Today we're going to be making a garden salad with an herb lemon vinaigrette, and then I'm going to make Lee and Christie a jumbo lump crab cake with zucchini and squash from our garden.

So I'm going to make a very simple salad I have.

Most of the lettuces are from our garden.

We have some baby sorrel, some frisee, some red oak, and a little bit of arugula.

And if you didn't notice our peach trees outside, they are like literally just popping.

And I just talked to Joe and I was like, what if I pull a couple peaches off of our tree and do those with it?

So I'm going to go ahead and like, sear the peaches, okay.

And get them a little caramelized.

We all know Colorado peaches I think are the best peaches.

I might be a little biased, but I'm just going to cut this and pull out.

Do you use butter or olive oil?

I'm just going to use a little oil okay.

So I'm just going to I'm going to just put a little tiny coating of oil in the pan.

So excited to watch this I know I don't think I've ever seared peach I'll be honest.

That's it.

I'm just going to let them go for a few minutes.

And while they're kind of crisping up, I'm going to get started on the vinaigrette.

So it's a really simple.

So these are also some herbs from the garden.

So I have a little bit of fennel just the fronds from our fennel some marjoram and then some tarragon which is my favorite because I think lemon and tarragon.

Are a good match.

Yeah I use a lot of tarragon.

Maybe because I grow so much.

It's like a weed in the garden, which is awesome.

I mean, herbs that grow marjoram is also like it really doesn't need any help.

It's like mint too.

There's a couple of them that are just so prolific.

Ironically, the sorrel like I have sorrel, it could snow, and once the snow melts, my sorrel is like miraculously still alive.

So it's kind of a little lemony.

It's very mild, but it it has a real like lemony bite to it.

When it's baby, it tastes almost like lemon balm.

Really.

So good.

Really good.

There's so much flavor in there.

So I'm just stripping off all the herbs off of the stems.

It's like pretty.

Yeah, I think it's like my new favorite green.

It's such a nice green.

I think it's just so underutilized.

But it's really fragile.

Like you can't cook with it very much because it turns brown.

Oh God.

It like instantly, even though I just shredded this a little bit ago to put in here in like a half hour, it would start to turn brown once it's off of the stem.

Let's just check our peach.

Oh we're close.

You get these herbs chopped up and then I have some chives.

And I'm just going to give all of this a rough chop.

So I don't like making something so simple.

Just a vinaigrette, right.

And I think so many people just are so quick to buy salad dressings in the store.

And it's so easy to just make your own.

Well, especially when you have an herb garden like you do.

But even if not.

I mean, I'm going.

To be.

Dead honest with you.

Our go to vinaigrette and we eat a lot of salad.

I mean, as we get older, we just eat a lot more salad.

Right?

Our go to is I usually take a bottle like an old salad vinaigrette bottle, and I just put mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil in it, shake it up with salt and pepper, and we just always have that on our counter.

So I don't always go to this length of chopping up herbs to make an herb vinaigrette.

I usually if I'm making a straight lemon vinaigrette like this, then I would only make it for that night because I don't want a sitting.

But if I make that olive oil vinegar one, I can let that sit on my counter for like weeks so I can make a big bottle of it.

And that way it's really quick.

Our peaches are done.

Amazing, wow.

In the past couple of years it feels like we're charring or burning.

Things took me a long time.

I mean, this I can get behind.

I understand the peach, like because I'm not really burning it, but you can see some black on it, but I'm like caramelize it.

So I'm extracting the sugar and converting it into something that's a little sweet and a little savory since we're here and it's full and buzzed.

So a little champagne for you, Christy.

Nice.

Thank you.

What are you going to have, Frank?

I'm having sparkling water as well.

Thanks for having us.

Cheers.

Cheers.

I have a little just mustard that I'm going to start my vinaigrette, and that'll kind of emulsify it.

I have some cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil here, and I have some lemon juice.

The traditional ratio for vinaigrette is three parts fat or to one part acid or vinegar.

So I like to follow that.

So you can see I mean I'm actually using beakers but it's a little bit more than a third.

Yeah.

Because I like a little more acidity in it.

As I was saying earlier, I mean, you could just make this and put it into a bottle and shake it really easily.

I'm going to go ahead and add the oil to this, and it'll kind of start to emulsify or come together.

I don't really care if it's broken, right.

It's a vinaigrette.

What do you mean by broken.

