crabs

FLOATIN,
 My wife and I like crab and get quite a bit if we want, but we are getting burnt out on the same old things like butter, salads and some crab cake recipes we have never fell in love with.
 Any tips or ideas for something new would be appreciated.
 With dry ice these dungies can be shipped any where alive now.

ps  Hope you are not too snowed in this week!!

Well the first thing that comes to mind is a crab bisque, cioppino, gumbo. Get fancy and do a crab thermadore. Thats crab in a cream sherry sauce (i don't mean cream sherry, I mean cream and sherry) with shallots put back in the shell and topped with gyurere cheese and baked.
You can try yellow curried crab, and green crab enchiladas. Hey let me know what you think.

Oh yea, I got snow, Lots and lots of snow.

Recently we've run into the same issue....crab, crab everywhere but what else can we do with it?

Over the weekend we made some pretty killer Crab breakfast burritos.  Sautee up some chopped onions and garlic in butter or olive oil till just brown.  Add in the crab/salt/pepper and spices to taste.  In another pan scramble up some eggs....heat up your tortillas......add tomato, avocado, and salsa and a little sour cream if you like.....hmmmmmmm goooooooooood.

I had a smoked crab fetuccini dish. Mmmmmm! Im sure there's alot of recipes online. When I was in coleege I lived across the street from the bay. Id go crabbing all the time and got in a rut like you r talk'n about. I started giving crab to the old ladies in my neighborhood. The next thing you know I'd come home and find apple pies, cakes, cookies, crab cakes, etc. It was GREAT fun for everyone involved!

My favorite crab recipe is Singapore Chilli Crab.  There a variety of recipes for it online, but here's a rough outline of the recipe I use (from memory, I may have to edit this post later after referring to my written notes). 

Chilli paste:
~1-2 chilli peppers (amount and type of pepper according to taste)
~ a 2 in section of fresh ginger coarsely chopped
4 cloves of garlic
Place ingredients in a food processor to make a paste and set aside.

Sauce:
1 cup chicken broth
3 Tbsp ketchup
3 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1-2 Tbsp Sriracha (you know the Asian hot pepper sauce with the rooster on it)
Mix sauce and set aside.

Other ingredients:
2 beaten eggs
a few chopped scallions
a few limes
corn starch
~ 4 live dungeness crabs
cooking oil (peanut, canola, etc..)

The process:
1.) Remove the legs from the crabs and cut them into individual legs.  Slightly pre-crack the legs with a mallot (this helps the flavors soak into the crab meat during cooking).
2.) Dry the crab legs and coat them with the corn starch.
3.) Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a wok or big saute pan over med-high heat.
4.) Add a teaspoon of the chille paste to the hot oil, allow it to become arromatic (30 sec), stir it around so it doesn't burn.
5.) Add enough crab legs to cover the bottom of the pan.
6.) Cook the legs about 2-3 min per side (they should turn red)
7.) Drissel onto the legs a couple teaspoons of the sauce.
8.) Cover the pan and let the sauce steam the crab for about 5 mins.
9.) Uncover, add a few teaspoons of the beaten egg, a few teaspoons worth of the green onions, and squeeze on a half a lime.
10.) Stir the legs and eggs with a wooden spoon and try and scrape up as much of the garlic/ginger/onion/sauce from the bottom or the pan.
11.) Move everything to a large serving dish and repeat the process.

Eating:
If you think eating crab can be messy you haven't seen anything until you've had chilli crab.  Much of the flavor is on the outside of the shell and consequently the outside is pretty messy. I like to lick off the sauce from a section of crab leg and then tackle the crab inside.

Sometimes I'll serve this with some steamed rice, but usually the rice gets ignored while everyone tackles the crab.

I've seen other recipes out there for this that call for more exotic ingredients like tumeric, tamarind paste and lemon grass,  I just haven't tried them yet.

Brian

Crab quiche is my fav thing to do with the leftovers. If there are any!!!!!

Try an asian-style crab in black bean sauce.  My wife loves crab cooked something like this (I am not a chef,good cooking to me is like rocket science to a cave man)...

Tablespoon (or two) of black bean sauce (we buy it in a jar from the local Korean grocery).
Little sesamee oil
Little salt
Black pepper to taste
Tablespoon of minced garlic
Couple crabs
Couple cups of water

Clean/scrub the crab and take the cap off, then remove the gills/guts, then crack the legs into pieces with the back of a heavy knife.

In a large pan, add oil and minced garlic and start sauteeing them.  One the garlic has started to brown, add the water, salt, and black bean sauce.  Next toss in the crab, then cover and let simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally (and adding pepper to taste).  When the water has nearly boiled out, take it off the heat and put into a big bowl. 

You will have steamed crab (inside the shell) flavored with the garlic and blackbean sauce.  It will be VERY messy to eat, but super tasty.  And it is really quick and easy to fix.  We generally just put two big bowls on the table, and pull the crab meat out of the legs with chopsticks or forks, and drop the shells in the extra bowl.

 Don't forget about Crab nachos. MMMMMMMMMMMMM

Don't forget about Crab nachos. MMMMMMMMMMMMM

HMMM, can you elaborate a bit? That sounds good!
 

 Well generally we make ours pretty simple (chips layer of cheddar, layer of crab, layer of pepper jack) because thats how the kiddos like em. But if its just for the adults some diced peppers, tomatoes and onions get sprinkled on between layers. Very easy but oh so good. My youngest daughter will not eat crab alone, but she will devour the crab nachos. I was a skeptic when I was first told to try them, but we love em now and it is a mandatory meal when ever we go crabbing. Try it, you won't be sorry.   

Thanks Merlin, I will try that this weekend!
 'cuz I got the crabs 
 

Brian beat me to the chili crab.  Gotta try that recipe (it's normally a dish I leave to restaurant time).

This is seriously making me jones for some crab...

Do it Roy!
 I can handle my 3 traps and all with no problem. I use the Danielson folding.
 It is nice to have a buddy with you (in another yak, no tranny jokes here) to 69 with for very easy loading and dropping/pulling the traps that are HUGELY FULL OF CRABS!