Thursday, 04 February 2010
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Dreaming About Summer Cuisine -Soft-Shell Crabs!
In the dead of winter, when the cold air whips right through me and the snow is falling, I like to flip through my summer photos and dream about warmer days. I came across some pictures of my most recent 4th of July celebration and began to salivate.
Last year, my friends and I went on a quest to find soft-shell crabs. These wondrous crustaceans make an appearance for a few short months, May to July, every year and they must be alive until the moment you decide to cook them.
After hitting up Chelsea Market, Fairway and a few other Manhattan supermarkets, we headed down to Chinatown. Chinatown has an incredible open-air seafood market and it is so cheap. Although we were prepared to pay $60 for just a handful of soft-shell crabs, we ended up paying $20 for 16. What a steal!
I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about purchasing live seafood and frying them up myself. Part of the process of making soft-shell crabs is that you have to cut them with scissors behind the eyes while they are still alive.
I showed my true carnivorous colors, though, and successfully cut almost all of the crabs myself. After all of the crabs were severed, we dredged the crabs in flour, salt and pepper and fried the crabs in a sauté pan for 3 to 4 minutes on each side.
I made the mistake of not piercing some of the claws, an error I will never make again. If the claws aren’t pierced before heating up in the oil, they explode and oil shoots into the air and onto your skin. Ouch!
We made a tangy sauce with mayo, mustard, Tabasco sauce and tarragon vinegar. It was delicious.
What are your favorite seasonal dishes? Do you have a favorite season for food?
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- From: GinaG@xanga
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Comments (11)
I love softshell crab!! It looks delicious! I live in Canada so I guess my favourite seasonal food would be BBQ in the summer time.
I also love soft-shell crabs. I love eating it as it is, in sushi, and as a topping in pizza! (The Pizza Hut in Hong Kong had this).
I LOVE soft-shell crab, either fried on a sandwich or in sushi.
I love eating fresh steamed clams too in the summertime, fresh seafood is just so so good.
I could eat these all day long.
what do u mean cut behind the eyes? u cut the eyes off?
how do u pierce the claws? o.0@Blue_Angel_24@xanga - I didn't want to get too graphic but, yes, you do cut the eyes off the crab. You are immediately cutting right into the brain, so it supposedly doesn't hurt them. I guess we'll never actually know if that is true though...
As for piercing the claw, you just have to poke the claw with a knife to make a tiny incision. After they are dead, of course.
@GinaG@xanga - wow... should all the crabs be cooked like that? or only when they are fried? as you can tell, iv never dont any. lol.
Oooh summer foods!!!! I'm already salivating just thinking about it!
I'm just going to list them as they pop into my head:
Lobsters - steamed at home and eaten, can be dipped in a little salt+pepper+lime
Baby clams - fresh caught in Sandy Hook, NJ, soaked in freshwater first so they let out all the dirt and sand, then cooked on the grill - can be dipped in salt+pepper+lime too
Soft-shelled crabs - steamed also, and again, S&P and lime
Watermelon - my family of 5 goes through about 2 - 3 huge (think beach ball) watermelons a week
BBQ wings/chicken/beef/pork - basically seasoned (using Asian seasonings) & marinated overnight, maybe even a couple of nights, then cooked on the grill - YUM!
VEGETABLES!!!! - my parents love gardening and every summer (well, May - Oct) we always have an abundance of vegetables to eat! Some of them are hard to get here in the States so they just grow them.
There might be more but that's all I can think of right now lol.
btw - with steaming the crustaceans, my mom always pour some water and a can of beer into the pot and steam the crustaceans on top of that. The beer adds a subtle flavor that's to die for!
am I the only one who doesn't like them?
I like the taste but my family seems to deem it's too much work for so little meat
Mmm I love getting these at the sushi buffet.
Yum! Softshell crab is the BEST! My seasonal food is pumpkin pie... Two Thanksgivings ago, I berated my best friend when I was over and she had bought ONE for the entire dinner of twenty. I was like "really?!" Needless to say, last year, she bought two. :D