Maryland Blue Crab Steam-off!

There's kind of a sick pleasure that one gets from steaming live crabs. For me, it's not killing the crabs, but finally winning the long battle of crab vs. human over the tongs. Those buggers do hold on for their dear lives, but really no clawed spider of the sea should ever go up against me...the crayfish made the best attempt yet but everyone knows how that turned out for them.

ANYHOW. One of my best friends Katie, who has been featured the odd time in this post, is moving to Portland and had never done a Maryland crab steam. Turns out neither had I, and we figured that might be a good thing to do before Portland steals her soul and converts her to the ways of the western waters.

We started at the wharf, as so many of these stories start (Main St. Fish Market, Washington, D.C., under the 395 bridge). We picked up 2 dozen large female Maryland blue crabs, but he must have given us about 30....We also bought a mallet because every good crab eater knows that your life is not complete without one.

I wanted to get creative with the recipes, but Joe (Katie's boyfriend) was insistent that we stick to the traditional old bay...I even tried to fool him by telling him I would make my own, but no. And the steam-off was born.

For Joe's pot, we did a very traditional water, beer and old bay broth (heavy on the beer!). We used Bell's Oberon, which is delicious and summery.

For my pot, I did a white wine, sherry vinegar, water and cajun spice base. I did a home made blend of cajun spices...an unmeasured combination of Hungarian paprika, cayenne pepper, chili flakes, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, onion flakes, and garlic powder. I just used a dry NZ Sauvignon Blanc and a rail sherry vinegar. Went pretty light on the vinegar as I wanted to enhance sweetness but avoid tartness.

To steam the crabs, you bring the broths to a boil in large pots, I just used any large pot I could find, which included my favorite cast iron dutch oven which worked like a charm. Such a bitch to clean...but such a beautiful instrument!

Make sure to put crumbled up tin foil in the shape of a figure eight on the bottom of the pots so that the crabs do not rest on the bottom. If you're fancy and have a steaming shelf, well, then you can use that ;)

The crabs need to steam for about 10-11 minutes. We did batches of 4-5 at a time in the pots. Be prepared for a fight when putting them in there...we had broth all over the kitchen (including the ceiling) because they were not pleased when their poor crabby faces hit the boiling water. Make sure to place the crabs top down, bottom up in the water as well.

Although making your own hot sauce can be fun, I love Crystal hot sauce. It's pretty traditional for crab. A melted butter sauce is also great on the side, but I generally always lean towards the spicy.

I will refer you to YouTube videos to show proper cleaning and eating methods. That's something you kind of need to see in video form......

The crabs turned out excellent. They were so delicious (and messy to eat!). We did decide that both recipes were equal in merit, but if we had to classify which was better for what, that the old bay beer crabs were better by themselves but that the white wine cajun crabs would be far superior if mixing with other things (crab cakes, soup, etc).

Clean up was heinous...as the crab shells do get everywhere, but a three person cleaning team got the job done pretty quickly. Much easier outside, as a hose can do a lot of the work for you!

Until next time....