284804 Tue Apr 25 22:12:22 -0700 2006 14 31 Home Cooking 0 1523646 Feeling the end of Dungeness crab season nearing, husband and I have been wandering the docks to buy fresh live crab on a weekly basis. Right now they are incredibly cheap (about $3/lb) and the fattest, sweetest, and juiciest we've encountered all season. Since we bought three the other night, I was excited to try a new preparation, straying from our steam and eat routine. Good thing I have Mai Pham's, "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" out on loan from the library. There's a simple recipe for S&P crab and scallion noodles that I used, and boy, were we dining like barbarians and licking our fingers by meal's end. It was messy but sinfully good. Shell-on crab is best enjoyed in the privacy of one's own home IMO. Since I'm feeling rather lazy and time-pinched, I found a very similar recipe by Mai Pham linked below. Ingredients and technique are slightly different and linked recipe is for garlic noodles, but should turn out just as good. I like that the crab is briefly steamed before it's wok-fried...I'm still squeamish about killing a live crab w/ my knife. While the traditional deep-fried method in hot oil does taste better, I'll leave that to the restaurants. The sauce in this was great, and the salt and pepper seeped into every crevice, particularly the tender, delicate body meat. For the noodles, I highly recommend using butter instead of oil. I like using the Vietnamese linguine-like egg noodles called "mi trung". Ok, I'm off to make crabcakes w/ the reserved steamed and picked crab. Life is good... Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/21/FDG134A7851.DTL Image: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/btdoan/IMG_4855.jpg Tue Apr 25 22:12:22 -0700 2006 0 Carb Lover 1 1523654 Oh my GAWD. Did you ever switch the energy regarding our dinner tonight, or what??? We just finished romaine lettice with a creamy avocado ranch dressing (a la Cooks Illustrated), tomatoes too, and all sprinkled with crispy bacon. Chili is heating stovetop, while cheddar buttermilk biscuits are rising in the oven. Had a few seconds to kill between courses, so I decided to visit Home cooking. I repeat OH MY GAWD, does your crab dish sound ummmazing or what? My chili won't be the same. Thanks for your post (I think) Jeff Tue Apr 25 23:06:31 -0700 2006 1523646 0 JeffW 2 1523667 Hey, your dinner doesn't sound too shabby at all. I love that you check the board btwn. courses!! :-P Wed Apr 26 01:32:08 -0700 2006 1523654 0 Carb Lover 3 1523785 Thanks, as until now I thought it was a sickness that I had! P.S. The Chili was great. Wed Apr 26 16:12:41 -0700 2006 1523667 0 JeffW 1 1523656 Delicious! My only comment is that you really should try killing a crab with a knife before the end of the season, just to say you've done it. I'm not quite strong enough to rip the shell off of the body in one fell swoop, so I open the flap, stick in a knife, and swish around until the crab dies. It takes awhile, so be careful of flailing claws! My goal is to build up enough finger strength to just rip it apart live (my last goal was gaining enough wrist and arm strength to toss a wok. I might have the strangest gym routine ever, but it's all worth it!) Tue Apr 25 23:41:28 -0700 2006 1523646 0 nooodles 2 1523668 Thanks for the encouragement, nooodles. I wish I wasn't such a wimp, but I must confess: husband always handles the crab so I never even touch them when they're alive. I wince when they start tap-tapping on the steamer lid. Handling a whole raw chicken used to gross me out, but I'm a master at handling that and all kinds of other cuts of meat now. I figure I'll work my way up to the crab one day... Wed Apr 26 01:38:15 -0700 2006 1523656 0 Carb Lover 3 1523718 I even find cleaning out their insides (after boiling) really gross--haven't done it a second time. They are SO tasty though, I really need to 'get back into the saddle' again. Perhaps someone can teach a class in Mastering Crustacean Fears... Wed Apr 26 11:20:06 -0700 2006 1523668 0 Funwithfood 4 1523782 The price you sometimes pay for buying fresh-off-the-docks seafood is the gunk you find inside them (do fishmongers purge them before killing?). I made crayfish over the summer, and in-the-name-of-all-that-is-holy... what the hell did the bastards eat before they were caught? We