Makes about 8 ounces 1 whole cooked crab 1 to 2 pounds lemon wedges. At times ive asked for light cracking along with cleaning, with success. Dungeness crab with lemongrass, black pepper, and basil. Nov 10, 2016 once you cook your crab 15 minute in boiling water this is how you clean and prepare it. Coarsely grind pepper in a coffee grinder or crush with a rolling pin. You can tell because the shell has turned from a bluegray when alive to a bright orange when cooked. Dungeness crabs can typically be purchased either live or cooked. In a large 24 quart measuring cup, mix the first 7 ingredients well, making sure the honey is completely dissolved.
Once your crab is cooked and cleaned, extract the meat by cracking the claws, legs, and body open with small hammers or seafood crackers. The pride of the pacific coast, the mighty dungeness crab is well known for its slightly sweet, delicate flavor and abundance of meat. Fresh live crab should be purchased and cooked the same daythe crabs can only be stored in the refrigerator for a few hours once taken out of their holding tanks. Add garlic, fennel, red pepper, leek, onion, and bay leaf. After being steamed and cleaned, the crabs hard shells are eagerly cracked open, exposing mounds of moist and delicate flesh whose subtle. Dungeness crabs, cooked, cleaned, and cracked whirl avocados, olive oil, vinegar. Place in a shallow baking dish, pour marinade over crabs, cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Cook, stirring often, about 15 to 20 minutes until the roux is deep brown in color. We can get crabby when forced to work for our food, but with sweet, tender innards, cracking crab is worth it. Cover the wok, reduce the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the water is reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Dungeness crab fresh in season live vs supermarket cooked. Dec 12, 2011 i used a stick of butter, probably 14 cup olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic a pinch of salt and a couple of teaspoons of red pepper flakes. In a large boiler pour in the wine and water squeeze the juice out of the lemons into the liquid and throw the rinds into the pot add the onions, rosmary, garlic,sugar,salt and old. The name comes from the port of dungeness, washington where these crabs are found.
Nov 16, 2011 4 twolb dungeness crabs, cooked, cleaned see article text, cracked, and quartered salt and freshlyground black pepper 2 tbsp parsley, chopped. Its dungeness crab season right now, september to june, on the pacific coast of north america. Dungeness is the best originally published december 20, 2016 at 7. If serving the crabs warm, skip the ice water bath and serve with. Nov 22, 2014 3 tablespoons unsalted butter pour the contents of the skillet into a large serving bowl, add the lemon juice and parsley and toss well. Leg meat is firm and white with pinkish tones on the outside. Dungeness crabs dont yield their sweet meat easily. Immerse two of the crabs into the water for 510 minutes until the crabs are warmed through. Big, bold southeast asian flavors team up in a perfect balance of salty, sweet, hot, and aromatic. In this video, l show you how to cook and clean a dungeness crab including a technique for numbing them for easier handling. Favorite sonoma dungeness crab dishes and recipes sonoma. Boiling the whole crabs to boil 3 pounds live hardshell blue crabs, bring 8 quarts water and 2 teaspoons salt to boiling in a 12 to 16quart pot. Take it out and reheat the crab within four months to ensure top quality. In a heavy large overproof skillet over mediumhigh heat, melt the butter with the olive oil.
Costco connection a decade of cooking the costco way. If you have access to fresh, boil your own, as described here. Live crabs are cooked simply by dropping them into boiling salt water, waiting for a boil to return, and then allowing it to continue for 15 minutes, after which time the crabs are removed and placed into cold water to cool, and then cleaned. Cook 1 12 to 2 12pound crabs 15 minutes, 3pound crabs about 20 minutes. Melt butter with oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over mediumhigh heat. If i have access to seawater, i boil the crabs in that, adding no extra salt. If youve felt intimidated about cooking and cleaning your own dungeness, dont. The recipe calls for cleaned and cracked crab but then goes on to say the crab should be roasted in a 500 degree oven with the other ingredients.
And, if you wanna blow your guests away, make some crab cakes out of fresh dungeness, and watch their faces go blank with amazement. Melt butter with olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice and grated peel. One at a time, grasp crabs as described above and plunge them headfirst into the boiling water. One cooked, cleaned 1 34 to 2pound crab with back shell yields 7 12 to 8 ounces 1 to 1 12 cups of meat. As chef john says, if you want to rock the chili crab like a singaporean, then you should probably double the sauce ingredients. A rich buttery taste right, sweet right out of the shell, its no wonder why dungeness will temp even the trendiest of king crab connoisseurs. When water resumes boiling, reduce heat to a simmer. Much of the time you will find whole crabs already cooked and chilled. I used 5 v large crabs for 5 pp but 4 would have been plenty as noted by. Pull body sections apart and dig out pockets of meat. Pour 34 of the boiling water out of the pot, leaving only 2 or 3 inches in the bottom, if you are cooking unshelled crab meat.
Serve crab with crackers and small spoons for diners. Oregon dungeness crab has a sweet, delicate, stand alone flavor. Once your crab is cooked, rinse under cool water until just cool enough to handle. The dungeness crab, metacarcinus magister the naming convention recognised by worms or cancer magister the naming convention recognised by itis, is a species of crab that inhabits eelgrass beds and water bottoms on the west coast of north america. Once you cook your crab 15 minute in boiling water this is how you clean and prepare it. Cooking and serving oregon dungeness crab commission. Cracked crab with lemongrass, black pepper, and basil. Pour oil into a 14inch wok or 6 to 8quart pan over mediumhigh heat. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sugar and salt to taste. Bring the water to another boil and repeat with remaining crabs.
