Dungeness Crab
Forbidden fish and seafood include… all shellfish and crustacea..
The Askenazim have been much stricter in their practice of kashrut, whereas the Sephardim, even when deeply religious, are known to have been more tolerant and easygoing.
Claudia Roden, The Book Of Jewish Food
Lobsters are essentially big fucking bugs; they’re too stupid to know they’re dead.
Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook
Food writers–myself included–rattle on endlessly ethical food practices. Put a face on your meals. Nose-to-tail eating. Food with a low carbon footprint. God knows we mean well.
This holier-than-thou attitude led me to Ranch 99’s fish counter last week, where I faced a tank of live crab. “It doesn’t get any fresher than this,” The fishmonger cajoled.
Much as I’m fond of clams and mussels, larger shellfish simply aren’t part of my kitchen reality. Food capable of hurting me isn’t my thing. Go ahead and call me a coward. I am one.
Dungeness crab, which are local to the San Francisco Bay Area, are both sustainable and relatively inexpensive.They’re most often sold cooked, but at Ranch 99 Market, they’re sold quite alive. Until last week, I’d never eaten one.
Arguments over the most humane way to kill shellfish rage. Some suggest putting them in the freezer before cooking, which puts them to sleep. Others suggest deft cleaver technique.
I have severe carpal tunnel syndrome secondary to Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. This means I am less than dextrous in the kitchen. And yes, I am afraid of large, squirming crabs. I admitted as much to the fishmonger, who rapidly dispatched two crabs and handed them over. They were still moving.
“Are you sure these are dead?” I asked.
He gave me a look which clearly questioned my mental stability. Making for the checkout, I tried and failed not to yip each time the bag shifted.
(You’re wondering about the spoons. I got them at an antique fair. They’re from France. You thought a tank of live crabs would look better? Yeah, I didn’t think so, either.)
—
In All Under Heaven, author Carolyn Phillips explains how to best handle crab in the comfort of your own kitchen. Following her instructions, I rigged up a steamer and cooked my first crab.
I also began calming down.
The fishmonger suggested steaming the crabs for 35 minutes. As the first beast cooked, the unmistakable smell of fish permeated the kitchen (lingering for days afterward). At 35 minutes, I lifted the steamer lid, finding…
a perfectly cooked crab.
The crab had given off lots of natural cooking juices, which I saved for broth.
If you’re the type who spends afternoons Marie Kondoing your spice cabinet, you’ll love cleaning crab. If not, be warned: this is surely one of life’s messier kitchen jobs. Bits of shell fly everywhere. Crabby juices spit. People go on about the joys of lump crabmeat. Just try keeping your crabmeat from shredding and flaking. Your phone will ring during this time, and for once the caller will be somebody you need to speak with.
Fortunately, no fancy tools are required for crab cracking. Pictured: a cheap crab cracker. Also pictured: an even cheaper nutcracker set.
Eventually I amassed have a nice pile of crab.
Many are the elaborate crab recipes. Souffles, custards, crab cakes, curries, stir-fries. On my maiden outing, I kept it simple, steaming some rice and making a few dipping sauces.
As noted, most markets offer larger shellfish like crab and lobsters already cooked; others, like Ranch 99, will cook seafood to order.
So why did I bother with the mess and fuss of raw crab at home?
To overcome my fear of shellfish. Which, admittedly, I’m not entirely over. I didn’t kill anything at home. Nevertheless, steaming an entire crab, cracking it open and getting a good look–I’d never seen tomalley before–is a beginning. Will I ever kill crab at home? Unlikely. But the next time a crab curry recipe presents itself, I won’t flip past it, either.
Dungeness Crab
This is scarcely a recipe, but I didn’t know how to deal with crab at home, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one.
With thanks to Carolyn Phillips’s All Under Heaven for advice on handling fresh crab.
1 or 2 raw or cooked crabs, weighing about 2 pounds apiece, for 2-3 people, depending on appetite (see notes.)
jasmine rice
for the dipping sauces:
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
Chinkiang vinegar, to taste
1 small garlic clove, peeled and minced
small piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
tiny piece fresh red pepper, minced
*As noted in the post, I had the fishmonger dispatch my crabs for me, as I am both klutzy and cowardly. Steaming instructions below.
You will need nutcrackers and crab crackers, or paring knives and mallets, or the crab bashing implements of your choice to crack the crab legs and extract meat from the body.
To steam the crab: set up a steamer by placing a rack in a large lidded wok or pan. Set a heat-proof bowl on the rack. Fill with water to just below the rack. Add a few pennies: when the water comes to a boil, you’ll hear them rattle. If they stop rattling, the pan needs water. Add the crab to the bowl, cover with the lid, and turn heat to high. You’ll know water is boiling when you hear the pennies rattling. Turn heat down just slightly. Steam crab for 35 minutes.
Allow crab to cool enough to handle. If making broth, be sure to save the yellow liquid in the bowl.
You can either crack the crab now or leave it to your dinner guests. I crack the crabs, as my spouse has neuromuscular disease. Setting out two large bowls, one for shell and the other for meat, I begin with the legs, cracking the shell with crab crackers and extracting meat with the pick from my nutcracker set. My best advice is be patient.
Before opening the body’s upper the shell–by pulling it off–get a smallish bowl. Now pull the upper shell off. You’ll see some gunky stuff that may be green or yellow. The yellow stuff is fat, while the green stuff is heptopancreas, or the equivalent of tomalley. Don’t be put off by the unattractive appearance; It is considered a delicacy. Spoon it into your smallish bowl (pictured, above).
The body meat is easy to pull free in larger chunks. You’ll see gills–it’s easy to tell what’s crab meat and what’s inedible viscera. Pull the inedible stuff out and discard it.
Crab shells make beautiful broth. Refrigerate them up to three days or freeze up to three months.
To make the dipping sauces, stir the soy sauce and Chinkiang vinegar together in a small bowl, adding the garlic, ginger, and hot pepper until it’s seasoned to your liking. Serve with rice.
To eat, serve the crab, rice, dipping sauces, lots of napkins, and eat with fingers and forks.
Fish does not keep well, so eat up any leftovers within two days.
Notes:
Number of crabs depends on appetite. The fishmonger gave me 2 two-pound crabs for two people; we had leftovers.
As noted above, I had the fishmonger dispatch the crabs. So I’m not offering advice on killing crabs at home.
Other menu ideas:
Melt some butter to serve alongside the crab.
Serve crab meat with fresh fettucine.
