 shallots, finely minced (¼ cup)
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper
In a small bowl, thoroughly combine the vinegar, shallots, sugar, and salt and season with pepper. Transfer to a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate until completely chilled before serving. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
KEY LIME DIJONNAISE
MAKES ABOUT 2½ CUPS
Warm weather and sunshine aren't the only perks to spending winter in South Florida: stone crab season occurs from mid-October through mid-May.
The traditional sauce for stone crab seems bizarre to me; it just shouldn't work with the crab, but somehow it really does.
We make Key Lime Dijonnaise for the holiday season when we are lucky enough to score a few pounds of stone crab for the raw bar, but you'll find the sauce is a great addition to any chilled crab presentation.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Dijon mustard
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup fresh Key lime or regular lime juice
½ teaspoon kosher salt Tabasco (optional)
In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine the mustard, mayonnaise, lime juice, and salt and season with Tabasco (if using). Transfer to a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate until ready to serve. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
SHRIMP COCKTAIL
SERVES 4
This cooking technique is my favorite way to prepare shrimp to eat out-of-hand. It's super-easy and foolproof. And because they are cooked so gently, the shrimp are never tough or rubbery.
INGREDIENTS
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1 bay leaf
2 lemon slices
1 pound extra jumbo shrimp (U-15), peeled and deveined
Combine the salt, coriander seeds, bay leaf, and lemon slices in a medium saucepan, add 6 cups water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the shrimp and immediately remove the pot from the heat. Let the shrimp sit in the water for 5 minutes (8 minutes if you are using a large shrimp, size U-8).
Remove 1 shrimp and cut in half; it should be just cooked through (if not, set the timer for 1 minute and check again).
Remove the cooked shrimp from the water with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate to cool. Chill until ready to serve.
CRAB COCKTAIL
SERVES 4
This dish is a favorite at CRU. The inspiration for it comes from a very unlikely place: the Midwest. I was at my grandmother's seventy-fifth birthday celebration in north-central Wisconsin and someone had brought a crab dip to the party. It was simply cream cheese spread on a plate topped with cocktail sauce and canned crabmeat. I couldn't tear myself away from it and have never forgotten tasting it for the first time. I've tried to elevate the recipe a bit with the crème fraîche and super high-quality lump crabmeat, but those classic flavors are all still there.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon olive oil
¼ cup Horseradish Crème Fraîche
¼ cup Classic Cocktail Sauce Flake sea salt
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
In a medium bowl, gently toss the crab with the chives and oil. Place 1 tablespoon Horseradish Crème Fraîche in the bottom of each of four small bowls or rocks glasses. Top each with 1 tablespoon Classic Cocktail Sauce, then divide the crab among the bowls. Top with a pinch of flake sea salt and serve each with a wedge of lemon.
CHAPTER 2DAFFODILS AND ANTIQUE CARS
WELCOMING SPRING, NANTUCKET-STYLE RECIPES FOR
DAFFODILS AND ANTIQUE CARS
Nantucket Clam Chowder Lobster Rolls Oyster Crackers with Cracked Fennel Seeds Spiced Fried Chicken Potato Salad with Capers and Soft-Cooked Eggs Bittersweet Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Sea-Salt Buttercream
From early April to mid-May, Nantucket is blanketed in yellow as its roadsides, gardens, and window boxes bloom with daffodils. Forty-three years ago, inspired by this quintessential sign of the season and eager to "banish the winter doldrums and welcome spring," the island's Chamber of Commerce began what has been a lively annual tradition during the last weekend of April ever since: The Daffodil Festival of Nantucket.
The weekend's events begin first thing on a Friday and run almost nonstop through Saturday and Sunday. Each day is jam-packed with activities: house and garden tours; a Children's Parade where daffodil-decorated strollers, wagons, and bicycles are shown off; the Daffy Dog Parade where canine friends are decked out in garlands, jaunty chapeaus, and any other garb a good dog can tolerate. There are art shows, the Daffodil 5K Race, and lots of contests — the Daffy Hat contest, Best Window-Box contest, Fifty Shades of Nantucket history quiz contest, and on and on.
A highlight of the Daffodil Festival and a fun-for-all-ages event is the annual Classic and Antique Cars parade. Gleaming cars (some of them dating back to the early twentieth century) that have been maintained and polished to museum standards are pulled out of storage for this occasion. Decorated with lavish daffodil and floral arrangements worthy of England's annual Chelsea Flower Show, the cars make their way along Main Street and through the heart of downtown. Crowds cheer the drivers as they head toward the eastern end of the island for the culmination of the Daffodil Festival: tailgate picnics at 'Sconset, an idyllic village of weathered shingle cottages set above a long sweep of beach and bluffs.
Tailgate picnics on Nantucket capture the islanders' collective joy at spring's arrival, where the season is welcomed as it should be: spreads call for champagne (kept chilled in ice buckets), tins and boxes and hampers of items like caviar, cold lobster, Cobb salad, rustic bread, artisan cheeses, layered cakes, and thermoses of tea.
We love any opportunity for alfresco dining. For your own spring-time tailgate picnic, we've put together a menu that can (mostly) be eaten without utensils and that satisfies an appetite built by a day spent outside in the fresh spring air. These recipes can be prepared in advance and transported to your picnic in a sturdy basket. Other than spoons and large mugs for the chowder, and forks for the potato salad, you'll just need plates, lots of napkins, and glassware for the wine. Set up your camp, raise a glass, and dig in!
