Alaska, more cooking in campervan

King Crab

Alaska is famous for King Crab, this is how it is served in Totem restaurant in Valdez. The crab is harvested in December, cooked and frozen for use during the rest of the year. It is not the same as eating freshly cooked crab, and is very salty.

I bought a frozen King Crab, pour boiling water on it to melt the outside frozen ice. Then I soak it in a cooled broth of onion, ginger and sugar for 3 hours. It is refreshed, more juicy and lost the salty taste.

Ninilchik razor clam

Clam digging is one of the activities in this area, but best to do it on days with super low tide. It is called razor clam but is very meaty.

1. Use a knife to release clam from shell, remove sandy gut. Cut body in halves and wash off the remaining sand.

2. Sweat ginger and onion in butter, add clam and stir-fry at high heat for maximum a minute. It is very sweet and crunchy, over cooking will make it tough.

Pan-fried Halibut filet

At Deep Creek Sport Shop near Ninilchik town, I saw this fisherman cleaning halibut after a day out with his customers. I wanted to buy some fresh halibut, but as sport fisherman it is against the law to sell his catch, but he could give it away for free. I was happy to have the chance to taste fresh halibut, in this country, most seafood are frozen and packaged at the harbour.

Sprinkle a light coating of flour and salt on filet, sear at high heat in butter until slightly golden outside.

Coconut focaccia

1. Mix 200gm flour with 200gm shredded coconut.

2. Mix 180gm mildly warm water with 2 eggs, 80gm brown sugar, a pinch of salt, and 1 sachet of active dry yeast, fold in flour coconut mixture.

3. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured baking tin, let mixture rises until double its original size. With wet fingers, make dimples on the surface and spoon melted butter all over the surface.

4. Bake at 180˚C until golden, around 30 minutes.

Seared scallop and silver salmon filet

Bought a packet of frozen Alaskan scallop at Homer, huge ones. Cooking in the campervan is the only and best way to enjoy the wonderful produce in Alaska.

1. Dry scallops and salmon filet, sprinkle salt on both sides of scallops and salmon filet, then dust a fine layer of flour on top.

2. Heat 1/3 oil and 2/3 butter in a frying pan until hot, place scallops & salmon in, cook for a minute each side for scallops and 2 minutes each side for salmon. The scallop is best when the middle is warm but still transparent.