Soft Shell Crabs

So I decided to take a whack a while back at soft shell crabs and figured I'd share it in a post. I love soft shell crab tacos, but had never actually tried them straight up before. After making this particular dish, I was taught some handy tricks on how to make them better-but regardless it was still delicious as a first attempt.

Soft shell crabs are AWESOME. For those of you who don't know, you eat the WHOLE thing. Say goodbye to cleaning and picking....the shells are so soft that you can slice right through them and eat everything, shell included, with a fork (or your fingers!). I love the crispy texture in contrast to the smooth texture of the meat, but some people can be off put by this. Sometimes this can be overcome by BATTERING the crab instead of breading it, but this also takes away some of the visual fun! Of course, don't knock it til' you try it.

NOTE: You'll notice, if you follow my blog, that I also cook a LOT of asparagus. I love it. My love for it will not suffer at the expense of variety. I'll even deal with the stinky pee for some delicious green stocks of goodness.

On that note, guess what I paired with my soft shell crostacions?! Yep. Seasoned with squeezes of lime and heavily peppered. That stuff is delicious.



I used Emeril's Cajun seasoning for the crabs and you can find that here: http://www.emerils.com/recipe/14/

After cleaning out the inside of the crab (most fishmongers will do it for you if you don't feel like doing it yourself or don't know how...lungs must be removed, etc), roll the crabs in flour and then in the seasoning so they are fully coated. In about 1-2 cm of oil, fry the crabs until red and crispy on either side.

NOTE: What I DID NOT do in this recipe which I will do in every future one is, right before frying the crab, flip open the top lid of the shell and crack an egg into a shell, and then close again. The egg will cook inside the shell and take away any unwanted fishiness that lovely yellow gooey stuff brings to the flavor of the crab. A chef taught me how to do this since I originally made it...So good! Sometimes I like my crabs fishier, but this certainly remedied the times that you aren't feeling it.

I would pair this with a lime based salsa-cilantro, shallot or spring onion, tomato, fresh red chili, (maybe mangos) and copious amounts of lime juice. The tartness matches quite well with the spice and takes away some of the heaviness.

When plating, I loved making the crabs look mildly alive (sick, I know, but fun!) so that they looked like they were crawling over the asparagus :) The capers from the seasoning looked just like little black crab eyes. Fun stuff! Love freaking out the dinner guests!

Until next time!