Crab and Lobster FEAST!

This post is not for the faint of heart. If you have a weak stomach, or are squeamish about touching live things, or I suppose more to the point, killing them to eat, turn away now. There is graphic crabicide ahead. Don't say you weren't warned...



So after my birthday feast a couple of weeks ago, I've been wanting to eat crab again. This was helped by the fact that my uncle asked me for a scallion and ginger crab recipe, because he wanted to make it. I've made the dish once before, but it was years ago and I remembered the recipe being long and unnecessarily complicated. I did another search and there were many simpler recipes available that sounded pretty good. I sent him one that looked promising, and he reported back (with pictures) that it was indeed good. Seeing those pictures made me want crab even more -- and to make it scallion and ginger style!

If you've ever been to a Chinese seafood restaurant, chances are you've ordered -- or have seen others order -- scallion and ginger crab. It's a very common, traditional dish. And it always begins with a live crab. No self-respecting Chinese restaurant would dare serve this dish made from a crab that hadn't just been plucked, splashing and limbs flailing, from its tank right in the restaurant. The restaurant's patrons are far too discerning about their seafood. Flesh from live seafood is firmer and sweeter than its already-dead counterparts, which has been decomposing for who knows how long. Cooking seafood at home holds to the same principles. It's also usually less expensive than getting seafood at a restaurant -- though of course at home you're also responsible for killing and cooking it.

Your average American consumer is so squeamish about live food (or in some cases, even bones in meat, to remind them that it had once been part of an animal -- is this why Americans typically also prefer breast meat, which is usually sold boneless?), that the lower-quality seafood is an okay trade off for them. Indeed, if you can't tell the difference by taste or texture, then saving yourself the trouble of slaughtering your own seafood is probably the way to go. And I'm not judging. Even if it tasted super fabulous, I'm not sure I could slaughter a chicken -- but then, I've never been tested.

In any case, I required a live crab if I were to make this dish. Western supermarkets sell their seafood at notoriously high prices, but even if I were willing to pay those prices, the chances of finding a Safeway or Albertsons -- or any other Western supermarket -- with live crab would be very slim. The only place assured of carrying live seafood is that which caters to live seafood connoisseurs: a Chinese supermarket. Which, near me, means 99 Ranch. The day I went the Dungeness crab had gone up in price from $3.99 to $4.99 from just a couple weeks ago. Originally I had planned to make two crabs, as the recipe called for, but at that price I was only willing to buy one. I did see, however, that live Maine lobsters were on sale for $7.99, which is just about as low as I've ever seen. So I also got a 2-lb lobster. For both of these items I paid just a fraction of what I probably would have had to pay for one of them at a seafood restaurant.



I knew what I was going to do with the crab, but what about the lobster? I decided to go the easy route and prepare it the way I prefer my lobster -- boiled in salt water and served with drawn butter. There's no better way to eat it. Plus setting a salted pot of water to boil and tossing the lobster in could not be simpler.





Then came the crab (and the part I warned you about at the beginning of this post). The easy method of cooking crab is also to throw it in a pot of boiling water, but that wouldn't be possible with the way I wanted to go it. I needed to section it raw. My uncle had tried to suffocate his in a plastic bag in a fridge for 4 hours, to no avail. He finally had to take a knife to it, slasher style. I'd have to do it the way my mom does it -- which is no less horrible but hopefully allows the crab to suffer less. Her method involves taking off its shell (head) while it's still alive. With a swift and steady hand, there's very little time for the crab to suffer (and I believe this is how predators in the ocean eat crab -- possibly they aren't even that nice and just start munching on the limbs while the poor thing is still alive).

First, fortify yourself with your liquid of choice. I chose a salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks. Yours may involve alcohol of some kind.



Next, I usually put a chopstick into each of the crab's claws so that it has something to grab onto that's not me.

When you start pulling on its head, it naturally starts to get distressed, so you need to do this as quickly as possible, or you'll just traumatize you both. The crab should be lying right-side up, on its belly, with its back to you. I'm left handed, so what I do is I hold down its legs/body on the left side with my left hand, and pull on the shell with my right hand. The crab is usually narrower here so you should be able to get a decent hold. Get a grip that you're comfortable with. Some shells come off quite easily; others are stubborn and require some force. Don't worry about cracking the shell, I've never had this happen. As long as you keep up the pressure, the shell will lift eventually.

