A Trio of Butters for King Crab Legs

As we drove through the Anza-Borrego desert, we were greeted by mountains jutting up from the earth.

These weren't the mountains I was used to seeing, blanketed in green and (sometimes) white from trees and snow.

These were bare, barren, exposed - its rocky innards just laying there in plain sight.   It was as though the earth had used all the force it could muster to push itself up and out into the sky in this hot, parched landscape and was unable to cover up.  No dermis of of greenery to be laid gently over it.

At first it was jarring to see, but it became beautifully defiant, challenging each person passing by to take the scene as it is.  So boldly, so proudly standing there with nothing to hide behind.

These crab legs are quite the opposite of those brown, rocky mountains. Instead of being all out in the open, one must work at getting the inside free.  Cracking open those shells to extract that sweet meat waiting patiently for release.

To celebrate the release of the meat, we made a trio of butters for dipping.  Why three?  Well, variety is the spice of life, as they say. One is a miso butter all salt and earthy.  Another is a brown butter one, infused with ginger and notes of lemon.  The third is a grapefruit one, accented with tangy yogurt and and the sweet anise taste of tarragon.  Each bite of crab to be excavated out of its protective shell and dipped into one of the butters.  Unlike the wide open California desert, the crab keeps its essence hidden away.  It takes effort to get at, but it's definitely worth it.

Ingredients
King crab legs, cooked
lemon wedges, optional for serving

Miso Butter:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 teaspoon miso (we used hacho miso)

Gingery Brown Butter:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon grated ginger, divided
3 1/2 teaspoons meyer lemon juice
pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon grated ginger

Tarragon and Grapefruit Butter:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup tarragon leaves
1 tablespoon fresh grapefruit juice
1/2 teaspoon grapefruit zest
1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
kosher salt, to taste

Instructions
Miso Butter: Over low heat, gently melt butter with miso.  Use a fork to work the miso into the butter.  Remove from heat once melted.

Gingery Brown Butter: In large saute pan, add butter and 1 tablespoon ginger. Melt then allow the butter brown, about 5-7 minutes total. You will see brown specks that have formed on the bottom of the pan. Be careful to not burn the butter.  Once browned, stir in the Meyer lemon juice, salt, agave nectar, and the remaining ginger.

Tarragon and Grapefruit Butter: Melt the butter gently over medium low heat, then stir in the remaining ingredients.  Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Pizza Sauce with Anchovies

Fog often rolls in, sweetly and meekly undulating before finally settling in to blanket the sky.

Seldom, but not never, the fog sheds its docility and becomes an aggressor. Overtaking the skies rapidly and fiercely. Rather than creeping up on you and catching you unaware, you cannot help but notice its intrusion.

This aggressiveness is similar to that of eating anchovies on a pizza.  You are happily chowing down on a slice until your mouth encounters this overly salty, briny substance.  Then it becomes a punch in the face.  Or the mouth, rather.

Then you become all sad, because you were quite happy eating your pizza until you ran into the anchovy. And not only are you sad, but you are confused.  So confused.  You usually love the flavor anchovies.  And you love pizza.  But why don't you love the pizza topped with anchovies?

Then the answer hits you.  You need to tame the aggressiveness.  And then you can still have a pizza that has that special something that the anchovies give.  

So you started making your pizza sauce with the anchovies melted into it.  And then there was no more confusion.  The fog had been lifted.

Need a pizza dough recipe to go with the sauce? Cooking Light has a great basic pizza dough recipe right here!

Ingredients

28 ounces crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 anchovy fillets
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 of a small onion
4-5 ounces tomato paste
red pepper flakes, to taste (I like about 1/2 teaspoon of the stuff)
salt, pepper, and sugar to taste, if necessary

Instructions
In a pot over medium low heat, add the tomatoes, oil, anchovies, garlic, onion, tomato paste, red pepper flakes.  Simmer for approximately 45 minutes, until the onion is soft.  Remove the onion.  Adjust salt and pepper and sugar to taste.

Spice Mix with Sesame and Thyme

Some days start too early.  And generally as a result of strange noises.  The blare of foghorns punctuating the stillness of the night.  Loud metallic sounds clanging on asphalt.  The ambient noises of people chatting, car doors opening and shutting, and engines starting or stopping. Nugget boys lugging their owl suitcase into mom and dad's room at 3 am and accidentally banging it on every piece of furniture along the way.  Small puff cats yelling loudly into your ear to lift the covers up so that they may snuggle under the warmth of blankets.

Those are the days that need help. They need more.  More deliciousness, more love, more fun, more coffee, more stimulation to keep one's eyes from closing before the appointed bedtime hour.

A seasoning mix like this can help on such a day. It livens up everything from toast to eggs to a bowl of mixed salad greens.  The sesame seeds give an earthy crunch in your mouth, which is then punctuated by the fresh woodsy taste of thyme and some bright and happy lemon zest.  A little pinch of some fennel, lavender, allspice, espresso powder, and nutmeg, and some salt, of course, rounds it out.  The day may have started too early, but it did allow for more chances to use this.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon espresso powder
1/8 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
pinch ground dried lavender

Instruction
It occurs to me that you could dry the lemon zest to store it for longer, and then perhaps substituting substituting dried thyme for the fresh (though one should reduce the amount of thyme used if using the dried). I used this up rather quickly, so I didn't encounter storage issues.
To make, just mix everything together and sprinkle away!