Devils Workshop

has been moved to new address

http://www.bigblackdogs.net

Sorry for inconvenience...

Big Black Dog: Crab and Roasted Red Pepper Fougasse

July 8, 2009

Crab and Roasted Red Pepper Fougasse


Our July 4th weekend began on Friday and I thought I would make something special to start the weekend off. Earlier in the week I found crab legs on sale and just could not resist! We love crab and I bought 4 bunches, not quite 2 lbs worth which I knew would be plenty. But I needed something else to grace the gorgeous crab and decided that some Roasted Red Pepper Fougasse sounded good!


Crab Legs are such a gorgeous color and so dramatic to serve, really nothing is needed except butter and a few minutes for steaming. Thaw crab legs. Put a few inches of water in a pot and bring to a boil. Insert a drop-in steamer (pictured to the right), layer crab legs, cover and steam for a 4-5 minutes until crab is warm to the touch, careful to not over cook!

If you are looking for something to serve for a special dinner and you want to splurge a bit, crab is an excellent choice. But do take into consideration that eating crab is a long, tedious process. It took me almost an hour to finally savor the last morsel of crab but so worth it!



crab2



Drawn Butter
Recipe adapted from just about anywhere

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

Cut butter into TBL pieces. Melt the butter over medium low heat or you can melt the butter in the microwave. Bring to a simmer until the milk solids have separated and sunk to the bottom of the pan. Ladle out the clarified butter that is on the top.



fougasse2



For the Roasted Red Pepper Fougasse I used the Italian Semolina Bread from my very favorite bread baking book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day". The recipe makes 3 loaves of bread, so I halved the recipe for 1 large loaf of Fougasse. I love Semolina Bread and the recipe and technique from ABin5 is about the best I tasted and it's so easy.


fougassegrill



Also I baked the fougasse on the grill and the taste was outstanding and so much better then baking it in my oven! Although I've baked pizza on my grill, click here for a step-by-step, this was my first experience with baking bread and it will not be my last! The above picture was taken just a minute or so after I had put the dough on the grill and it had already tripled in size...WOW!

You can find detailed step-by-step instructions on how to roast the red peppers and construct the Roasted Red Pepper Fougasse here.



All Rights Reserved 2008-9 © Big Black Dog

Labels: , , , , , , ,

7 Comments:

Blogger Melissa said...

Perfect meal! We had crab last night. It's great isn' it?

July 8, 2009 at 4:19 PM  
Blogger YankeeQuilter said...

After years of living in Baltimore I finally got to where I could keep up with the locals picking crab!

July 9, 2009 at 7:09 AM  
Blogger Kat said...

Gosh that looks so darn good!

July 9, 2009 at 8:48 AM  
Blogger NKP said...

What a wonderful meal! I haven't done crab legs yet, I would like to try them. And fougasse is one of my faves!

July 9, 2009 at 2:09 PM  
Blogger pam said...

I love that book too! I plan on really utilizing it once school starts back. It will be so nice to be able to come home from work and bake some fresh, hot bread.

The other day, when I realized that my grill had gone way past 500 degrees, I started thinking about grilling a pizza. Was it difficult to control the temp for the bread?

July 10, 2009 at 5:18 AM  
Blogger Michelle said...

Pam,

Surprisingly it was not difficult to control the temperature at all. I do wish there was a small window to peek in so I could see the bread without having to open the grill lid though.

I preheated the grill to about 450 degrees, placed dough on grill and then turned temperature down to 400. But I don't think it was necessary to turn the heat down. Next time I will leave it 450 degrees.

It took about 20 minutes for the bread to bake. But every grill is unique so you'll have to experiment a bit.

It really was delicious!

July 10, 2009 at 10:00 AM  
Blogger Kathy Walker said...

I am with you! Artisan Bread in Five Minutes is awesome. I am going to try your bread on the grill. I never thought of doing bread on the grill and this will be fun! The Kitchen Gnome will have to share his grill!

July 12, 2009 at 6:31 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home