Galley Edition - 11 Crabs in 3 days

Audacious and Ludicrous Gourmet Crab Enjoyment in Puget Sound

( click on the Crab Dishes to get to the recipes)

They're Monsters!!!!!

6 Crabs on opening day means:

Day 1

Fresh crab, steamed and then cracked in the cockpit with Garlic Bread, and melted butter for dipping.  We had apples and carrots for lunch, and limes in our Mount Gay and tonics, so that counts as salad… Right?

Get out the crackers!
(Caught short?  Break out the pliers.)
The pointy toes mean crabs come with their own picks.

Day 2

Breakfast on the fly (coffee, juice & granola bars) to pick up the pot as we head north to the islands. 

5 more Dungeness!  (it would have been 6, but 1 was a survivor – jumped off the boat!)

Lunch that day – Crab Melts and apples. This was especially appropriate while ‘hove to’ waiting for a favorable tide, at an infamous passage.  The leg meat from the 1^st 6 crabs created an impressive pile of Crab Salad.  Gourmand proportions.

A 2 mile walk (round trip) for provisions landed us a half dozen eggs, buttermilk pancake mix and some veggies. 

Dinner that night – another crab crackin’ good time! 

And the trek to the store meant a Big Green Salad – we were ready for it!  What a way to start the season.

Day 3

Remember those 6 eggs we got last night?  That means breakfast is Crab Omelets.  Too much you say?  But wait, there’s more.

Lunch, after nesting at a mooring with our cruising partners, is Crab Cakes!  More salad on the side.

Dinner – more Big Green Salad, and a pile of Crab Salad made from all the leg meat left.  A loaf of sourdough, and correct beverages make it a lazy summer dinner to write home about.

Day 4

I know I said 3 days, but as long as we eat it all by the end of lunch, it counts as 3.

So for breakfast, a share of the lump meat goes into Crab Crepes.  That packet of buttermilk pancake mix thinned way down made this happen.

And for that last lunch?  Crab Quesadillas.  If you happened to bring tortillas you are all set.  If not, left over crepes might even be better.

What happens next?  Sail around outside your crabbing grounds, and eat some of the food you had actually packed for the cruise.  And then catch some more crab.

Crab by the bucketful!

Dungeness Crab Quesadillas

A brilliant recipe for cruising since it works as a recipe to plan for, or as a way to use up the odds and ends of a bunch of other meals.

Basically, the American Quesadilla has come to mean a tortilla - or other flatbread - folded around cheese - and sometimes other filling - and pan toasted, until the cheese melts.

At the end of my three days of craBonanza I had; body meat, a little crab salad, swiss cheese, and leftover crepes from breakfast.

Lunch turned out to be:

Swiss cheese and a mix of the crab meats placed inside the crepe,
folded in half, and sizzled with the last of the crabby butter left over from the nights we cracked the crabs, in a flat bottomed pan until the cheese melted.
With some apples on the side, it was a wonderful last hurrah to these  lovely crabs.

If I were planning this, and found myself near a farmers market (and this does happen often cruising around North Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands), I would also grab some fresh goat cheese - and some parsley, or basil or thyme.  Hey, if I found the market, I might as well make the most of it!

For each quesadilla:

1 tortilla or other flat bread
1 palm full of crab meat
1 palm full of crumbled or grated cheese (swiss if fresh goat cheese isn't around)
(optional herbs)
A little butter or oil to give the tortilla a nice browning and crispy edges.

Assemble each quesadilla with the cheese crab (and optional herbs) on on half of the tortilla, and place in a heated pan.  peek at the bottom after 2 minutes or so, and watch until it starts to brown.  Flip the quesadilla over, brown the other side, and melt the cheese.

Cut in to pieces (or not) and enjoy as hot as you can.
Apples go very well with this (and Salsa Verde if you are enjoying this on land).

Dungeness Crab Cakes

After a few nights of fresh crab, straight from the shell, I craved something a little more complex.

Since we had a chance to grab a few things from the store - I decided to go for crab cakes.

This was particularly ridiculous since I have never even made them at home.

However, a boat provisioned for sandwiches and salads has everything you need for crab cakes - if you can get your hands on an egg.

These will make very loose crab cakes - more crab, less cake, but they are delicious, and the sort of wonderful, ridiculous thing to do in a surfeit of crab.

Dungeness Crab Cakes... I didn't know until now,
but I've been dreaming of this all year!

Cruising Crab Cakes
(this recipe is proportional.  The recipe works with about 1 heaping Cup of picked crab body meat.  Multiply the proportions for the amount of crab you have.)

