Steak with Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

Spur-of-the-moment idea. Here are the raw materials: mushrooms, snow crab cluster, onion, celery, garlic, parmesan cheese, Ritz crackers, butter, small strip steak, potato. Beer for scale.


Mise en place (for the mushrooms, anyway): chop the onion, celery, and mushroom stems, mince the garlic, and crush a few Ritz crackers. Shell and shred the crab (not shown; it's in the fridge). I like to sauté the mushrooms on their bottoms a bit to start them cooking and purge a little moisture from them. (Tip: before taking the mushrooms out of the pan, turn them over for a minute to drain; the liquid will just boil off.)


Sweat the onion, celery, and mushroom stems in a little more butter:


Meanwhile, make a nice green salad with one of the last of this year's tomatoes:


After the veg mixture gets going well, we add the garlic, cook a bit more, and finally the crushed Ritz crackers and picked-over crab off the fire. Note that we're melting a little more butter into the mix:


Transfer it to a bowl with some grated parmesan:


Mix that up well, scoop it into the mushroom caps and add some more parmesan along with a sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning:


Bake the mushrooms in a hot oven while we grill the steak:


Hey, look! The herbs and pepper plant are still alive:


Mushrooms and a baked potato are done:


Plated.This was pretty good - mushrooms go pretty good with steak, and the crab stuffing was a nice addition. Note chives from the garden on the potato.