Steamin’ and Pickin’ Crab, w/ Recipes

Our Crab Key, Jamaica

In honor of Crab Key, Jamaica, we knew we had to do something with crabs.

After all, near the end of the movie, Dr. No’s henchmen tied up Honey Ryder so that she would be eaten by crabs.

Therefore, we knew we had to incorporate crabs into our food.

Gordon Bought Us 3 Dungeness Crabs

These Things Are HUGE!

In Addition to our Crabs, we also have some Jamaican Coco Bread, Mango’s, Bananas,

and a Papaya, along with a few Coconuts

I do have to say that it made me sad to see these beautiful creatures, ALIVE, and knowing that Gordon would be killing them soon.

I did have thoughts of grabbing them and driving to the ocean to turn them loose, but I also knew that Gordon had just spent around $100.00 for all of these crabs and that my idea would not be appreciated.

It’s one thing to buy a crab cake at a restaurant and eat it. You don’t really think about where it comes from? But, it’s another thing to buy it alive, and then kill it to cook it and eat it.

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Stay Back! I Have a Bucket!

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The Dungeness Crabs Were Very Docile

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Steamin’ LIVE Crabs!

These are Blue Claw Crabs as you can see their beautiful blue claws. Give all your crabs a good rinse in fresh water to remove any mud or other ‘not so desirable’ particulates on the crabs before steaming them.

These particular ones are female (Sooks) as you can see the broad triangular section on their underbelly. If they were male (Jimmy), the triangular piece would be much thinner in width.

(I Julie, would like to add that I always admired Gordon’s family when it came to crabbing. They would always throw back the females. They would recognize the importance of having them continue to live and thrive to bring about new crabs in the future.)

We also cooked these Dungeness Crabs. They usually come with rubber bands on their claws as they can do a lot of damage if they grab you. The rubber bands also keep the crabs from hurting each other.

I am using a steamer pot to cook them in.

Simply add about a quart of water to the pot and heat the water to a boil.

Add your crabs when the water is a temperature to kill them quickly.

I add a good amount of Old Bay Season to each crab as shown.

I steamed the Dungeness Crabs by themselves and not with the Blue Claw’s so they would cook at the same time.

Steam these crabs for about 10-12 min. or until bright pink as shown. They will continue to cook as you bring them out of the steam.

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I used the side burner of my grill to cook the crabs.

Here you can see the Blue Claws are much smaller than the Dungeness Crabs.

Beautiful Blue Claw Sooks

Here you can see I am using long tongs to handle the crabs as they don’t have rubber bands on their claws. Be sure to have your water at a boil before steaming the crabs. Give each crab a good dose of Old Bay Seasoning as you fill the pot.

Steam these crabs for about 7 minutes, or until they reach that nice pink color. Again, they will remain very hot for some time after removed from the steamer. This residual heat will continue to cook the crabs.

What a nice feast!

This takes me back to my childhood.

They look and smell great!

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Here we have prepared a great meal…

Herbed Roasted Red Potatoes and Radish’s, Coconut Lemon Lime Corn on the Cob, Green Beans and Coco Bread

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The Crabs We Ate

Here is a great picture of the side dishes we prepared.

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If You Would Like To See Our Other Recipes That Went With This Meal:

Click Here For: I’ve Got A Licence To Grill

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Pickin’ Crabs

Picking crabs is something I have done for many years. In my pre-teens, I was picking crabs with my family most every summer. For many summers my parents rented a beach house off the Chesapeake Bay where we used our own Crab Trap to catch our own crabs. We spent many nights picking and eating crabs. Most of the crabs meat we froze and months later, my Mom would then make the best crab cakes in the world. All of our family would sit around the table, talking about our day at the beach just picking crabs into the late night. At the time, my little fingers could easily get into the small sections of the crab.

Here you can see I have a large bowl for the shells.

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How To ‘Step By Step’ Pick Crabs

What you will need…

a knife, mallet, and cutting board, a bowl for the picked crab meat, and bowl for the shells/waste.

For the Blue Claws, start by removing the legs. You may pull them off and bring some meat with them. Save the claws as the rest of the legs aren’t worth the effort. With the Dungeness Crabs, all the legs are saved as they have a good amount of meat in them.

Now, pull back on the underbelly shell and remove it. This will provide an opening to place your thumbs into and pry the top shell away from the main shell as shown.

Here is a good picture of the top shell.

The main shell has what is call Mustard – a tart substance in the main cavity of the crab. This is edible but is more of an acquired taste. You can usually remove it without much trouble. Then remove what are the lungs of the crab.

They are on both sides of the main body of the crab and NOT edible.

Now, break the crab’s body in half, then using your knife, slice through the body as shown.

Doing this will make it easier to get at the meat within the crab’s small cavities.

Here you can see the large lump crab meat which I removed from the back fin section of the crab.

Use your fingers or the tip of the knife to remove the meat from the small cavities.

This is where little fingers worked well.

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You do the exact same procedure with the Dungeness Crabs as they are just larger.

Remember to save all the crab’s leg as they have a good amount of meat inside them.

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Break the legs apart at the joints as shown.

Use your knife and a mallet to crack the legs apart.

Remove the meat being sure to search for small parts of shell.

Here you can see my bowl of crab meat is getting pretty full.

I usually save the legs until the end and pick them all at once.

