A Feast of Blue Crab

Last night's dinner was a feast - at least for one of us. We spotted some live blue crab at our local Lee Lee's Supermarket and couldn't believe our eyes. Really, finding fresh seafood in the middle of the desert isn't exactly a common occurence. Of course, we just had to have at 'em. 

Blue crab (photo and quote from Sea Science) are native to the Atlantic and  "common from Massachusetts to Texas and a few have been reported as far north as Nova Scotia and as far south as Uruguay. Chesapeake Bay, North Carolina and Louisiana support the largest blue crab fisheries." 

Being westerners, we're much more familiar with Dungeness crab, so these small blue crustaceans proved to be a real challenge, one that I certainly wasn't up for.  I mean, I have a tough enough time picking the meat from a Dungeness and at up to 7.9 inches, it's almost twice the width of a little 4 to 5 inch blue crab. I knew I was in trouble when Big Guy calmly stated "it's every man for himself" because he usually takes pity on me and does my crab pickin' for me. Needless to say, I had one and he ate the rest - thank goodness for beer and bread! 

He was a happy crab pickin' guy, although even he admitted his patience was nearing its limits by the time he was eating his last one. Hit the link to All Recipes and you'll see the method he used to prepare them. 

 

Cook extraordinaire with his mess a' steamed blue crab

 

 

A platter of steamed blue crab, sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning

 

A year ago - Fried Chicken Gizzards

Two year's ago - Thai Curried Shrimp with Coconut

Comments

[Lea]

Ahhh - you had a good crab boil! Now you see why we add stuff like potatoes, corn, sausage, artichokes, etc. and such to the boil? heheheheh Crabs are my absolute favorite - and to me - always worth the effort! I adore the fat females when they are full of eggs! I bet they were sweet and unctuous!

[June]

Lea - no kidding re the potatoes, corn, sausage, artichokes - at least I'd have had something to eat. LOL Poor me.

[Lorraine]

I don't even mess with the little legs on the dungeness crabs so I can imagine the little buggers were a pain, but good I bet.

[June]

Lorraine - the meat is sweet but ya' gotta be a great picker to get enough to even taste it. I just don't have the patience and can't imagine getting enough to make crab cakes. Crikey! I wouldn't live long enough. LOL

[Tom]

June I spent many summers on the Chesapeake catching those little critters. During softshell season, crab shacks would have sandwiches where the deep fried crab's legs would hang out over the bun. Funny stuff when you're a kid. We'd tuck them back in and chow down. Tasty at any age though.

[June]

Mmm...soft shell...deep fried. I'd be game to try those!