So you would see that it doesn't come together.

Right.

So you see the little bit of mustard in there.

So it's not fully like mixed.

Clear.

Like yeah just making it look so easy.

But it is that easy.

Like really I mean I think sometimes we overthink things really important.

Salt like a good pinch of salt.

And no one uses enough salt when they cook.

But that'll dissolve in.

And you really want it to bring out the flavor of the lemon.

So now you can see I've got the lemon in there.

It looks kind of emulsified.

Yeah, it doesn't look all broken.

If it looks broken, still use it doesn't matter.

It's all going in the same bowl.

Correct.

And I'm going to mix it over greens, so now I do have a question for you about the ratio of dressing to salad.

Is it an art.

It's it's a fight.

Every time I got to tell you especially Jacqueline really likes very light vinaigrette.

I'm a little heavier on it.

Yeah.

So I mean, it's kind of just a personal thing.

Okay.

I would love to sit here and tell you it's exactly two tablespoons of this to a pound of lettuce.

Said, no, no, it's just a feel thing in the restaurants.

Like we would have not be making a salad quite this big.

But if what we like to do is just we usually would have something like this in a squeeze bottle and you run it around the outside of the bowl.

So I would drizzle it around the outside of the bowl and then toss that way.

Okay.

And then you really just want to get each leaf kind of lightly coated.

I love the drizzle around the side of the bowl tip.

Most people put.

It right on top, so if you put it around the outside of it as you're mixing it, if there's excess, it falls to the bottom of the.

Bowl, right?

That makes so much sense to me.

It's good tips.

Take my vinaigrette around the outside of it.

This is going to be amazing.

I'm going to use probably about half of this for for this batch.

And then I usually just try and fold from the outside, spinning the bowl just to get everything a little lightly dressed.

Are you guys light dressing, heavy dressing or just want to dress well?

However however the chef wants to serve it.

That's how I think too.

I just am so curious because you know, when you go out to dinner with multiple people, everybody has an opinion about dressing on the side or lightly dressed.

So I mean, that's the thing is you order dressing on the side, then you get this plate of lettuce and the dressing on the side.

It's very difficult.

To toss.

It, to toss it and get it covered.

And then you tend to get big bites that have a lot of dressing, especially if it's a crane dressing.

Right.

So to me, it's like, let them do it.

You could just ask for light dressing, but or you know, trust where you're at that they know how to dress it.

Is that is that a restaurateur pet peeve.

No, no.

Our goal is to just make everybody happy.

So if it makes you happy to have everything on the side, we're fine with that.

Like, what do we care, right?

I mean, you're you're it's your experience and we're trying to craft it.

And so, you know, our goal is to actually in the restaurants try and have you be as happy as possible.

So this made the peaches like so nice and soft.

I can't believe those are right out of the tree in your yard.

You guys are here on the right day.

We're going to stop.

Yeah, you should steal some.

We're going to we're going to be like squirrels.

We're going to you're going to have to beat.

Them our way.

Because I can tell you this.

Bruno is inviting anything off out there.

Do you love crack?

Crack, pepper?

Yes.

I'm not.

Going.

To turn on, but.

Yes, chef.

It's so good.

I mean, obviously kind of like the little chevre or goat cheese on there would probably be great I mean, a little Brie would be my first choice.

Like a Brie de Meaux from France would be delicious.

Would be a good addition.

But I think even cheddar would work like a really good aged cheddar would be a great touch to the salad.

I love a cheese in a salad.

Yeah, but they will say the cracks pepper.

I'm not someone who accepts it like when it comes around the table.

Now you know you're missing out.

100% Yeah.

Take it.

It's part of our job to do it.

So yeah.

And I always do.

It.

I it really does make a difference.

Lots of pepper.

You know when they come by and they tell us when the guy will be like this.

That's me.

Jacqueline turns it down all.

The time.

Yeah.

Oh.

Never again.

She's so.

Good, though, so she doesn't love a lot of cracked pepper.

I well, I think you know the magic about it because it's perfect.

It really is.

And that basil that you added on the top is amazing.

All right.

How do you make it?

Just grapeseed oil.

Okay.

Like a, like a quart of grapeseed oil and like a pound and a half a basil Two bunches of parsley in a Vita Prep until it smokes.

So many different varieties of crab cake.

Right.

I practiced my Marco, Luca, and Jacqueline.

