Crab Cake Recipes

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1. 1 On August 17th, 2010, B. Marold said:

   Review by B. Marold for Kinkead’s Cookbook: Recipes from Washington D.C.’s Premier Seafood Restaurant
   Rating:
   `Kinkead’s Cookbook’ by executive chef / owner Bob Kinkead is a restaurant cookbook which succeeds in giving us something genuinely new, or at least new to my world of knowledge about food. This places it high in the ranks of restaurant cookbooks I have reviewed over the last year. This is not a really big surprise, as Kinkead and his restaurant get lots of exposure on the Food Network as a `best of’ place to eat in Washington, DC and with coverage of sous chef Tracy O’Grady’s efforts at the Bocuse D’Or competition a few years back. From what I have seen of Kinkead before opening this book is that he is a talented, no nonsense chef with a real concern for the success of independent restaurants throughout the country, not just his own establishments.

   The main contribution of this book to the amateur’s understanding of seafood is the fact that the average consumer simply cannot routinely purchase the same quality of fish as are routinely bought by leading restaurants. This is simply a matter of who gives the suppliers their best business. A DC housewife may spend $50 a week at her local fishmonger. Kinkead’s will spend $50,000 in that same week, with deliveries being inspected by experts in picking out fish. The housewife will buy things that may have been on ice for two to four weeks from the time the fish was caught. The restaurant has a good chance of obtaining fish that was caught about a week ago. All this makes me wonder why no one has brought this up before. It seems a lot of talk about fish buying, including the trips by such luminaries as Wolfgang Puck and Masaharu Morimoto to the docks to inspect fish are largely photo ops. These senior chefs simply do not do this on a regular basis. Aside from the straight scoop on fish buying realities, Kinkead gives all the usual advice, in a bit greater depth than most sources, on evaluating the freshness of fish at the market. His primary contribution to our practical approach to fish is to buy it whole and butcher the little beauties ourselves.

   Another of Kinkead’s major contributions to our insights about high end restaurants is the fact that dozens of things contribute to the success or failure of a new restaurant, many having no connection with the quality of the food. He reels these off without giving a whole lot of advice on how to control them, but he does use these to make the pitch for supporting independent restaurants instead of going to large chain restaurants. The former is about good food. The latter is about money.

   Kinkead also gives a brief exposition on what makes a good cook. This information is not terribly new, as it identifies Taste, Mastery of Fire, Knowledge of Chemistry, and skills with Tools, especially knives as the cornerstones of good chef skills. The most notable item on this list is that Kinkead is endorsing scientific understanding as a contribution to good cooking, not just thorough practical knowledge of how food behaves.

   As far as how Kinkead expects us to approach his recipes, he states that he owns about 1200 cookbooks, and except for some pastry recipes, he has never followed any of the recipes in these books, in spite of being entirely self taught. Thus, this very candid author is not expecting a reader to pick out a specific recipe and follow it to the letter. He is also quite candid in saying that many of these recipes are difficult and require some skill in the kitchen. This is not a cookbook for the novice. This is not to say that a novice cannot learn from it. One of my favorite examples of professional wisdom is in the recipe for crab cakes, a Chesapeake Bay standard if there ever was one. Up until the moment I read this recipe, I always thought the standard method for cooking a crab cake was to pan fry it in about a half inch of oil. Kinkead says the heavily preferred methods are sautee or broiling. Who knew?

   Except for the desserts, the large majority of recipes in this book is for fish and shellfish entrees, appetizers, and amuse bouche. And, as you may expect, the catch and the traditions of the Chesapeake Bay heavily influence the seafood dishes. There is also something of an Irish influence in the vegetable and side dishes, with excellent potato recipes including a gratin, champ, Matthew potatoes, and potato, cabbage, and leek strudel. The meat entrees are evenly divided between fowl, rabbit, lamb, and beef.

   I often consider the space a restaurant cookbook dedicates to `Basics’ to be a waste of space. But, like Thomas Keller’s `Bouchon’ book, Kinkead makes this section complete enough to make an excellent reference for other books of fish recipes. Not only does Kinkead cover a lot of preparations which others leave out, he gives details on preparations which others leave out such as the advice to remove the gills from fish heads before using them in stock cooking. While I often use an author’s stock recipes as a means of judging their book, I must take Kinkead’s recipes as the voice of authority; a yardstick against I would measure other books. He simply does not violate any rules I have seen on stocks, and gives me a few I didn’t know.

   Kinkead offers a number of interesting sidebars on a large variety of things including wine service and types of fish. He is also an advocate of low to moderate heat when sautéing. I add him to Tom Colicchio and others who disagree with teachers like Mario Batali who often speaks of `screeching hot’ pans.

   If you like cooking fish and shellfish, you must buy this book. It’s a tad pricy, but well worth the cost.
   

   posted on August 17th, 2010 at 2:43 am

2. 2 On August 17th, 2010, Joyce Freiwald said:

   Review by Joyce Freiwald for Kinkead’s Cookbook: Recipes from Washington D.C.’s Premier Seafood Restaurant
   Rating:
   I can hardly add to the previous review, which seems to be written by someone who is a professional reviewer of cookbooks. I also have a vast collection of cookbooks. I love to cook for myself and friends and specialize in fish and salads. After eating at Kinkead’s, I immediately wanted the cookbook. The book is beautifully done, although I personally would prefer more photographs of the finished dishes. Nonetheless, there are lots of beautiful photographs. They are inspiring and mouthwatering. I have prepared several of the dishes – and even followed the recipes closely. The results were delightful and definitely impressed my guests. I do have two complaints. The first is that he seems to have a penchant for repeating the same ingredient in various components of the meal. For instance, he had a dish that called for three types of chiles plus cilantro in the fish dish, then more chiles and cilantro in the garne and side dish. Wow, that is a lot of chiles and cilantro, no matter how much I love them. The second complaint is that each recipe that I tried (including the recommended sides) is complicated. This can be a challenge to a cook that does not have a staff for backup. Nonetheless, I intend to use this cookbook extensively in the future and highly recommend it.

   posted on August 17th, 2010 at 2:53 am

3. 3 On August 17th, 2010, Margie said:

   Review by Margie for Kinkead’s Cookbook: Recipes from Washington D.C.’s Premier Seafood Restaurant
   Rating:
   Although I purchased this cookbook with great expectations, I have been very disappointed. It is very well organized and wonderful pictures, which have been the problem for me because they are so tempting. I’ve made 5 recipes from the fish section and I’ve been disappointed with each one. I live on the Atlantic seaboard and have access to and purchase only the freshest fish, so I don’t think it is the quality of ingredients. Although the dishes come out as pictured, they just don’t have a lot of flavor. I’m going to give it one more try this weekend with the Pinot Noir sauce, but I’m not optimistic. I am going to D.C. in January, however, and I hope to be able to dine at the restaurant. For a great seafood cookbook, try Le Bernardin. I’ve prepared 14 of the dishes and I’ve been very pleased with each one.

   posted on August 17th, 2010 at 3:39 am

4. 4 On August 17th, 2010, S. Long said:

   Review by S. Long for Kinkead’s Cookbook: Recipes from Washington D.C.’s Premier Seafood Restaurant
   Rating:
   The condition of the book is like new, love the recipes & photos. Would definately order from this company again…

   posted on August 17th, 2010 at 3:47 am