Salmon Puffs

Your guests will think you’ve slaved for hours over these salmon puff appetizers, when they’re really quite simple to make. The puffs can even be prepared ahead and frozen, then crisped and filled just before serving. The recipe comes from Totem Smokehouse (www.totemsmokehouse.com), the Pike Place Market’s long-established smoked seafood store along Pike Place.

2 cans (6 1/2 ounces each) Totem Smokehouse smoked salmon or other canned smoked salmon

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup diced celery
1/4 cup chopped green onion
2/3 cup Best Foods or Hellmann’s mayonnaise
1/4 cup catsup
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
Cocktail Puffs (Recipe follows)
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Lightly grease two baking sheets and set aside.
Drain salmon, remove skin (if desired), and flake. Mix salmon with cheese, celery, green onion, mayonnaise, catsup, and dill weed and mix well.
Make Cocktail Puffs. Just before serving appetizers, split Cocktail Puffs with a serrated knife and fill with about 1 teaspoon of the salmon mixture. If desired, puffs may be baked ahead and frozen until ready to use. Before filling, crisp at 375° F for 2 to 3 minutes.
Makes 48 puffs

Cocktail Puffs

1 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large eggs
Bring water, butter, and soy sauce to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in flour and salt and continue to stir over heat until mixture leaves sides of pan and forms a ball, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat, then cool to lukewarm, about 1/2 hour.
Whisk in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets, bake for 20 to 25 minutes, and cool. Do not use more than a teaspoon of dough to make the puffs, or they will fall under their own weight and deflate when removed from the oven.

Holiday Crab Boils

Northwesterners love the region’s native crab—Dungeness—for its rich, sweet taste; big nuggets of meat; and large body size. Many of us make Dungies (as they are fondly nicknamed) the focus of our Christmas-Eve suppers by boiling them and serving with simple sauces such as Aïoli (garlic mayonnaise), spicy cocktail sauce, or melted butter. The two crab boil mixes below are among my favorites.

Spicy Crab Boil

Although the sweet, distinctive meat of the Dungeness crab is a joy to eat plain and unadulterated, sometimes it’s fun to spice it up a bit, as in this piquant version of the traditional crab boil.

3 cups water
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
1 precooked 2- to 2 1/2-pound Dungeness crab in the shell
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, bring water, mustard seed, red pepper flakes, and bay leaf to a boil and add crab. Turn down heat to a simmer and cook 3 to 5 minutes, turning crab once.
Drain crab and serve immediately.
Serves 1 as an entrée; 2 as an appetizer

Tarragon Crab Boil

This elegant poaching liquid, infused with the essence of anise-flavored tarragon, takes the already superlative Dungeness crab to new heights. It can also be used to boil shell-on Alaskan spot prawns or shrimp or as a poaching liquid for a variety of fish fillets.

2 cups water
1 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon dried tarragon, crumbled
1 precooked 2- to 2 1/2-pound Dungeness crab in the shell
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, bring water, white wine, and tarragon to a boil and add crab. Turn down heat to a simmer and cook 3 to 5 minutes, turning crab once.
Drain crab and serve immediately.
Serves 1 as an entrée; 2 as an appetizer

Cook’s Note: The crab feed is a Northwest tradition that, besides taking place during the winter holidays, can take place on the beach, in the backyard, or in the privacy of one’s home. Crab feeds are informal affairs where newspapers thrown on the picnic table take the place of tablecloths, while paper napkins (and lots of them) stand in for the more fancy cloth. Dungeness crab, the star of the show, can be served chilled or (as I prefer) warmed in a spicy or herb-infused crab boil, as in the recipes given above. Popular side dishes include sourdough bread and tossed green salad (the bare minimum), and/or cole slaw, baked beans, potato salad, and garlic bread for the more ambitious. Live music and dancing, along with lots of cold beer and crisp white Northwest wines are popular additions to any crab feed.