South Carolina She-Crab Soup

Last year, you may or may not remember me telling you about my holiday to America where I visited North and South Carolina as well as Boston and New York City. I had all these wild ideas about posting about my trip and including recipes from some of the local cuisine that I had. 
I have had a few plans for this blog in my time that have often started out with the best intentions and then have died a slow death. What I am trying to say is, it might be a while between holiday posts but I wanted to share a little bite of the trip with you this week because I finally got around to sorting through my photos from Charleston and The Bay of Palms in the South Carolina Lowcountry. 
This was a major highlight of the holiday for me - not only because we were there to attend the wedding of some very good friends of ours, but because of the sheer beauty, beyond friendly people and relaxed atmosphere that we experienced.

Oh, I also made the area's local delicacy the other day: She-Crab Soup. I can't vouch for the "She" part of the recipe but tasting it instantly brought me back to that amazing time last year. 

The top part of this photo is the view driving from Charleston into The Bay of Palms. See all the green marshland? That is sweet-grass and the locals turn it into beautiful baskets. My friend Sarah (the one whose wedding we were there for) gave all the guests mini sweet-grass baskets to bring home. Thankfully, Australia's Quarantine & Customs Services were totally fine with it. 

We stayed in this INSANE beach house for the week leading up to the wedding with a bunch of the guests. Here is the view from the balcony. Many fun times were spent in that pool.

Charleston is full of beautiful restaurants and the visiting Aussies descended upon them with gusto that week. Here is Poogan's Porch. This is where I tried She-Crab Soup for the first time. It is also where I tried Alligator and Fried Green Tomatoes...lots of delicious firsts.

This is a Palmetto Tree which is on the state flag of South Carolina. Walking through Charleston makes you feel as if you are stepping on to the set of a romantic Southern movie.

I got up early one morning to see the sun rise over the Atlantic - I had a bit of a moment...

The wedding was at historic Lowndes Grove Plantation. It was such a beautiful wedding - there was shrimp 'n' grits, local beer, dancing and Aussies and Americans celebrating together. It was so much fun.

Now for the soup. She-Crab Soup is a very well-known delicacy in the South Carolina Lowcountry and something you should definitely try if you should ever visit. It is a very rich soup (not unlike a bisque) and is full of milk and cream which is flavoured with mace and sherry. Traditionally it is made using female Atlantic Blue(She)Crab meat including the orange roe - but I was not able/didn't try to find a "She-Crab" or its roe here in Sydney. I just used spanner crab meat - and a lot of it. 
I got the recipe from a cookbook that I bought in Charleston called "Charleston Receipts" (that is not a typo, it was their word for 'recipes' at the time) which contains hundreds of traditional Lowcountry recipes dating back to the Civil War. 

I can't think of a better way to bring back the memory of that amazing place.

South Carolina She-Crab Soup
Adapted from Charleston Receipts

4 blades of mace

1 teaspoon sea salt

White pepper corns – about 1 teaspoon

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons flour

800mls milk

½ cup cream

3 ribs grated celery

2 cups freshly picked white crab meat

½ cup breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

4 tablespoons dry sherry

Smoked paprika and olive oil to garnish

In a mortar and pestle or in a spice grinder, bash (or process the mace, salt and pepper until finely ground.

Melt the butter in a double boiler over boiling water. Add the flour and stir until smooth to form a roux. Add the mace, pepper, salt, and stir to combine. Slowly add the milk, whisking it constantly into the roux. Add the cream and celery and stir.

Simmer and stir for around 7 minutes until the soup begins to thicken. Add the crabmeat, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce and simmer over the double boiler with a lid on for around ½ an hour.   

Add the sherry and stir before transferring to bowls. Serve topped with a sprinkle of paprika, a drizzle of olive oil and with some crusty bread.

Char-Grilled Eggplant with Lemon Herb Israeli Couscous and a Yoghurt Sauce

Sometimes you need to pause and re-group. Sometimes it might be the day after you went out and had dodgy, westernised Chinese food that just really didn't agree with you. 
It might also be after Easter when you fell in love with chocolate all over again.
Sometimes veg-only dining is what is needed with flavours, colours and textures that can inspire and lift you when you have been giving yourself less than the best.

Lemons, garlic and herbs always sort me out - every time. I had never cooked with Israeli couscous before - and it turns out I had been missing out because it might be my new favourite carb. I love that it soaks up all those flavours and has the most wonderful texture. 
Can I tell you how much I love my little tin of smoked paprika (pictured above)? I am a sucker for packaging and that was the reason I bought it. I think I bought it around six months ago and this was its first outing.  I made this dish in my friend's kitchen. It was so light and wonderful to cook in - all white walls and benches - to me, it just amplified the whole experience of cooking this healthy, early dinner.

Cooking eggplant this way was also new to me. In the past I have only tossed it into a stew or added it to a tray of roast veggies. I had a couple of false starts but after working out the best thickness, cooking it on a griddle pan gave the most fantastic smokiness. When combined  with the tangy couscous and dolloped with some cool, herb-laced yoghurt -  that dodgy meal from the night before was but just a distant memory. 

Char-Grilled Eggplant with Lemon Herb Israeli Couscous and a Yoghurt Sauce.

Adapted from several recipes in Tender by Nigel Slater and inspired by this recipe from Souvlaki For The Soul

This was made for 3 people at the time.

For the couscous

1 cup Israeli couscous (pearl couscous)

Olive Oil

6 Shallots, finely sliced

2 cloves of Garlic, finely sliced

Ground Smoked Paprika

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Mint, 1 bunch, roughly chopped

Coriander, 1 bunch, roughly chopped

½ cup pine nuts, toasted

Cook the couscous in plenty of salted boiling water according to the packed instructions. Drain well, add a little olive oil and toss to prevent the pearls from sticking together.

In a pan over a medium heat, soften the shallots in a little olive oil until they just begin to colour. Add the garlic, paprika and lemon zest. Stir in the parsley, coriander and pine nuts and stir until fragrant. Season to taste. Add the couscous and lemon juice and toss to combine.

For the yoghurt sauce

Approx 250g Greek yoghurt

Handful coriander, chopped

Handful mint, chopped

Squeeze of lemon juice

Smoked Paprika

Add all ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine. Sprinkle the smoked paprika over as a garnish.

For the eggplant

3 large eggplants

Sea salt

Olive oil

Smoked paprika

Preheat the oven to 150C
Slice the eggplant lengthwise into 1 cm “steaks”. Lay the steaks out on a board and sprinkle with sea salt. Set aside for 1 hour. A lot of water will have extracted from the eggplant – pat the steaks over with a papper towel. Brush each steak with olive oil and season with pepper, paprika and a little more sea salt.

On a hot griddle or BBQ grill, cook each steak for around 7 minutes on each side. Line up the slices on a baking sheet and finish off in the oven for around 15 minutes. 

Transfer to a plate and serve with the couscous and a good dollop of the yoghurt sauce.