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| M (on the left) and R (on the right) getting our feisty crabbies into the pot! YUM. |
Nothing says winter has arrived in San Francisco than full tanks of Dungeness crabbies. Let me just get this out there - I. LOVE. CRAB.
One thing that I absolutely love, aside from how sustainable Dungeness crab is to fish, how delicious it is to eat and how wonderfully nutritious it is for you, is that I feel that crab eating involves community. So last night, we had M & A over for dinner to partake in the destruction and mass enjoyment of lovely crabbies.
From a sustainable perspective, California Fish and Game changed the laws around fishing for crabs this year. The laws are quite strict about the size of the crab, the length of the season and how many you can catch in a day. Before, there was a weight limit of crabs, so all the fishing boats would go out and catch all the crabs at the start of the season. With the new regulations this year, there is a maximum number of crabs that can be caught per boat. This is great for the smaller fishermen, as there is much less competition with the larger fish companies who can afford a ton of boats and harvest most of the crabs at the start of the season. This new regulation levels the playing field. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whom I personally look to for all things related to sustainable and safe consumption of seafood, Dungeness is a “best” choice.
Nutritionally, these crabbies are high in magnesium, potassium, calcium, zinc and protein. They are very low in fat and carbohydrates. It can be pretty tough to get some of these minerals, so these crabbies are a fantastic way to get some great minerals into your diet.
R and I love to host dinner parties. We love to have our friends over and share in an amazing dinner with good wine and the best ice cream in the world from Bi-Rite, or some other delicious treat. The evening usually ends with us chatting about politics, science, life or sometimes in epic battles of Settlers of Catan. Most of all, I feel like enjoying Dungeness requires having friends over to sit at or tiny dinning room table and to pick crab. There’s nothing quite like digging into a crab to make things feel a bit communal!
Here are some tips for you if you want to start eating these delicious, tasty and wonderful for you and the environment crustaceans:
-Cole slaw
-Black rice with green onion, cilantro and/or parsley; season with salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil
-Crusty bread from your trusted baker (I trust this to Acme here in SF)
-Salad
Some sauces to enjoy your crabbage with, should you even need it:
-Chop up some ginger, add in brown rice vinegar (in a pinch, use garlic instead)
-Melted butter, salted
Most of all, get your friends together, enjoy the amazing taste of these crabs and enjoy the flying pieces of crab!!
One thing that I absolutely love, aside from how sustainable Dungeness crab is to fish, how delicious it is to eat and how wonderfully nutritious it is for you, is that I feel that crab eating involves community. So last night, we had M & A over for dinner to partake in the destruction and mass enjoyment of lovely crabbies.
From a sustainable perspective, California Fish and Game changed the laws around fishing for crabs this year. The laws are quite strict about the size of the crab, the length of the season and how many you can catch in a day. Before, there was a weight limit of crabs, so all the fishing boats would go out and catch all the crabs at the start of the season. With the new regulations this year, there is a maximum number of crabs that can be caught per boat. This is great for the smaller fishermen, as there is much less competition with the larger fish companies who can afford a ton of boats and harvest most of the crabs at the start of the season. This new regulation levels the playing field. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whom I personally look to for all things related to sustainable and safe consumption of seafood, Dungeness is a “best” choice.
Nutritionally, these crabbies are high in magnesium, potassium, calcium, zinc and protein. They are very low in fat and carbohydrates. It can be pretty tough to get some of these minerals, so these crabbies are a fantastic way to get some great minerals into your diet.
R and I love to host dinner parties. We love to have our friends over and share in an amazing dinner with good wine and the best ice cream in the world from Bi-Rite, or some other delicious treat. The evening usually ends with us chatting about politics, science, life or sometimes in epic battles of Settlers of Catan. Most of all, I feel like enjoying Dungeness requires having friends over to sit at or tiny dinning room table and to pick crab. There’s nothing quite like digging into a crab to make things feel a bit communal!
Here are some tips for you if you want to start eating these delicious, tasty and wonderful for you and the environment crustaceans:
- Get them live and keep them live until you decide to throw them in a pot
- Ask for the feisty ones, make sure they’re active and have all of their legs
- Keep them in the fridge until you want to cook them; purchase them as close to dinner as you can
- Get a stock pot that has a pasta insert, then you can cook up to 4 crabs at once
- If you feel really bad about steaming live crabs, stick them in the freezer, this will knock them out
- Make sure that the water is boiling in the pot, take the crab out of the fridge and grab the butt of the crab with your hands or with tongs to put them in the pot; keep your fingers away from the pinchers
- Once you get your crabs in the pot (sometimes easier said than done), put the lid on and ignore the banging around! I promise, it will go away soon...
- Steam for 17-20 minutes, remove from the pot and let them rest/cool down for about 10 minutes (we usually start eating our sides at this point)
- From here, take the top off the crab, split in half and wash all the insides out (check YouTube for videos on how to do this, can’t help ya here, M & R usually clean the crabbies for me!)
- Get an empty bowl for shell, a napkin for your hands, a crab cracker and get to it!!!
-Cole slaw
-Black rice with green onion, cilantro and/or parsley; season with salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil
-Crusty bread from your trusted baker (I trust this to Acme here in SF)
-Salad
Some sauces to enjoy your crabbage with, should you even need it:
-Chop up some ginger, add in brown rice vinegar (in a pinch, use garlic instead)
-Melted butter, salted
Most of all, get your friends together, enjoy the amazing taste of these crabs and enjoy the flying pieces of crab!!
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