Chef Stuarts Traditional Pot De Creme Food

CHEF STUART'S MARYLAND CRAB SOUP

Steps:

• In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, saute the onions, garlic, and celery in the olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the crab boil seasoning, lemon pepper seasoning, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until all the vegetables are coated with seasoning and spices. Add all the other ingredients except for the crab. Simmer over low heat until potatoes are soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• While the soup is cooking, pick through the crab meat just to ensure that all shells are removed. Stir in crab the last 10 minutes of cooking.

POT DE CREME

Steps:

• Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Melt the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over gently simmering water. When the chocolate is almost melted, turn off the heat and let stand until completely melted.
• Meanwhile, in a medium saute pan, scald the cream and milk. Watch carefully as cream will boil over.
• In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until the sugar is completely dissolved. Slowly whisk the hot cream mixture into the yolks. If you add the hot cream mixture too quickly, the egg yolks could cook and leave undesirable cooked egg particles.
• Remove the melted chocolate from the stove and pour the hot cream mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the melted chocolate. Whisk until well combined and smooth.
• Ladle the mixture into 6 (3/4-cup) ramekins. Line the bottom of a baking pan with a clean kitchen towel or paper towels. Place the filled ramekins in the baking dish on the towel. Pour in enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the entire pan with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Bake until mixture around the edges of the ramekin is firm when lightly shaken, about 35 minutes. (Baking time will vary depending on depth and width of ramekins.) The center of the Pot de Cremes may still jiggle slightly when shaken, but that is okay, it will firm up as it chills.
• Carefully remove the ramekins from the baking pan, wipe dry and allow to cool. Once cooled, refrigerate until firm, about 2 to 3 hours.
• To serve, spoon some White Chocolate Whipped Cream into the ramekin and garnish with some grated chocolate.
• Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler over barely simmering water, stirring occasionally. Once melted, remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
• Whip the cream in a chilled bowl to soft peaks. Fold in the cooled chocolate and beat to stiff peaks.

POT DE CREME

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Place the milk and vanilla bean in a saucepan, over medium flame, bring to boil. In separate bowl, beat the yolks with sugar. Pour the hot vanilla-milk into the yolk/sugar mixture, and stir.
• Baking pot de creme: Bring a pot of water to boil. Fill ramekins to 3/4 full with custard mixture, cover the ramekin with aluminum foil. Line a hotel pan or sheet pan with parchment paper, place ramekins in it, slide the pan into the oven and fill the pan with the boiling water, to halfway up the sides if the ramekins. Check custard occasionally to make sure the hot water doesn't boil, if it boils at any point, turn the oven down immediately. If the pot de creme gets to hot it will curdle. It takes about 40 minutes to cook, and cream should be smooth. Remove the ramekins from bain-marie, take off the lids and refrigerate until completely chilled.