Celebrate July 4 With Food

As you celebrate Independence Day on Monday, don't forget one of the most important ways to get into the holiday spirit: food.

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To help, we've compiled some summer recipes (old and new) for you to use during the Fourth of July.

Crab Cakes
Courtesy Paul Bentsen, executive chef at —see accompanying video

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh crab leg
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 2 strips of smoked bacon, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup crushed jalapenos
• 2 red onions, finely chopped
• 1 lemon wedge
• 1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1/2 cup garlic oil
• Dash of optional seasoning
• Dash of raw sugar

Butter sauce ingredients: 

• 1 cup butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup Champagne

Directions:

Drain the crabmeat, if necessary, and put in a medium mixing bowl. Gently mix in the light mayonnaise, breaking up the lumps of crabmeat with your fingers, but do not over mix.

Mix together the rest of the ingredients: smoked bacon, fresh jalapenos and red onion. Drizzle lemon juice over the mixture by squeezing the lemon wedge.

Finally, mix in the breadcrumbs and a dash of seasoning of choice, such as one teaspoon of paprika or cayenne pepper. Form balls of crab cakes with mixture, pressing down in big sizes and shaping into patties.

Heat garlic oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, two at a time, in the pan and fry until golden brown, which will take about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip crab cakes, browning each side. Then bake in the oven for an additional 4 minutes on low-heat. Serve warm with champagne butter sauce.

For the sauce, melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat, and then slowly pour in champagne. Stir together and set aside to cool.

Place crab cakes on butter sauce for presentation and sprinkle a dash of raw sugar on top to serve.

Indo Salad
Courtesy Executive Chef Alex Lombardo of —see accompanying video.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound sushi-grade ahi (yellowfin tuna)
• Lemon pepper spice for dipping
• 1 bunch wild arugula
• 1 avocado wedge
• 1/3 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup pickled ginger
• 1 lemon wedge
• Olive oil
• Pinch of black and white sesame

Directions:

Coat both sides of the ahi in lemon pepper spice. Add oil to the pan and heat on high. Wait until the oil is hot then sear the ahi for 30 seconds to a minute on each side, making sure the coating turns caramel brown.

Cut the ahi into eight or nine quarter-inch slices, then place on a plate garnished with a banana leaf, if desired. Add arugula, diced tomatoes, avocado wedge and pickled ginger to the plate along with the ponzu sauce dip. Pour a small amount of lemon juice and olive oil over the arugula and finish with the sesame garnish.     

Ponzu sauce ingredients:

• 1 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
• 2 cups soy sauce
• 1 cup lime juice

Ponzu sauce directions:

Pour the mirin into a pot and heat until about half of the liquid evaporates. Add the soy sauce and lime juice. Bring the mixture back to a boil and heat for two minutes. Make sure to chill the sauce before serving.

Ice Cream Bombe
Mix and match flavors for a Fourth of July treat!

Ingredients:

• 2 pints of good mango sorbet
• 1-1/2 pints of good raspberry sorbet
• 1 pint of good strawberry ice cream (“Good” means exactly that. Don’t scrimp on the ingredients!)

Directions:

You’ll need a bowl—metal or pyrex—seven to eight inches across and four to six inches deep. Put the bowl in the freezer and take the mango sorbet out of the freezer. Wait 30 minutes.

Take the bowl out of the freezer. Martha Stewart suggests lining the bowl with plastic wrap at this point, which may help the mold slide out of the bowl later.

Scoop up the softened sorbet and line the bowl—bottom and sides—with it. Use spoons or a spatula to make the lining as uniformly thick as possible. Put the bowl back in the freezer and take out the raspberry sorbet. Wait 30 minutes.

Take the bowl out of the freezer. Scoop up the softened raspberry sorbet and press it on top of the mango sorbet, making another layer, as uniformly thick as possible. Put the bowl back in the freezer and take out the strawberry ice cream. Wait 30 minutes.

Take the bowl out again, and fill the remaining space with strawberry ice cream. Cover with plastic wrap, using your hand to flatten the surface as much as possible. Freeze.

When you’re ready to serve it, dunk the bowl into warm water up to the rim for a few seconds, to loosen the edge of the ice cream. Run a knife around the edge too. Then put a flat plate over the bowl, and turn the whole thing upside down so it falls onto the plate. Put it back in the freezer  for a minute or two, then cut it like a pie or cake.

Sauce ingredients:

• A pint of fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 1 tablespoon Framboise, Chambord, or St. Germaine

Sauce directions:

Put the raspberries, sugar and water in a saucepan, turn up the heat, stir once or twice and bring to a boil. If you're using an electric range, turn another burner on to low heat.

Once the mix is boiling, lower the heat or move the pot to the lower-set burner. Stir. Let it simmer for four minutes (five minutes if you started with frozen raspberries).

Put the jam and liqueur in a bowl, and pour in the simmered raspberries.  Using either a food processor with a steel blade, or an immersion blender, or even an osterizer if that's all you have, blend the ingredients till smooth.

Chill. The sauce will keep for several days.