par-steamed them,sliced them open, spent twenty minutes dealing with the gunk inside, then grilled them on a barbeque. They tasted marvellous, but I am hestitant to do them after my trial-by-entrails. It's the same reason I'm afraid of buying live crabs... Any suggestions? Wed Apr 26 16:01:24 -0700 2006 1523718 0 Gooseberry 5 1523820 People of many cultures eat that so called "gunk inside" and consider it a treat. Try it you might like it. Wed Apr 26 18:42:45 -0700 2006 1523782 0 Toni10 6 1523865 Sorry; I was trying to be delicate and ended up being unclear! I'm not talking about the eggs, I'm talking about the digestive tract, filled with the partially digested remains of the poor crayfish's last meal. Poo, basically. Do fresh-off-the-boat crabs not have poo inside? I'd just assumed they would, like crayfish sometimes do... Gosh, I have to laugh when I remember the look of horror on my vegetarian friend's face when I opened up a whole crayfish and the stench of its digestive tract hit her. One of the downsides of boiling whole, live crayfish is that their digestive tracts sometimes liquefy... The things I do out of greed... Wed Apr 26 22:52:27 -0700 2006 1523820 0 Gooseberry 5 1523843 The "gunk" inside crab isn't that big of a deal to me, just as long as the crab is no longer alive and has been steamed through. We open up the hard carapace and then flush out the crab "butter" and reserve for other uses. Pull out the gills, break in half, and crack and shell as we go along eating. I have never eaten crayfish before, but they seem like such small critters that you get minimal reward for your work. From what I've heard, they can be delicious though... Wed Apr 26 20:51:48 -0700 2006 1523782 0 Carb Lover 6 1523861 Crayfish aren't so small; the meaty part of the crayfish tail below (boiled, then grilled, with garlic butter) is probably five inches long. The live ones in the Cape Town Acquarium, however, are the stuff horror movies are made of. Size of a medium-small dog! I've heard crayfish called small lobsters, but I can't comment since I've never eaten lobster (which I plan to remedy next month in Maine). I've never found any crayfish-schmoo/malley/butter (I still remember a crab schmoo custard you once described - wow) in any I've eaten, just meat, and unfortunately a large amount of faeces. There's no rose without a thorn, I guess. Should I try the salt and pepper crab with whole, cooked crab from the seafood counter at my supermarket? I know it would be nowhere as good as freshly steamed, but the recipe sounds so amazing... Image: http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f378/capegooseberry/IMG_8690.jpg Wed Apr 26 22:47:41 -0700 2006 1523843 0 Gooseberry 7 1524040 Oops, I was thinking of craWfish...the kind you get in the South US. Those are the small critters. Your crayfish looks delicious. Sure, you could try this recipe w/ pre-cooked crab from your market, but it won't be as good or juicy, of course. I would just bring the crab to room temp. (to reduce wokking time), break off legs and cut body into few pieces, and crack the legs a bit to help sauce seep a bit into meat. Should be a cinch. Thu Apr 27 23:32:53 -0700 2006 1523861 0 Carb Lover 1 1523665 There is nothing quite so luxurious tasting as homemade crabcakes made w/ a pound of freshly-picked crabmeat. Very little filler...we're talking 99% crab. I can't remember when I've had better crabcakes. I confess to you home cooking hounds that I've been eating out or nibbling on junk too much lately and this meal reminded me...restaurant food does not even compare to home-cooked food! The best food is made in home kitchens... I took the "less is more" approach w/ these crabcakes. Simply added some S&P, sprinkle of cayenne, dijon mustard, finely-chopped scallion, panko, and an egg. Formed into patties and lightly tossed in more panko. Fried in thin film of oil in cast iron skillet. Served w/ aioli and a salad of jicama, manila mango, lime juice, and Penzey's chipotle powder. Not a bad Tues. night dinner at all... Image: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/btdoan/IMG_4871.jpg Wed Apr 26 01:27:40 -0700 2006 1523646 0 Carb Lover 1 1523702 Oh my goodness..it's only 10am and I'm drooling over your two crab dishes!! They both look amazing! Link: http://virtualfrolic.blogspot.com/ Wed Apr 26 09:55:59 -0700 2006 1523646 0 vf