At this point, you might want to walk away for a few moments, take a breather, get your racing heart under control. It also allows for any last reflexes the dead crab's limbs may have to expend themselves, saving you the sensation that it's still moving while you're sectioning it. Sometimes you may have to wait quite awhile -- I've done this several times so it doesn't bother me as much anymore.

However long you wait (preferably not more than a few minutes, as you don't want the flesh to decompose -- allowing it to do so would be to negate the whole point of having gotten it live in the first place), you'll have to clean and section it eventually. You can do this with a strong butcher's knife, or as I prefer, simply pull it apart with your hands. Before sectioning I always clean the crab, pulling the little "tab" at the bottom and removing that, dumping out any extra water, pulling off the gills and other iffy bits, etc. I leave the "crab butter," or more the more anatomically correct term "gonads" in, because I love it. That's the orangey-yellow stuff. It's considered a delicacy in many countries, but if you don't like it, I've read that you can clean a crab simply by rinsing it under cold water. I think it's delicious.

When you're ready to section the crab, grab its legs on both sides and put your thumbs right down the middle of its body and apply pressure. It should break in half cleanly. You can then chop or pull until each leg is its own section, which may or may not be attached to the body. I just do what the crab allows me to do and go with its natural breaks.

Now that you've got your crab ready, the rest of it is easy. Chop up some ginger, garlic and scallions (a lot of it!), mix some chicken broth with soy sauce, sugar and sherry, and prepare a slurry of water and cornstarch.

Heat up some oil, and when it's ready, toss in the scallions, ginger, and garlic.



Stir fry that for a bit, then add in the chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar and sherry.



Next, add in the sectioned crab.



It doesn't take long to cook, so pretty soon your house will be filled with the fragrant scent of ginger, and green onions, and crab. Eating it is even better -- makes all the work you did totally worth it. Dip pieces of crab meat into the sauce, and eat the scallions whole, as they've become so tender and infused with the flavor of the stir fry that they're almost the best part.



Ginger and Scallion Crab

Ingredients:

• 1 live crab, roughly 2 pounds
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
• 1 bunch of scallions (green onions), sliced -- 1-inch strips for the leafy part, then finely chop the stem (see photo above)
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sherry
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• dash sesame oil (optional)
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 3 tbsp water

Method:

1. Clean and section crab as described above. If you really can't do it, I think 99 Ranch or whichever supermarket you get the crab from is probably willing to kill/section it for you. If you opt for this, make sure you cook the crab as soon as you get home.
2. Heat cooking oil in a wok. When it's ready, add the ginger, garlic and scallions, and stir-fry for about 20 seconds.
3. Measure out the chicken stock. Mix in the soy sauce, sherry, sugar and sesame oil (if using) and pour the mixture into the wok. Bring it to a boil.
4. Add in the sectioned crab. Stir fry to coat the pieces. Cover the wok and lower the heat, then cook until the crab shells turn red, about 5-10 minutes.
5. Create a slurry with the water and cornstarch, then stir it into the crab.
6. Bring everything back to a boil, stir frying a bit to make sure the heat is being evenly distributed and each crab piece is being coated with sauce. Serve while hot with a crab cracker and an empty bowl for the shells.

Don't throw away the discarded shells! Save those up and dump them into a stock pot. Fill the pot with water and leave it to boil, and you'll have delicious, rich shellfish stock, ready to be used in another recipe. I used part of mine for a lazy seafood bisque. Because how else could you improve upon a stock made with lobster and crab shells than to add a bunch of cream?



Quick recipe: Throw all your discarded shells into a large stockpot. Fill it with water, about an inch over the shells. Throw in 2 ribs of celery, cut into large chunks. Also toss in a few slices of ginger. Heat until it boils, then turn down heat and let it simmer for two hours. At the end of those two hours, pour in about half a cup of white wine. Let it simmer for another half hour. Line a strainer with cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl or another soup pot. Carefully pour or ladle the soup into the strainer, discarding all the solids. You may or may not want to salt the stock. If you're making a bisque, reserve 2 cups of the shellfish stock. Heat it until it's simmering, then add a tablespoon of tomato paste. Mix until it's well blended into the stock. Pour in two tablespoons of white wine. Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream to the soup and heat until it's hot enough to serve -- you want to avoid boiling it. This is a very lazy way to make bisque, which is why it suits me. When I want something a little more authentic that involves butter and shallots and a blender, this is a good recipe. Usually I don't have any leftover meat to use in the soup, but it's just as well since the shellfish stock is usually quite rich and strong -- it's amazing how much flavor those shells still have.

