20 minutes: Pan-sautéed Soft Shell Crabs in Lemon-Caper Brown Butter with Fennel-Thyme Blistered Tomatoes

There are some indulgences I wouldn’t want to leave earth without trying at least once

Welcome to the Eating and Feeding newsletter! You can learn here how to eat with intention. We’ll celebrate seasonal produce and quality ingredients in recipes that promote not just longevity but vibrant life—-more fish, more vegetables, more healthy home cooking-for yourself, for your family, for your children, and all the people you feed!

There are some indulgences I wouldn’t want to leave earth without trying at least once.

You can have your porterhouse steaks, caviar and blini, or invest a small fortune in a bottle of Romanée-Conti. If I’m going to whip up a luxury meal, it’s going to be peak season soft shell crabs. Perhaps I’d pan-sauté them with lemon, garlic, white wine, and capers then drizzle them with good browned butter. The toasty hazelnut notes from the browned butter I find irresistible with the sweet meat of most shellfish, like shrimp, scallops, and lobster, but soft shells are the crustaceans that call me back again and again.

The blue-and-olive clawed crabs may not at first glance look inviting for human consumption, but, I assure you, if you’ve ever had fresh-picked crab meat, the reward is a pulp beguilingly sweet and saline. Each bite of succulent, snow white meat delivers immense pleasure, the freshness of the ocean and the effervescence of salt air. There was a time when crabs in Southern waters and up the Atlantic Coast were readily available, but the population is under threat due to climate change and a vanishing fishing industry. The industry today, which predominantly sources crabs from the Southeast US and Asian and Indonesian aquaculture, remains labor intensive relying on artisanal methods rather than automation. The price can be steep and the effort high as one extracts the sweet meat from a hard-shell with the requisite mallet in hand. But not for the soft shell - it’s easy street as one devours them shell and all.

I think my love story with soft shell crabs began long ago in 1972. My father read about Tangier Island, a 1.3 square mile fisherman‘s hub tucked in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, once known as the capital of the soft shell crabbing. From the 1700’s, its docks have hosted crab pots where fisherman harvest blue crabs now sold to hotels and restaurants. We visited Tangier Island back then when its traditional community was still in tact. After hitching a ride on the mail boat, we toured the sleepy island lined with white clapboard houses, each set on a parcel behind white picket fences. Every islander we met was well-spirited folk and had a tale to spin (most every one of the 800 inhabitants had the surname Crockett), and we ended the day dining family-style elbow to elbow with neighbors at the only island inn run by Hilda, as you might expect, last name Crockett. Today, Tangier Island is losing acreage as the tides rise, and it is gradually being swallowed up by the sea.

The most desirable crabs are peelers - a phase when their hard shell carapace just begins to soften, swollen with seawater, before the crab molts its shell and emerges with a body soft, supple, and fully edible. The peelers are stocked in special holding tanks to be monitored carefully as the shells begin to remineralize with calcium carbonate, developing their new hard shell in just a few hours. In crab exoskeletons, minerals (calcium carbonate) are deposited in the matrix of the crab shell with magnesium using nature’s version of nanotechnology. The more calcium carbonate deposited, the harder the shell becomes. They are carefully harvested by hand and packaged for shipping while the carapace remains soft. It’s a phase critical to the reproductive cycle as males mate solely with molted female crabs (don’t miss the charming tryst in the video below-sound and all.)

Soft Shell Crabs: A Love Story

Oct 4, 2010

http://wfsu.org/blog-coastal-health/ In the Grass, On the Reef: WFSU Public Media. Leo Lovel, author of Spring Creek Chronicles- a collection of short stories about life on the Florida Coast and his time as a commercial fisherman.