Left over bread from previous crab nights, or other bread - toasted until crunchy
                    - or - several plain, Saltine type crackers.
A chunk of onion a little bigger than your thumb, chopped fine
1/3 a red bell pepper, chopped fine
A small handful of parsley -or- half a stalk of celery, chopped fine
(When you are done, all the chopped vegetables should come to less than half the volume of the crab meat)
1 lemon or lime (optional, but very nice)
Salt - to taste
Mayonnaise - amount to be determined
1 egg

Toast the bread until it is crunchy.  Crush it (or the crackers) to crumbs.  You should aim to have approximately as much crumbs as vegetables.
I do the crushing it in the bottom of my broiler pan with another rectangular pan I have on board that fits inside.  Another excellent method is to place the bread in a tea-towel or zip-top bag (with all the air pressed out), and smash it with a sauce pan.  This is an excellent job for idle crew.

Stir together the crab, crumbs, all the vegetables, a sprinkle of salt, and squeeze in the juice from half of your lemon/lime.  Start by adding 1 or 2 tsp of  mayonnaise.  Taste for seasoning - add more salt or lemon as needed.  I do this by hand to get a feel for the mixture.
Then take a handful, and squeeze together.  If it completely falls apart, add a bit more mayo, until it *barely* holds together.

Crack the egg into the mixture, stir that in, and let the mixture sit at least 15 minutes to let the bread crumbs soak up a little more liquid.

Form crab cakes between the palms of your hands, just before you cook them.  They should be the size that your hands make when you gently cup them together, and be no thicker than your hand.  (You really can make them any size you want of course...)

Cooking:

The crab is already cooked, so really you are just frying the egg and the bread to get it all to hold together - and taste more delicious.  This means a quick pan fry - and very gentle flipping.

Heat equal parts butter and oil - enough to *completely cover* the bottom of your skillet/flat bottomed wok in a thin layer.  Don't skimp, or the bread crumbs and egg can't do their jobs.
Making sure each cake has plenty of room around it, place as many cakes as will fit.
Watch one cake, and, as it begins to get brown and crispy on the bottom, flip it, and it's pan buddies over - Very Gently!
Don't be dismayed if a few fall apart.  You will get better at handling these with practice.
These are, after all, much more crab than cake.

Some salad on the side, and a glass of white wine makes this, with the view, an occasion you dream of 11 months and 20 days of the year.

Advanced Crab Cleaning

When you've had an especially lucky day (7 keepers in 1 pot is our record), the idea of cooking 7 whole crabs may be daunting.  And you most likely have no desire to wake up every hour and keep changing their water through the night.

So if you have gotten comfortable handling the monsters, and you are confident in your stance that crabs - despite their size - have the brain capacity and complexity of a cockroach (they do)....*

You can turn this:

into this:

a bucket o' crab ready for cooking.

Which fits into the pot for steaming much more easily - and will be done in about 8 minutes.  I can fit the cleaned halves of  5 crabs in my pot.  The 7 crab day required two batches.

How to:
Stand on a dock facing out towards the water.  This is best done with grippy gloves.
Holding the crab by the back of the shell with one hand, grasp around 1 set of legs and claws close to the shell with one hand, and then do the same with the other.
Bonk the crab's "face" on the dock to pop off the shell.
Break the crab in half along the edge of the dock.
Clean off the soft stuff** and the dead-man's fingers (gills) under running (fresh) water.
All of this can go straight into the sea.  That is where it came from.

Here's what it looks like - more or less.

Ta Da!  Clean crab ready for the pot!

Alternate method:  A small hatchet or bone cleaver can be used to chop them in half.
Then remove the large outer shell and clean off the soft, inedible parts as above.


*Living in water is what allows the crabs (and lobsters) to get so big.  Water supports their body structure and provides their gills with oxygen more efficiently than dry air on land that feeds the tube system cockroaches use to breathe.  OK... I'll stop, maybe you don't want to know more.

** Biology Warning - Possibly more than you want to know:
The "soft stuff" is the crab's digestive system (intestines, liver, etc.) where the crabs food is digested and it's blood cleared of waste.  Yes, crabs have blood of a sort.
If crabs die before they are cooked all this stuff starts to disintegrate rapidly and will begin to taint the meat.  Thus, crustaceans are cooked live, or killed and then cooked or cleaned instantly.
The liver & fat found under the shell is tasty, and is enjoyable when prepared correctly.  We're just not doing that here.

Crab Crepes

     A galley just isn't the sort of place I can keep my usual stocks of baking ingredients.  However, a nice little container of self-rising flour and another of sugar can expand your cooking horizons.
    Or, if you forget - or get a bright idea - a small packet of pancake mix can solve the same problems.  Look for one that has only flour, baking powder/soda and maybe buttermilk.  Avoid anything that has fat (an oil of some sort) and sugar (anything ending in "-ose").  This limits your options.