We ate crab cakes every night for about four months while I was trying to figure out what's the best crab cake.

Now, obviously this is the best crab cake to me, okay, but this is the kind of crab cake we serve at Mizuno.

So I use two kinds of crab.

It's blue crab, and I used the claw meat.

I found that claw meat is is really good as a binder.

And my goal when I'm making a crab cake is I don't want anything in it but crab.

Right.

So I use as little fresh breadcrumbs as possible.

And these are fresh bread, like cheap white bread that you pulse in the food processor without the crust as your binder.

And I'm going to add just a little bit of it.

So my ratio is no crust because then you'll see the brown in it.

Yeah this actually dissolves into it and just acts as a binder.

So you don't even know it's there a good amount of mayonnaise.

And this is Kewpie mayonnaise which is my favorite kind.

I'm going to put a little bit of old Bay.

Is that a brand?

Kewpie is.

Keypie is kind of a brand.

It is a brand of mayonnaise or it's a style of mayonnaise and it's Asian and.

True mayonnaise.

It's not like a vegan mayonnaise.

No, this is like old school.

It has MSG in it.

And that's what makes it so good.

Okay.

So.

So what is MSG exactly?

Monosodium glutamate which is basically salt.

Pure salt.

Thank you.

This is going to be weird.

But you could try to taste this mayonnaise.

And I think it's like the chef's secret mayonnaise.

It's you know it's.

Really like thick.

Yeah it's rich.

Has a lot of flavor.

Yeah.

It's it's a really good mayonnaise because it's really solid.

You can buy Kewpie mayonnaise at almost every Asian store and some specialty stores will have it.

You can probably buy it online too.

So I've got this.

Like, I feel like this is just holding together.

Okay, so now I'm going to add my lump crab into it.

And this is beautiful lump blue crab.

And I don't want it to break apart so much because I really want when you eat the crab cake to get big chunks of crab.

So this is my goal right now, is just to fold this all together to form a crab cake that's just going to barely hold together.

So they're just a touch wet.

So I'm going to add a little bit more breadcrumb.

And when I say touch wet like I could feel that it was like the, the mayo or the mayo and from the water from the crab was kind of squeezing through my fingers.

Okay.

So I want it to be dry enough that they're going to hold together when I cook them.

Bake?

Fry?

How are you going to cook them?

I'm going to pan fry these.

So I have these.

I'm getting my pan hot.

Is this a dish at the restaurant.

We always have a crab cake on Mizunas menu.

And I'm just, like, kind of balling them up.

The issue we have now is that crab is so expensive.

So you know this is.

Is it the same with lobster.

More like.

Twice the price of lobster.

Wow.

So I got my pan is going nice and hot but like these are barely holding together.

And that's kind of what you're looking for.

I really want the crab cakes to just be so like, falling apart flaky with crab.

Okay.

So and to focus on that like I don't want to much to overwhelm.

I mean, we spent so much money on buying crab so I don't want to much in there.

Yeah.

That's it.

It's just crab and mayo.

Yeah.

With a touch of bread and a little bit.

But it's the mayo I mean not, I know.

And so I'm just going to basically like brown one side of it.

So once they start to get brown I'm going to give them a flip.

I didn't see these in the garden.

So going back out to your garden I know with a grocery bag.

A take home buggy.

And then a touch of butter on them.

A little more than a touch of butter.

Do you cook with a lot of butter?

No, never.

Never.

No, I use a ton of butter, but now I'm kind of, like, almost like basting having them swim in butter.

And this will turn golden brown.

And I could cook these just all the way on the stove top.

But I love to just pop them in the oven because they're so big to make sure I get them hot all the way through without them burning because it was so high heat.

So I'm going to go into my favorite thing, and I'm just going to hit one dark toast cycle and that will continue to cook them.

And I'm using the cast iron pan which can go right in the oven.

So just a little spiral.

And this is just going to make little noodles.

Love to show off my knife skills that I could do this without that.

That's awesome.

No way you can do that with a knife?

Probably not like this.

Okay.

I don't know.

There's some Japanese people that could definitely do that.

And honestly, the zoodles instead of spaghetti.

And people are paying big bucks for these in supermarket when there is a teeny is like $0.89 a pound and all of a sudden you buy a container of it, it's like $20.

Totally, totally.

$20 for zoodles.

So I'm going to make a little sauce for you guys.

Im mesmerized.

favorite knives?

