STUFFED CRABS
When I stopped being a stupid little kid ("I hate seafood!") and saw The
Light, this quickly became one of my favorite dishes. My grandma made
the greatest stuffed crabs.
Usually the way to do it is not to pick meat out of boiled crabs, but to
buy the lump crabmeat separately, get some washed crab shells from the
seafood market (left over after the crabs had been cleaned to use for
gumbo), then mix the dressing and stuff them into the crabs.
The best way to get these is in real crab shells, but you never see
these in restaurants these days (nor in seafood markets that sell
prepared dishes), due to a few unscrupulous restauranteurs way back when
who would try to reuse the crab shells after they'd already been
stuffed, heated, and served to customers. Yuck. (A recipe for food
poisoning, that.) When you do see stuffed crabs nowadays, you see them
in pseudo-crab shells made of thick aluminum foil, and roughly
crab-shaped. Not as good. The only way to get 'em the real way (i.e., in
crab shells) is to get 'em homemade.
The secret to this recipe is to moisten the bread used to make the
dressing with crab or shrimp stock. If you use chicken stock, it won't
taste nearly as much of seafood. If you use water, it'll taste like ...
blah. You can take a little bit of crabmeat and make it go a long way
with some crab stock you make from a few leftover shells.
1 pound lump crabmeat (worth the splurge)
Two sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 rib celery, finely chopped
1 bunch green onions (including the green part), finely chopped
4 tablespoons finely minced flat-leaf Italian parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
A dash or two of Tabasco or Crystal Hot Sauce, to taste
1/2 loaf stale French bread, cubed (about 3 cups)
1 cup homemade French bread crumbs (not from a can)
2 cups homemade crab stock or shrimp stock
A dozen or so reserved crab shells, washed thoroughly, or you may
substitute aluminum crab forms if you can get them
Heat your oven to 400°F.
Heat 1-1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) of the butter and heat in a heavy
skillet. When the butter is sizzling, sauté the onions and the celery
until the onions begin to brown (be careful, make sure you brown them
and not burn them). Add the green onions, garlic, salt and pepper and
continue to cook until the vegetables are tender. Add the parsley and
cook one minute. Season to taste with the Tabasco or Crystal (just a
little, don't overdo it here).
Add the crab stock, mix well, then bring to a boil. Add the bread cubes
and bread crumbs, and mix very thoroughly. Taste and adjust seasonings
if necessary, then let the mixture cool.
Take 2-1/2 to 3 cups of the bread mixture and place in a large bowl,
breaking it up with your fingers. Add the crabmeat (which has been
picked over for cartilege and shell bits) and use your hands to combine
it with the bread mixture, very carefully. You pay a premium for lump
crabmeat, so don't break it up; leave some lumps!
Stuff each crab shell or aluminum crab form with a generous amount of
the stuffing. Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and drizzle
over each mount of stuffing. Bake for about 10 minutes, and if you like
turn on the broiler for the last 30-60 seconds, so that the bread crumbs
will toast slightly (be VERY careful if you do this, and watch
constantly).
Makes about one dozen stuffed crabs. These make great appetizers (you
can serve as they are or drizzle with hollandaise), as a side dish, or
serve three crabs as a main dish with a vegetable.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Access the Recipes And More list archives at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/recipesandmore%40googlegroups.com/
Visit the group home page at:
http://groups.google.com/group/RecipesAndMore
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