NANTUCKET CLAM CHOWDER
SERVES 6 TO 8
This recipe looks like quite a few steps, but the chowder comes together quite easily. I also find that using the potato flour or potato starch, in place of flour, creates a beautiful smoothness to the broth and reinforces the flavor of the potatoes.
You may notice that I have omitted the salt in this recipe. The clams seem to contribute all the salt needed. Use any size clam you like. Littlenecks are the most readily available at the fish markets here but if you are digging your own clams for this chowder, the bigger the better! Serve this chowder with oyster crackers.
INGREDIENTS
4 dozen live littleneck clams, scrubbed
1 (750-ml) bottle white wine (anything crisp, like a Muscadet or Picpoul)
8 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme plus 1 tablespoon whole fresh thyme leaves Clam juice, as needed
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 white onions, diced
6 celery stalks, diced
3 pounds Yukon Gold or russet potatoes (peeled or unpeeled — your choice), cut into ½-inch dice
¼ cup potato flour or potato starch
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
4 cups heavy cream
Place the clams in a large stockpot with the wine, 4 bay leaves, and the 4 whole sprigs of thyme; set over high heat and cover with a tight-fitting lid to keep the steam in the pot. Reduce the heat to medium. As soon as all the clams have opened (the cooking time will vary depending on the size of the clams, but it should take 2 to 5 minutes), remove the pot from the heat and set aside until the clams are cool enough to handle.
Using tongs, remove the clams from the pot, being sure to let any liquid stay in the pot, and transfer them to a bowl. Using a small sharp knife, remove the clam meat from the shells and set aside. Dispose of the shells but keep any liquid that accumulates in the bowl and add it to the broth in the stockpot.
Strain the clam broth by pouring it through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth (or a clean linen kitchen towel) set over a large bowl; you should have 5 cups of broth; if not, add clam juice to reach this amount. Coarsely chop the clam meat, add it to the strained broth, and set aside.
Rinse and dry the stockpot, set it over medium heat, and add the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the onions and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the onions are slightly translucent but not browned. Add the potatoes, potato flour, pepper, remaining 4 bay leaves, and thyme leaves and stir to combine. Add the cream and cook over low heat, stirring frequently to ensure the cream does not become scorched, until the potatoes are tender.
Return the strained broth and chopped clam meat to the stockpot. Stir gently and simmer over low heat for another 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve immediately.
LOBSTER ROLLS
MAKES 8 LOBSTER ROLLS
Everyone needs to have a lobster roll when they visit Nantucket and I think ours is a beautiful representation of this New England classic: a warm, buttery toasted roll filled with super fresh lobster that we toss with lemon-spiked mayonnaise and fresh herbs. Please feel free to substitute precooked lobster meat for this recipe. Many fishmongers sell it. Our homemade rolls really do this iconic dish justice, but if baking isn't your thing, you can use store-bought split-top hot dog buns, sliced brioche, or challah bread. Whatever your choice, be sure to butter and lightly toast the bread.
INGREDIENTS
4 (1½-pound) live lobsters
½ cup mayonnaise
2 lemons, zested and juiced
8 Homemade Rolls (recipe follows)
Butter, softened
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped celery leaves (light green only)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves (lightly chopped right before using)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
Fill two large stockpots halfway with water and bring them to a boil over high heat. Once the water is rapidly boiling, add 2 lobsters to each pot, turn off the heat, and cover the pots with their lids. After 30 minutes, drain the lobsters and let them cool completely on a baking sheet.
Split the lobster tail down the back using a pair of kitchen scissors; remove and discard the intestine. Using the kitchen scissors again, remove the meat from the lobster knuckles. Cover each claw with a clean kitchen towel and crack them with the back of a chef's knife. After removing all the meat from the shells, check it carefully for pieces of shell. Cut the meat into bite-size pieces.
In a large bowl, mix the chopped lobster meat with the mayonnaise and lemon zest and juice. Cover and chill until ready to serve (the lobster salad can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 day).
Preheat a griddle or large (12-inch) skillet over medium heat. Make a 1-inch-deep slice in the tops of the rolls. Butter the sides of each roll and toast them lightly until golden on all sides. Watch closely so they don't burn.
Divide the lobster salad among the toasted rolls and garnish with the chopped fresh herbs.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Cru Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Erin Zircher, Jane Stoddard, and Carlos Hidalgo.
Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Foreword, by Lulu Powers
Introduction Welcome to CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket, Welcome to the Island
Chapter 1. Meet the CRU Crew
The Trio that Founded, Developed, and Sustain THE Place to Be on Nantucket
Chapter 2. Raw Bar Basics
A Delicious Balancing Act
Chapter 3. Daffodils and Antique Cars
Welcoming Spring, Nantucket-Style
Chapter 4. Waterfront Lunch and Sailing
The Good Life
Chapter 5. Family Barbecue at Home
Simply Perfect Al Fresco Dining
Chapter 6. Beach Cruising
Barefoot Holiday
Chapter 7. Cocktails in the Back Bar
Enjoying the Conviviality of Spirits
Chapter 8. A Day on the Water
The Living is Easy
Chapter 9. Surfcasting and Sunsets
Summer’s End
Chapter 10. Nantucket Bay Scallops
The Island’s Most Delicious Delicacy
Chapter 11. Fall for Nantucket
The Romance of the Fading Light and Fleeting Days
Chapter 12. A Christmas Stroll
A Festive Nantucket Tradition
Chapter 13. All is Quiet
Celebrating New Year’s Eve CRU-Style
Guide to the Recipes
Index of Recipes by Occasion
Index of Recipes by Category
About the Authors
Acknowledgements