Big Mike! Need your help

[ChooksinChoppers]

Wise Sensei! Please advise on the recent aquisition of 2 NICE fresh blue crabs! I have never cooked these before (or any crab speicies) much to my shame.....help

 

[bigmike&nan]

I don't like crab much so I don't have much in my "repitoire" for crab - what I would make would be some form of crab cake - lots of recipes online - search in YAHOO for crab cake recipe - some of the more true and tested ones would be from Food Network. Also search in YouTube so you can SEE them making them. I use those two resources all the time - even for something I make all the time and feel I "have down" to the way I really like it. WHY ?? Because you never know how good someone else's is until you check it out...

Good luck, Squishy would probably eat crab cakes because it's a lot of bread crumbs and vegetables.

 

[SourRoses]

Oh of course wise sensei!


Not! Squishy would NEVER eat yicky crabs!

They come from the sea after all! That makes them seafood! *Squishy figured that out all by herself*

My thoughts are..... Boil them like Lobsters! Or crumb them and deep fry! That should take care of the fish poo bacteriums.

I just about had a heart attack when I opened the fridge earlier and saw those things! I knew if I came over here there might be an explanation as to their presence

Maybe I should let them go in the pond? They are BLUE after all... How can you eat something that was BLUE?

 

[bigmike&nan]

Dang !! I typed up a nice recipe and went to steal a lovely photo to gussy up my recipe and closed the recipe window by accident before saving. I HATE when I do that. LOL


1 lb crab meat, clean carefully for shell fragments
1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely diced
1/2 cup celery, finely diced
1/2 cup scallion, finely diced
1/2 cup fresh parsley finely diced
1/2 cup home made mayo
2 Tbls white wine
2 Tbls lemon juice
1 Tbls Dijon Mustard
1 Tsp Old Bay Seasoning (or paprika/cayenne blended)
1 egg beaten
1 cup fine freshly toasted home made bread crumbs (so good when you make your own)

1 cup seasoned flour (to dip cakes in)

Combine all of first group in a bowl and mix well - refrigerate covered an hour so the flavors meld, make into patties and dredge each in some seasoned flour. Melt half butter/evo in a heavy skillet and saute 3-4 minutes per side until crispy and browned, Remove to a warm plate lined with paper towel. Repeat until all are done. Lay out some arugula or butter lettuce on a wide platter and arrange the crab cakes attractively. Serve with a curried home made mayo (nothing so fine as your own curry powder and mayo combined). Enjoy. Photo credit to good old Paula Deen.... (take a stick of butter and... LOL)

Bow to the East to the Temple that is Mark Bittman...

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Thanks Mike! Your recipe sounds great! Better than the one in the pic, as it looks like it has peas and carrots in it .
Celery and red pepper sounds much nicer.
In my original Post, I titled it. Help Big Mike! I have Crabs!

Wasn't until I looked it over for errors that I noticed that didn't sound too good!

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Oh dear, you are very much in my territory now! I grew up catching, cooking and cleaning blue crabs. LOVE them!

Now, you only have two crabs. That's maybe enough meat for one itty bitty crabcake.

Are they still alive? If they aren't, don't bother cooking or eating. They must go in the pot alive. If they're in the fridge, let them warm up a bit- if they start moving around, they're good. But then they need to be steamed right away.

 

[ranchhand]

The way to cook them is to steam them over low boiling water for 20-25 minutes, liberally sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning or an equivalent. (Boiling makes the meat watery and mushy.) Let them cool a bit, then start picking. Pretty sure there are step by step guides to picking crabs online.

The seasoning on the shells gets on your fingers and then rubs off to the meat. Yummy when they are still slightly warm. I sometimes dip the meat in melted butter. DH won't help pick, so I only steam and pick 2-3 dozen at a time. That yields enough meat for about 6 crab cakes, I don't use much filler.

There is nothing as good as sweet, properly cleaned crab meat!

 

[SourRoses]

ALIVE??!!

I could have sworn I saw those blue legs twitching when I went to get my midnight snack last night!

Shut the fridge right quick, I did!

I thought I was imagining things......

Thats it... 2 aren't enough for a meal anyway? I'll have to release those buggers in the pond and pour some salt in

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Quote:
Oh dear, you are very much in my territory now! I grew up catching, cooking and cleaning blue crabs. LOVE them!

Now, you only have two crabs. That's maybe enough meat for one itty bitty crabcake.

Are they still alive? If they aren't, don't bother cooking or eating. They must go in the pot alive. If they're in the fridge, let them warm up a bit- if they start moving around, they're good. But then they need to be steamed right away.

Only ONE crab cake? wahhhh

 

[bigmike&nan]

Quote:
LOL Squishy

When I was in school I remember a student farther along in the chef program telling me if I was smart to apply to be Chef Herve's sous chef when I was going to be in French Regional. You stand up at this big stove/sink work area in front of the class and do all his prep, run for stuff from the pantry downstairs and generally do anything but have time to take notes. The reason to do it, at the end of the class he gives you HIS chef notebook, this amazing tome of information he culled together while a young chef. WOW. I made a point to talk to him and get the job and worked as hard and fast as I could doing the prep. One day he was making bisques, he told me to go down to the school pantry and bring up two big boxes they'd have waiting for me. Sheesh, these two boxes were huge, what restaurants get 25 whole chickens delivered in. No elevator to make it easy I had to lug them one by one up narrow staircases and down into the demo kitchen/surgical theatre like classroom. While lugging the 2nd one up I thought I felt it moving around... When I got the second one up there he had already sauteed a bunch of shallots and garlic up and deglazed this huge pot with a bunch of white wine, he had me lift the box up onto the counter near the big pot, he lifted the lid and inside was a mass of live crawfish trying to get out - DUMP into the pot and so went the 2nd one too... A bunch of fish stock, some white ric, a bunch of brandy and herbs and 90 minutes later we were pureeing this very nice smelling pot of stuff with a thing called a bazooka (really a very large immersible chopper blender thing about 3 feet long) and then running it through a chinoise and putting the final touches on an amazingly tasty crawfish bisque. I told the story to my wife just now and I can see you or her throwing yourselvesf over the box to protect the little darlings... Anyway it was quite an experience and yeah by the end of 2 weeks I was plum worn out and I got Herve's notebook, which I still treasure.

A "bazooka" as it's called...

From Herve's Notebook, a recipe for crawfish sauce (with instructions on how to convert to crawfish bisque, his recipes are quick, concise and use French terms to describe parts of the process.


Crayfish:

Red: Louisiana-long skiny claws (sweeter tasting than Delta variety).
Brown-black: Delta or California crayfish-shorter/fatter claws.

To devein, pick carefully underneath center tail flipper, twist and pull.


Crayfish Sauce (Ecrevisses):
20 lb. crayfish 1-1 1/2 cup brandy
2 cup olive oil 1 cup chopped garlic
mirepoix (4o-3ce-2 le & mu-1 ca) 1 1/2 cup tomato paste
6 tomato concasse thyme & bay leaf
4 cups wh. wine equal parts wh. stock, fish stock, cream

Heat oil, add crayfishh, cook 3-4 minutes, add mirepoix, flambee w/brandy,
add 3-4 bay leaf and thyme, add tomato paste & concasse, Mouiller w/ wh. wine
Mouiller w/equal parts white stock, cream, fish stock above level of the cray-
fish. Cook 1 hr., skim foam (for bisque add 3 cups uncooked wh. rice after 45
min.). Bazooka mixture, strain, season s&p, perfume w/brandy.