For easier meat removal at table, use a small hammer or the flat side of a meat tenderizer to crack crab legs at each joint. If serving the crabs warm, skip the ice water bath and serve with melted butter. Sunsets best dungeness crab recipes sunset magazine. You can also buy frozen sections, or clusters, which are crabs that have been cooked, cleaned, and split on half, and have had their back shell. Starting mid november and ending in may, youll find seafood lovers celebrating the return of their favorite 10legged creatures with crab parties and a myriad of crabcentric meals.
The meattoshell ratio for dungeness crab is approximately 25%, making it one of the meatier crabs available. How to clean and cook dungeness crab this week marks the beginning of san franciscos dungeness crab season. The average yield for a 2 lb crab is 12 lb of picked meat. Cover and chill 15 minutes to 1 hour, turning crab often. Nov 08, 2000 crack legs with a nutcracker and split crabs in half down middle. Turn the crab on its back and remove the triangular shaped flap called the apron and.
Add the crabs to the wok and pour in just enough water to cover the vegetables. Generally, blue, snow, and dungeness crabs have a similar saltysweet flavor, but differences in taste will occur based on factors like the saltiness of the water where they are caught, how they are processed, and how they are cooked. May 01, 2011 in this video, l show you how to cook and clean a dungeness crab including a technique for numbing them for easier handling. The peak of the dungeness crab harvest is decemeber to april. How to cook and clean a dungeness crab former chef. Steamed up with old bay and served with butter, this is a treat no crab connoisseur can pass up. Its common name comes from the port of dungeness, washington. Stir in garlic, shallot, and dried crushed red pepper. Keep the freezer at 0 degrees fahrenheit to keep it safe, according to the usda food safety and inspection service website. To insure the pure flavor of the crab i add nothing to the water except salt. The claw and leg meat will have a more intense flavor than large body pieces. Famous roast garlic crab recipe michael chiarello food. Cooked dungeness crabs are tossed with ginger, green chile, and garlic, then served with a tangy tamarindsoytomato sauce. Nov 30, 20 its dungeness crab season right now, september to june, on the pacific coast of north america.
Crack legs with a nutcracker and split crabs in half down middle. Toss crab in the butter mixture to coat and place it on the grill away from the flame. Cook until softened but not browned, about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine cilantro, garlic, onions, ginger, soy, and honey. If not, and youre buying live crabs, then the rule of thumb is to steam or boil them for 78 minutes per pound. For how to cook, clean, and crack crab, go to crabvideo. Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil, season with 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Heat oil in a large, heavy ovenproof roasting pan over mediumhigh heat. Dungeness crabs are common from the aleutian islands to point conception, california. As such they are ready to be cracked and cleaned for serving cold or reheated we recommend reheating either the. And my choice seems to be buying a live crab or a steamed one that has been cleaned and cracked. If you live on the pacific coast, this is necessary information.
Excellent steamed and cracked, in a bouillabaisse, or ciopinno. Dec 18, 2009 its dungeness crab season in california. I dont advise cracking as in cleaned and cracked crab, as butchers can have a rather heavy hand and smash the shell into the meat, or make a limp soggy mess when reheated. Carefully remove the crabs from the stock pot and shock in an ice water bath. To avoid the live crab cooking process we will cook, crack and clean your crab. The dungeness crab is a popular seafood, prized for its sweet and tender flesh. But follow our tips from the pros on cooking, cleaning, cracking, and shelling, and youll be enjoying these. To ensure a sustainable fishery and prevent overharvesting, only male dungeness crabs are caught. How to clean and crack dungeness crab clean eating magazine. Central market here western wa sells both live and precooked dungeness crabs.
Oven roasted dungeness crab recipe, whats cooking america. Heat oil in large deep ovenproof skillet or large metal roasting pan over medium heat. Dec 31, 2011 i dont advise cracking as in cleaned and cracked crab, as butchers can have a rather heavy hand and smash the shell into the meat, or make a limp soggy mess when reheated. During this time fresh, live crabs are available at supermarket seafood counters and specialty seafood markets throughout the region.
Great prices on cheap crab are being found all over san francisco at places like manila oriental market, chinatown, and clement street. Once your crab is cooked and cleaned, extract the meat by cracking the claws, legs, and body open with small hammers or seafood. Heat oil in a large, heavy ovenproof roasting pan over. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until crabs turn pink. If you are having the crabs shipped to you, ask to have them cooked, cleaned, and cracked. Asian cracked dungeness crab adapted from sunset magazine. Place the meat into the strainer, cover with a lid as best you can and heat for five. Add the crabs, return to a boil and cook for 15 minutes. Every winter im tempted by the stock of fresh local dungeness crab in. Dungeness crabs metacarcinus magister and rock crabs cancer productus and cancer antennarius are the three species of crabs of interest to the recreational crabber, but of the three, dungeness crabs are the most desirable. In a mediumsize cast iron skillet, melt the butter over mediumhigh heat. Remove the crabs from the water and set aside to drain.