Sitting here looking out a wet Canadian winter has me thinking about summer. Growing up with the Atlantic coastline on my door step, gave my summers the idea place to harvest what I could from the sea. Watching the tides rise and fall wondering what was going on under the water. My favourite pastime has to be searching through all the cracks and crevices in the rocks for crabs at low tide. Our European rock crabs are similar in size to the Dungeoness crab, with the one stand out difference being the claw size. The huge pincer claws on the European rock crab are full of delicious sweet meat. As with any hunting gathering you always have to have a back up plan for when you don't find any crabs, ours was to also have a baited crab pot with us to put in a deep pool over night and see what crawled in. We would usually be guaranteed at least some spider crabs who's meat is equally delicious. There's something about the fresh sea air and the thought of crab meat that gets my stomach rumbling.
The cooking is a simple process of placing the crab in cold salted water, bring them to the boil and cook for 8 minutes. Remove them from the water allow to cool and crack the shells to reveal the succulent meat inside (I find a small hammer the best tool)
You can either eat the meat as it is or you can dress it with aioli, tabasco and lemon juice to give it that professional touch. It also goes really well with brown bread but what ever way you choose.. enjoy it!
No comments:
Post a Comment