If you’re crabby, have crab!

 

Last night I had a hair cut appointment over in the neighboring town. Hubby and I had planned on having pizza when I got back. After a hard week, I wanted to have some downtime and just have something simple. I got to the appointment early and had time to kill. When I am early, I always stop in the Asian store to look around. They have a lot of  interesting ingredients and fresh whole fish as well. I needed some banana leaves, so I went in to get those. I found the frozen banana leaves easily, when off to the right my eye caught a big bin of something. And those somethings were moving! I could not believe my eyes when I saw a tank of the live blue crab. Above the crabs lay tongs and paper bags. I know I had a plan for dinner, but I could not hardly contain my excitement. Plus these were small little devils. I was surprised not to see them in water and immediately found an emplyee of the store to ask if this was normal. Also asked him how long it was alright for them to sit before being eaten because I had to leave them in my car during my hour long appointment. I texted my husband and told him I had found some live blue crabs and there was a slight change in plans. “Prepare the big pot” I told him. I also asked him to read online just to prepare ourselves on how to cook them. We usually just throw lobsters and crab legs into boiling water. I picked up the tongs and picked up three crabs and put them in the bag. I was surprised by their fiestyness. They grabbed the tongs and grabbed each other. I finally wrestled them into the bag. This was a good sign because energetic crabs mean a healthy crab. Plus I had smelled the tank and there was no funky odor to be had. I checked out and ran to my hair appointment. While in my appointment I did have visions of the crabs crawling out of the bag and into my car. But it didn’t happen. The crabs were relaxed, although I could hear stirrings and movement inside the bag once in a while while I was driving. That all changed when I got them home. My husband had already prepared a big pot for steaming them. We used the big pot we can our pickles in and inside that pot he put a little but of water and cider vinegar. He had read online this was the best way to cook them. Some people also put lemons and crab boil in there as well to add flavor. I was a little skeptical of the vinegar, but I went with the flow. Sometimes you have to try and see. While we were waiting for the water in the bottom of the pot to come to a boil, I carefully took the crabs out of the bag, trying to avoid getting pinched by the flailing claws, and put them onto the counter. Two of them started fighting with each other while another one looked on.

 

 

 I didn’t want them to go too crazy. They can drop their limbs if they get too stressed or threatened. I almost felt bad for the little guys. They did not know what lie ahead. I admit, I really love eating crab and lobster, but there is always a twinge of guilt I feel about the preparation process. It is a necessary evil. I have always heard you can put them into the refrigerator before boiling/steaming them or plunge them in ice water and it helps them to relax and go to sleep. That does not make it any better for me. But once I put a tasty morsel in my mouth, I always forget the preparation. After I had rinsed them off, and once the water came to a boil, we put the crabs into the strainer in the pot and quickly closed the lid. We steamed them for 20 minutes.

 

 

 

 We took tongs and got the crabs out. One of them had leaked “mustard” which is actually the hepatopancreas, a main part of the crab’s digestive system. This is not a very appetizing sight. My husband washed it off of the one crab and the others still had their “mustard” inside them.  The very bottom crab had lost all of his legs (do you blame him?). The rest of them were intact. Our next challenge was to eat the crabs. At first we had trouble finding the meat. We had taken off the top part of the shell and inside found the “mustard” and the gills. We had to pry the body in half to find the meat near the legs. Also we found meat in the claws, but it was a small amount. The mustard was all over everything and I went often to the sink to rinse it off. After a lot of digging and prying and rinsing, I decided I had enough of these crabs. They were a lot of work for little reward. I was glad we had the pizza on the side, although it made for a funny kind of dinner. Pizza and crab anyone?

 

 

Although the meat I did have was tasty, if you decide to cook these, make sure you are prepared for the shelling and digging to find the meat. You will need a lot of blue crab to have a substantial dinner. Maybe there is another way. I am not ready to give up yet on these crabs. I am going to do more research to see if there is an easier way to get to the meat. The preparation was no problem at all. In the meantime, I think I will stick to the snow/king crab and the dungeness crab. I have attached some pictures of the beautiful blue crab.

 

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