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Stay Salty

The Waste

All The Crab Meat

(We froze all of this Crab Meat.)

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Crab Wine, and Crab Chips

This was a wine that Gordon bought in Ocean City, Maryland.

Also, the Crab wine glass.

Crab Cakes w/ Red Pepper Sauce

(We used one of Gordon’s Mother’s crab recipes. She has several crab cake recipes.

We also used her Red Pepper Sauce recipe.)

I made this tray back in 2001, and I gave it to my Mother-In-Law for Christmas.

I simply painted a wooden tray the color I wanted. Then decoupaged a paper with the photo of a crab and one of her recipes.

I decoupaged quite a few trays for people back in the day.

To: Sarajane

From: Julie

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Sarajane Whann’s Crab Cakes and Red Pepper Sauce Reicpe’s

These are two of my Mom’s classic recipes, which we have loved eating for many years.

We hope you will like them as much as we have.

Julie found the recipe shoved into my mom’s Herb Notebook.

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Sarajane Whann’s Red Pepper Sauce Recipe

Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Large Jar Roasted Red Bell Peppers

4 Cloves Roasted Garlic

3 Raw Garlic Cloves

4 Anchovies

1/4 Cup White Wine Vinegar

The Juice of 1 Lemon

1 Heaping Tbsp. Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard

Salt and Pepper to taste – being wary that you have salty Anchovies

3 Sweet Peppers – de-seeded and chopped

1/2 – 3/4 Cups Olive Oil – or as much is needed

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You can place the ingredients into the blender in any order you want.

Don’t be afraid to try Anchovies.

They do give the sauce a nice well rounded flavor.

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Here I started with the Roasted Red Bell Peppers, being sure to drain them well.

I also added the raw Garlic Cloves.

Now, add the Roasted Garlic not found on my Mom’s original recipe.

Then add your Anchovies.

Now, add your White Wine Vinegar to the blender.

Add your fresh Lemon Juice to the blender then I added the Dijon Mustard.

Add your Ground Pepper and pinch of Hawaiian Sea Salt or other salt you may have on hand.

Here are some Sweet Peppers from our garden also not in my Mom’s original recipe.

Just remove the stem and seeds and give them a light chop.

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Add about 1/4 Cup of Olive Oil to the blender to get the ingredients moving and pulse for a few times.

Now, add more Olive Oil until you get the consistency you desire. We like this sauce very smooth. Give it a taste and add any of the ingredients to your liking. Set aside in the refrigerator for later use. This will last at least a week, if not longer in the refrigerator as the acid from the vinegar will keep it from spoiling.

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Sarajane Whann’s Crab Cake Recipe

Crab Cakes

I can’t tell you how amazing these are… you will just have to make them for yourself.

Makes 12 AMAZING Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

2 – 1 LB. cans of Lump Crab Meat – Check for shells

1/2 Orange Bell Pepper – cut into a small dice

1/2 Cup Sweet Onions – chopped into a small dice

4 Garlic Cloves – chopped thinly

1/2 Cup Parsley – chopped thinly

1 Tbsp. Dried Thyme

1 Tbsp. Garlic and Herb Bread Crumbs

5 Shakes Worcestershire Sauce

Hot Sauce – to taste

1 Tbsp. Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard

2 Tbsp. Mayonnaise

Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

2 Cups Peanut Oil

Dredge for the Crab Cakes

1 Cup Corn Meal

1/2 Cup Flour

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I am so ready to make the amazing Crab Cakes.

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I started by cutting the Bell Pepper in half then I removed the seeds.

Slice the pepper into long stripes then into a small dice as shown.

I cut the entire pepper, but only used half.

Open the cans of Crab and drain if needed.

Empty the crab into a large bowl.

I like the lump backfin as I like to see the chunks of crab meat.

Gently sift through the crab meat looking for shells.

Now I added the Bell Peppers and Sweet Onions to the Crab Meat.

Slice your Garlic thinly then into small pieces.

Add your Garlic to the bowl.

Remove the large stems of your Parsley, then chop it finely.

Add your Parsley, Dried Thyme, and Bread Crumbs to the bowl.

Now add your Worcestershire Sauce, Hot Sauce, and Dijon Mustard to the bowl.

Lastly, add your Mayonnaise and Black Pepper to the bowl.

In a smaller bowl, add your dredge mix of Corn Meal and Flour.

Give it a quick mix with your hand.

Here you can see all the ingredients for the Crab Cakes in the bowl.

Gently fold the ingredients, so as not to break up the lumps of Crab Meat.

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Form the Crab Cakes into a patty that is about 1 inch thick. Be sure to press it firmly together as there is not much to bind the ingredients together. Now, gently place the Crab Cake into the dredge and cover it on both sides. Meanwhile, add about 2 Cups of Peanut Oil to a large skillet and heat to Medium High Heat. We like using a cast iron skillet as it keeps the temperature and fries evenly.

Place your pressed and dredged Crab Cake onto a plate and make at least three more.

When your oil is at temperature, gently add your Crab Cake to the skillet. It should sizzle in the oil.

Add your other three Crab Cakes and place a splatter screen over them just it case the oil splatters violently. Let these Crab Cakes sit in the oil for at least five min. or until golden brown. Meanwhile make at least four more crab cakes. Turn the Crab Cakes over when done and fry for another five min. or so until again golden brown. They should look as mine do in the last picture.