For dessert, why not try a pear and hazelnut frangipane tart? This is the one I finally made on my own, and I think it came out fairly well for a first-time attempt. Tasted just as I remembered. Just need to work on the aesthetics! I used home-rendered lard in place of the vegetable shortening the recipe calls for. Healthier and even more delicious!

Crab-alicious

A birthday always starts out well when you get a delivery of gorgeous flowers that has a cute little bear attached to the vase. Seriously!





The morning/early afternoon passed by in a flash with a flurry of birthday calls. My mother reminded me that I had to eat noodles (a Chinese superstition of some sort; I don't ask why, it's easier to just do and not ask any questions), which was just as well this year, because I had plenty of chicken broth and making noodles is a snap. Plus, crab isn't really that filling, so I figured it would be good to have both. I packed up some broth, sliced mushrooms, washed spinach, and black vinegar. I pre-boiled a huge container of noodles. I took out my stock pot and crab crackers and put them in a box along with the other stuff, then set out for the market. I went to 99 Ranch, which is the only supermarket I know of that sells fresh, live Dungeness crab. Since they're in season, they were selling for $3.99/lb, which is not bad, but also not the best price I've ever seen.


This little guy's just waiting to become a delicious meal. And what a good job he did, too!

When I got to my cousin's, I realized that I forgot all the noodles I had pre-boiled at home! D'oh!! That's a lot of noodles I'm going to have to eat on my own. Sigh. Luckily, I had bought more dried noodles while at the market, so I made more.

I have this little tradition whenever I make crab. Something traumatic always happens. This was probably one of the least eventful crab feasts I've ever had, but it wasn't event-free.



To begin with, I filled my stock pot full of water, then poured in a good amount of salt and set it to boil. I also set about heating up the soup, while my cousin made a salad and sliced some bread to warm in the oven. When the water was boiling, I took the first crab out of the bag, except it didn't really want to come out, and it took some wrangling from both my cousin and me to get it out, with its claws getting dangerously close to our fingers. Sadly, I learned too late that Kim (who is subletting the house her family's in while they renovate their house) didn't have any chopsticks, which would have been good both to eat noodles with and to keep the crab's claws occupied so that it couldn't get us instead. Its limbs were flailing around, and I got it to the pot and dropped it in ... except one of its claws had caught the lip of the pot and was hanging on for dear life. It was also splashing the water a bit, trying to get out, and I was trying to put the lid on so that the boiling water would do its job and make it let go, but it took an interminably long time, with both me and Kim screaming like girls. Finally it let go and fell to the bottom of the pot, and I turned to see that Dan, Kim's husband, had their 3-year-old in his arms. She had been watching the terrible proceedings and had a look on her face that was a mix of horror and intrigue. The second crab went in on top of the first crab with nary a protest, which was a relief.



The pot was only big enough to hold the two, so while they were boiling, I prepared a small bowl of noodles for Kim's two little girls. After 15 minutes, I pulled the crabs out of the pot and my cousin rinsed them with cold water, so that they'd be easier to clean. We put the third crab into the pot (they each weighed about 1.75 pounds), and it too gave very little resistance. I quickly cleaned the cooked crabs -- my cousin, who has never done anything like this, was very impressed.


Here the crabs have been cleaned, rinsed, and cracked into pieces for easy eating.

Now, I LOVE crab butter. It's not for everyone. But for me, there are few things finer in life than fresh, pungent, creamy crab butter. Mmm. Kim and Dan didn't want it, so I took the pieces that had the most crab butter on them, and rinsed the others under cold water so that they were butter-less.

