By Sandra Olivetti Martin
Good as Enticing All Natural Steak & Mushroom Sliders from En-tice-Ment and Windermere farms are, summer’s garden is too good to be ignored. So to balance your menu — and the recipe you’ll read with our story The Proof Is in the Taste on page 4 — here are a pair of recipes from the 2019 Governor’s Buy Local Cookout and Cookbook.
On a steamy July night, both were deliciously light and flavorful. One’s an appetizer or a meal in itself; the other a salad, dessert or refresher. I’ll be adding them to my summer menu. I encourage you to try them soon, while their local ingredients are at their prime of taste and abundance.
Grow, buy, cook and eat local during Buy Local Week (#BuyLocalCookout) and all summer long.
Roasted Corn Crepes Stuffed with Maryland Blue Crab and Cheddar
Makes 4 6-ounce servings
Hyatt Regency Executive Chef Chris Cummer calls his corn crepes with crab and salad an appetizer. But they’re varied and substantial enough to make a light summer meal in themselves.
Salad
1 cup cantaloupe, cubed
1 cup tomato, diced or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 Tbs mint, julienned
1 Tbs basil, julienned
1 Tbs honey
1⁄2 pound lump crab meat
1 Tbs champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste
Before cooking the crepes, build the salad. This will give the ingredients a chance to mingle. Mix all ingredients gently and refrigerate.
Crepes
2 ears of corn
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1⁄2 cup flour
Cooking oil or spray
Salt and pepper, to taste
Shuck and grill or roast corn until slightly charred. Cool and remove from cob. Add corn, milk, eggs and flour to blender. Season with salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Refrigerate for at least one hour to set up.
Heat a small (6–8 inch) skillet. Add oil or spray and 2 ounces of batter. Cook over medium heat, slightly brown on one side, then flip the crepe and repeat on the other side. Set crepe to the side and repeat the process.
Filling
1⁄2 lb. blue crab meat
1⁄2 lb. Chapel’s cheddar (or your favorite cheddar)
2 Tbs chives or green onions, chopped
Mix ingredients gently and stuff crepes. Place crepes in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and top with the salad.
Mint Melon and Berries with Violas and Peach Shine Sabayon
Makes 8 6-ounce servings
Chef Christi Lathrop specializes in cooling summer treats. As a student at Anne Arundel Community College’s Hotel Culinary Arts and Tourism Institute, she appeared in Bay Weekly in 2017 for her Blackberry-Eyed Susan Spritzer. She own Jillian’s Fare, a seasonal lemonade business since 1996. Jillian’s Fare is a staple at many fairs and festivals throughout Maryland but is primarily rooted in Southern Maryland.
Chef Lathrop calls this recipe a dessert or salad, but it’s a cooler anytime you eat it.
Salad
1 medium honeydew melon
1 cup blackberries
1⁄2 cup of mint leaves, washed and minced; edible violas for garnish
Rinse melon, blackberries, mint leaves and violas separately. Mince the mint leaves. Cut open the melon, remove the seeds, scoop out small melon balls using a melon baller and place in a bowl. Gently incorporate the minced mint leaves and blackberries. Cover and chill in refrigerator, allowing time for the flavors to infuse.
Sabayon Sauce
3 large egg yolks
1⁄4 cup sugar
1⁄4 cup Peach Moonshine (or any liquid of your choice)
2 Tbs water
Combine sugar and egg yolks in a double boiler. Beat with a whisk or mixer at medium speed until foamy. Add Peach Moonshine and water. Continue to beat for approximately 7 minutes until mixture reaches 160 degrees.
Place chilled fruit salad in a small dessert vessel. Drizzle sabayon on top and garnish with violas.
Find the full 2019 Governor’s Buy Local Cookout and Cookbook at https://mda.maryland.gov/Documents/2019-BLC-Cookbook.pdf.
