14 Jul 2010 Roasted Crab
 |  Category: Main Dish, Seafood, Seasonal  | Tags: , , , ,

Crabs! After two years of miserable harvests, they are abundant this year. I’ve seen ads for crab for $4.99 lb, $3.99 lb, and Buy One Get One Free (but they hike the price up to $6.99 lb.to get a free one). Here’s a fabulous, easy, finger-licking good recipe which takes about 20 minutes to pull together after arriving home with a few cracked and cleaned crabs. You have to eat the crab with your fingers, and you have to lick your fingers. It’s required. Eaten this way, this crab is DELICIOUS. The only side needed is a loaf of fresh sourdough bread to mop up a bit of the sauce in the bottom of the pan. For dessert, my daughter shared her Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Simple, quick and what a memorable meal!

NOTE #1: I made my first three batches of this crab in glass 13 x 9 inch pans. On the fourth batch, I took one pan out of the oven, placed it on a cutting board, stepped away…, and then the glass dish EXPLODED! Glass EVERYWHERE, including all over the 2 crabs in the dish. (Second glass dish, cooked in same oven, was fine.) Because of this potentially dangerous–and obviously very messy– situation I would caution against using a glass (Pyrex, Anchor Hocking) pan to roast the crab.

NOTE #2: Don’t underestimate how HOT a pan gets in a 450 degree oven. Be careful, very, very careful when transferring the HOT pans . Use your thickest oven mitts, on both hands, to move this pan.  I have had painful burns from not protecting my hands enough. A burnt hand can really interfere with your enjoyment of a good meal.

I found this recipe on Epicurious.com, LOVE that website!

Roasted Crab

For each pair of cracked and cleaned crabs:

Salt and pepper, to taste
1 T. chopped parsley or cilantro
1 T. chopped fresh thyme
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. olive oil
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 minced shallot
1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes
1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 c. freshly squeezed orange juice
grated peel of 1 lemon
grated peel of 1/2 orange

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place pieces of each pair of crabs in a 9 by 13 inch baking dish, sprinkle with salt, pepper, parsley/cilantro, and thyme. Melt butter and olive oil in a skillet. Stir in garlic, shallot and red pepper flakes. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour sauce over crabs. Place in hot oven for 6 minutes. Stir, shake, turn crab and then return to oven to roast for another 6 minutes. Remove crab to a serving platter. Pour drippings back into skillet. Add 1/4 c fresh orange juice and 1/4 c fresh lemon juice, grated orange and lemon peel. Boil for 5 minutes and then pour sauce over crabs. Serve. Definitely finger food. Must lick fingers. Have towels on hand for wiping. Mop up sauce with bits of sourdough bread.

This was a really GOOD day to stop by my kitchen!

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One Response
  1. Party Girl says:

    Ok so, I go to the grocery store, I see crab on sale. I have all the other ingredients at home, so I think “perfect dinner” next thing I know, I’m having a dinner party for 7. Seven people, six crabs, and seventy oily, garlicy, lemony, orangey fingers. I threw in mozzarella sticks, your famous focaccia, lemon meringue pie and champagne. Mmmmmmm. AWESOME!

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