I don't have favorite knives.

I prefer Japanese knives at the restaurant.

Like my day to day knife.

I have a Japanese knife that is, weighs about three times the weight of this because I'm using it all the time, so I want something very sturdy, very thick blade.

This is a really fancy knife, really sharp, holds a blade, holds an edge.

So that's what I'm looking for in a knife.

Something that I don't have to sharpen all the time.

While this is simmering, and I need white wine.

A little white wine for you Kristie Are you making a sauce?

I am, so I'm just trying to sweat this lightly.

I don't really want any color on it.

And then I'm going to deglaze with a little bit of white wine.

So I'm going to add a few capers to this because I think that'll be fun.

And the saltiness from it.

These are about done a little bit of butter to finish them off.

I love how much butter is a little bit of butter.

Just thinking.

Well, I kind of wanted a little saucy.

For you.

Oh my gosh I love butter I love butter.

I'm not afraid of butter.

I'm not afraid of butter.

And then I'm going to finish it with a little lemon.

Fresh lemon juice.

So you did some garlic some shallots.

Yep.

And some you cook that in some olive oil.

And just a little and white wine.

Yeah.

If someone would just lay all this out for me, you could probably do that.

I know, me too.

That's what Joe said.

Joe is like people would.

I was like, should I leave the bottle out here?

And he's like, no, people love to.

See love it.

Everything laid out for it because you feel like you could cook, right if everything was laid out.

For you?

Yes.

So maybe when you're cooking at home, if you do that, like we call it, mise en place, everything in its place.

Okay.

It does make cooking so much easier.

But, you know, typically, like I have behind you would be a spice rack.

So I have all my own and vinegars and everything is handy.

I have a draw down here with all my spices in it.

Right.

And I think if you when I'm cooking something like even as simple as tomato sauce, like I put my can of tomatoes on the counter, I have my garlic ready.

I have olive oil right there.

I have basil that I take out and have it here, so I don't ever have to worry about leaving the stove and burning anything, right?

Right.

Or running around.

Or running around.

So if you have everything set in its place, and I mean, that just comes from years of cooking in restaurants, I mean, being yelled at that you're not ready or not prepared.

And I've worked in a restaurant that was, you know, you just got screamed at, no matter.

Even if you had everything set up, they found something to yell and scream at you about.

So you just kept making you better and better.

To me, these crab cakes are like, perfect because I can see they're starting to fall apart, but still.

A little golden brown sides even though look amazing, they're just swimming in butter.

They're super fragile.

Or fragile.

Fragile.

They're a little fragile.

Did you train in France?

Because a lot of French, fragile, mise en place, I did spend a good about 8 or 9 months cooking in a restaurant in France.

You did?

That was really a really great experience.

I also spent some time cooking in Italy.

That is a huge craft.

It's so good, so amazing.

And then I have just some sauce left over.

More butter, more butter.

Oh, and the capers.

Wow.

And it really doesn't take long to have such a lovely.

How long was that like from start to finish?

Second.

Yeah.

And then a little bit of spice.

So just to touch of chili oil.

Do you make that also?

We do.

You do?

So there you are.

Oh perfect.

Thank you, thank you.

Amazing.

No pressure.

I mean that's like so it's really just crab.

It's just trying to be held together.

I mean that's to me is what a crab cake is.

Oh it's so good in that chili oil.

It's like.

Give you a little kick.

At the back.

Yeah.

So delicious.

And I'm not someone who loves spicy like, hot, spicy, spicy things.

And that is like really like, not even mild.

It's just it's.

Just a little burn.

Yeah.

Because this is so rich.

And I know I have white wine and lemon in there, but I think that chili oil just gives it a little something to get your mouth salivating.

I'm with you.

I'm not a spice person.

Excuse me?

See, now I killed you with the chili oil.

No, I like it because you can kind of choose how much spice you want, right?

By mixing it more or not.

It's really amazing.

Hopefully it's one of the best crab cakes you've had.

Yeah, it really is.

There is nothing better than like, a fully crab crab cake, right?

Well.

Kristie, Lee, thank you so much for joining me today on Full and Buzzed.

For having us.

It's been such a pleasure getting to know you and talk to you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cheers.

Cheers.

You still can eat the rest of it.

Kicking me out right now.

Perfect.

Watching you cook.

So fun.

Thank you.

Fun.

It really is.

Yeah.

You're a good teacher.