While the girls chowed on noodles, the three adults devoured the crabs, which were absolutely delicious, the meat firm and sweet. Soon there was nothing but the sound of shell cracking and the occasional slurp as someone sucked out some hidden bit of succulent crab meat. The briny water dripped from the shells off our hands and wrists when we weren't fast enough to wipe it away. We paused only to occasionally dip our crab into our respective dishes of vinegar -- my cousin's white, mine black. In Chinese households, vinegar, not butter, is traditionally the condiment of choice for eating with boiled or steamed crab. It's equally delicious and much healthier. (However, with steamed or boiled lobster I have to have drawn butter.) We let the girls try some of the crab, and the 3-year-old enjoyed it while the 1-year-old wasn't a fan.

After we were done with dinner it was just about time for the girls to be in bed, so Dan took them to have their baths while Kim cleaned up and set out the pear and hazelnut frangipane tart, which was made by a woman in their general neighborhood. Apparently, a few months ago Kim had won a charity silent auction in which this woman, who is an avid baker, had donated a year's worth of desserts, one per month. Every month they correspond and agree on a dessert. Kim had seen this recipe in Gourmet magazine, and asked if the woman would make it; she agreed. The only change she made (that we know of) is that at Kim's request she lowered the sugar from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup.



The tart was AWESOME. It was sooooo good -- nutty and flavorful, with a light and delicate crust. Kim served it with vanilla ice cream. If you compare the picture of the tart the woman baked with the picture Gourmet has on their site, you'll see they're practically identical. Hats off to the baker, seriously. It was a great dessert. And even though Gourmet says that it's a fairly simple tart to make, as a new baker, I can safely say that nothing is ever as easy as a cooking magazine tries to make it seem. I've reproduced the recipe here (with the change in sugar amounts), just in case Gourmet ever changes their links or removes the recipe entirely. This one is definitely a keeper.



Then, after the tart was eaten (well, not all of it; I brought a huge slice home) and the girls were in bed, Kim and I ate noodles. Well we didn't have any other choice! We still had to eat it due to our cultural tradition and we didn't have time to have it before dessert! I was super full by then, but she wasn't (she is pregnant), so she had a big bowl and I had a little one. Yeah, after that I was pretty much ready to be rolled home.

Pear and Hazelnut Frangipane Tart (recipe adapted from here)

Serves 10
Active time: 30 min
Start to finish: 2 1/2 hrs

Ingredients:

• 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, loose skins rubbed off in a kitchen towel, and cooled
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• tart shell (recipe below, or use pre-made shell)
• 3 firm-ripe Bosc or Anjou pears
• 1/4 cup apricot preserves, heated and strained

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Pulse hazelnuts with 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor until finely ground, then add flour and pulse to combine.
3. Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup sugar with an electric mixer at moderately high speed until pale and fluffy.
4. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla extract.
5. Reduce speed to low and mix in nut mixture until just combined.
6. Spread frangipane filling evenly in tart shell.
7. Peel, halve, and core pears, then cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices, holding slices together to keep pear shape intact.
8. Arrange pears decoratively on filling, fanning slices slightly.
9. Bake until pears are golden and frangipane is puffed and golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes.
10. Brush pears (not filling) with preserves and cool tart completely in pan on rack, then remove side of pan.

Tart Shell (recipe originally found here)

Makes 1 (11-inch) tart shell
Active time: 25 min
Start to finish: 3 hrs
Special equipment:a pastry or bench scraper; an 11- by 1-inch fluted round tart pan with a removable bottom; pie weights or raw rice

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening
• 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Method

1. Blend together flour, sugar, salt, butter, and shortening with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps.
2. Drizzle evenly with 3 tablespoons ice water and gently stir with a fork (or pulse in food processor) until incorporated.
3. Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn't hold together, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until just incorporated, then test again. (If you overwork mixture, pastry will be tough.)
4. Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 portions.
5. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion.
6. Gather dough together with scraper and press into a ball, then flatten into a 6-inch disk.
7. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
8. Roll out dough with a floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round on a lightly floured surface and fit into tart pan. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang inward and press against side of pan to reinforce edge.
9. Lightly prick bottom and sides with a fork. Chill 30 minutes.
10. Preheat oven to 375°F.
11. Line tart shell with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake in middle of oven until pastry is pale golden along rim, 20 minutes.
12. Carefully remove foil and weights and bake until pale golden all over, 10 minutes more. Cool in pan on a rack.