Back on the mainland in St. Michael’s, Maryland, we dined out on crab that could be had any which way. They were served fried like fish and chips or cornmeal-crusted on a pillowy bun as a Po’ boy sandwich, or over pasta, or pan sautéed as in the recipe here. It may seem a bit unnerving to bite into the shell of these other-worldly crustaceans, but their advantage is that they can be eaten in their entirety (claws, swimmers, and walking legs incuded) so none of the sweet meat is wasted. They are done in a pan in a matter of minutes, and require very little effort to eat having dispensed with the work of having to pick through the meat. I promise you the rewards are great, and the dish is immensely appealing.

https://crablifeadoption.weebly.com/blog/crab-shell-the-carapace

Buy them pre-cleaned as I do within hours of when you plan to sautê them. Your fishmonger should prep them, so they are pan-ready and require perhaps just a light dredge in some flour or fine cornmeal. Store them on ice in your fridge. If you are close to the harvest region, they are often sold live. In this case, you need a pair of kitchen shears to remove the face, eyes, and mouth flaps; the triangular underside, the apronof the belly; and the gills.

Currently, procuring nice crabs requires waiting each year until May for the first of the season. They appear first in the Gulf through Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida and then up along the coastal Carolinas and Chesapeake as the waters warm. Crab fishing is evolving as a sustainable industry, and aquaculture concerns are making crabbing a more responsible commercial industry by finding ways to meet demands without interfering with crab mating cycles and population equilibrium. This should both extend the season and help reinvigorate the traditional industry that allowed the Crocketts to thrive by the generosity of the sea.

Pan-sautéed Soft Shell Crabs in Lemon-Caper Brown Butter with Fennel-Thyme Blistered Tomatoes

In this recipe, just a bit of browned butter and the savory notes of sweet anise from fennel seeds add a twist to classically satisfying Italian flavors. Economize on time…Blister the tomatoes while browning the butter and reducing the wine. The crabs are pan sautéed quickly in minutes and then warmed with the tomatoes and drizzled with a bit of browned butter to add richness as you finish the dish. Serve over brown rice, orzo, or your favorite whole grain with savory greens or broccoli rabe.

Serves 4

Preheat the oven to 400 F

8 soft shells, cleaned, gills, apron, and face removed

21/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, browned

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

7-8 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 Tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice, or juice of one lemon

2 Tbsp capers

1/4 tsp red chili flake

3 Tbsp fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Toast the fennel seeds in a 10 inch skillet 45 seconds until they release their aroma. Remove and set aside.

Brown the butter Cut the butter into quarter inch slices. Add the butter to the skillet and melt over medium heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow to foam. The key to browning butter is patience. Stir frequently over low heat allowing the water to evaporate as the milk solids concentrate at the bottom of the pan. Too high heat will scorch the solids resulting in black flakes. Stir occasionally for even heating as the butter turns amber to golden brown with more caramel-toned particles. You’ll know when browning is adequate when the aromas are rich with hazelnut undertones. Remove to a small dish to cool.

Blister the tomatoes:

20-24 sweet cherry tomatoes, whole

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp whole fennel seed

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp coriander, ground

Next, wash and dry the tomatoes. Toss in olive oil and place in a single layer in a baking dish. Add the toasted fennel seeds, thyme, and ground coriander and toss well. Place in the oven for 15 minutes until the skin begins to blister and the juices are just beginning to ooze. Remove immediately from heat.

Combine the flour In a low-rimmed bowl or baking dish suitable for dredging, combine the flour, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper well.

Start the sauce In the skillet, warm 1/4 cup olive oil over medium heat. Add the fresh garlic and sauté 45 seconds until it begins to brown and becomes aromatic. Again, use your senses for best results. Next, add 1/2 cup of dry white wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5-6 minutes to reduce the liquid volume by about a half.

Dredge the crabs lightly in the flour mixture while the sauce is reducing taking care to coat both sides, including the swimmers, claws, and legs.

Sauté the soft shells Add the capers, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and parsley to the sauce and stir well.

Turn the heat to medium and place the dredged crabs belly up in the pan. Keep them flat to the surface and work in batches, if necessary. Heat for 3 minutes until they become amber. Carefully turn each to pan sauté the flip side an additional three-four minutes.

Return all crabs to the pan and add the tomatoes. Drizzle with brown butter and allow to warm through. Add additional fresh lemon juice and seasoning to taste.

Serve the soft shells and tomatoes with all the garlic and pan juices over brown rice, orzo, or your favorite whole grain with savory greens or broccoli rabe.

Trade recipes with other subscribers in comments-what recipes in your repertoire can be turned out in 20 minutes that feel more luxury than cereal and milk?