2011.10.16 - cream of crab soup

6 months since the last blog post...

So I have this new love for cream of crab soup. Last week after bible study we went to the Phoenix Emporium in Old Ellicott City. Jess got the soup sampler which was a cup of both of their soups, cream of crab and crab vegetable. A cup of one of their soups was like $4.95 and the soup sampler which was both cups for $5.95. Can't beat that. I ended up eating pretty much all of her cream of crab and have been thinking about it non stop.

We also split a bacon cheeseburger which was pretty epic because they get their beef from right down the street at J.W Treuth & Sons so you know the beef is FRESH and coming from 1 cow instead of 100. I ordered the burger medium and it actually came out medium.

Jess and I are going to be doing "No restaurant November" which I thought we made up but after a google search someone beat us to the punch. We're desperately trying to KILL OUR DEBT and enter 2012 debt free. So making the soup at home was a step in the right direction. EXCEPT this soup was freaking EXPENSIVE to make... all of the groceries to make it was a little over $40. The only thing we have left over is a cup of heavy whipping cream and a big thing of old bay :) The expensive part was obviously a pound of backfin crab for $17.99

I got the recipe from http://www.allrecipies.com

Here's a link to the actual recipe. Karyn's Cream of Crab Soup

Here are the ingredients and directions.

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 (1.25 ounce) envelope hollandaise sauce mix
• 4 cups half-and-half, divided
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning TM
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon cooking sherry
• 1 pound fresh crabmeat
  

1. In a medium bowl, blend flour and hollandaise sauce mix with 2 cups half-and-half.
2. Melt butter in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Slowly add hollandaise mixture, stirring constantly until thickened. Add remaining half-and-half, Old Bay, dry mustard, celery seed, and whipping cream. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Add crabmeat and sherry, stirring gently until warmed through. Serve immediately.

A lot of the reviews said that 3 tablespoons of old bay was to much, so I did a little under 2... 3 would have been fine. I put old bay on top when I served it. I also used a 1/4 teaspoon of celery salt instead of celery seed and didn't use any cooking sherry.

The soup was great, not as thick as the Phoenix, but served fresh it was actually HOT and not luke warm, and it had a lot more crab per bite for sure. I just heated some up in the microwave for lunch and it was good too.

Would I make it again? Sure, for a special occasion, but $40 for 6 servings of soup is way to expensive to be making any time soon.

I've never really liked soups but have been really enjoying them lately. Next I'd like to make french onion.

What is your favorite soup? Leave your answer in the comments!

jim baker