Crab Crepes
(the leavening will make these puffier than a standard crepe.  If you have plain flour - lucky you!  Use it.)

crepes:
1 C self-rising flour or pancake mix
1 egg
1 Tbs oil
1 C milk
+ about 1 more C milk or water

Mix the egg, oil and first Cup of milk.
Stir this into the Cup of flour.
Stir the extra liquid in, until you have a thin batter that will spread around the pan just by rotating the pan.  If you can, let the batter sit for about an hour - this is a help, but not essential.

Heat a tsp of butter or oil in a skillet or flat bottomed wok.  Test with a drop of batter - when it sizzles the pan is ready.  Pour in just enough batter to barely cover the bottom of the pan (or make the crepe size you want).  as the batter starts to firm up, shake the pan to loosen the crepe.  As soon as the crepe has a little color on the bottom, and is sturdy enough, flip the crepe with a spatula.
Let the crepe get a little brown on the bottom, and stack on a plate.
Make all the crepes you need for breakfast.
After breakfast, use up the rest of the batter to make crepes for quesadillas later.

fillings:

Crab & Cheese - A small handful of body meat, and some swiss cheese.  Roll into a finished crepe, heat gently to warm the meat and melt the cheese.

Crab & Tart Stone Fruit - Crab season and stone fruit season start together.  If you happen to hit a farmers market just before, or during your cruise, pick up a nectarine, pluot, plum or even a peach.  If there is some fresh goat cheese, grab that as well.
Cut up the fruit into bite size chunks, and stir about a tsp of sugar in with it.  Let that sit and get juicy (macerate) while you are making the crepes.
Fill your crepes with a small handful of body meat, a large spoonful of the fruit, (and if you got your hands on it, a bit of the goat cheese) roll up the crepe, and heat gently to warm the ingredients.

If crab for breakfast is too much for any of the crew, a little butter and sugar is nice too - or just some of the fruit.

Note:
If your batter is too thick, it is easy to thin.  If you added too much liquid, stir in a little more flour/pancake mix.  Crepe batter is quite thin and runny, so try a small crepe before you despair.

Crab Omelets

It is breakfast time, and you have a pile of crab in your little refrigerator from all those crustaceans you just couldn't eat.  What to do, what to do?

For two people - expand as necessary.

Crab Omelets


1 handful of body meat (leg meat would work too)
1 handful of shredded swiss cheese or 2 slices

3 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper

leftover, crabby butter from the crab cracking -or-
a little oil

a skillet or flat bottomed wok

Beat the eggs, add a pinch of salt & barely any pepper.
Heat a tsp. or so of butter or oil in the pan.  Test with a drop of egg to make sure it sizzles.
Pour 1/2 the egg mixture into the pan.  Roll the pan around to make sure the bottom gets covered.
As the egg starts to solidify, shake the pan to loosen the omelet.
When the egg is no longer liquid - but still soft - lay down the cheese along the center, then half the crab.
Roll or fold the omelet.
Let it sit in the pan just another moment.
Slide onto a plate - get someone to eat it hot.

Repeat the whole thing, and eat this one hot all by yourself!

Crab Melts

A great quick lunch (or dinner) when you want something hot, and are loaded up with crabby goodness.

Crab Melts


Left over bread from cracked crab night -or-
Toasted English muffins (sourdough is my favorite)
(I like to toast them at about 350F for 10 min or so to make the top crispy - this is optional, but keeps the bread from getting soggy.)

Enough Crab Salad to cover the bread
1 slice swiss cheese

Spread a nice thick layer of the crab salad over the toast, pop the cheese on top, and warm in the oven (350F) until the cheese melts.

Serve with some fruit or veg.
Yum!

Garlic Bread on a Boat

Garlic bread in the galley means taking advantage of what you have, and not missing what's not there.

     To keep the bread in good shape I get a hard crusted loaf (one you can flick with a finger, and it doesn't dent), in the frozen and/or par-baked state, if I can get it (If your local grocery has "fresh baked bread" talk to the bakery counter.  They have it in back).
    I bring this bread on board already cut in half (just because my crew is small) and frozen in a sturdy, closable plastic bag.  When it is time for bread, I leave it out to thaw if it hasn't already, slice it, place the pieces in the bottom of the broiler pan that came with my oven, and bake it at 350 for about 8 - 10 minutes.  Really until the edges are starting to get a little crispy, and it smells like bread.

Garlic Butter (an excellent job for idle crew - increase recipe as needed)

When you take out the bread to thaw, pull out half a stick of butter (4 Tbs) and let it warm up in a sturdy cup or small bowl.

When it is smoosh-able by fork, stir in

1 clove mined garlic (or 1/2 tsp powdered garlic)
salt to taste

Simply serve this at the table for all to spread on their toasty bread as they would like.

A Big Green Salad on the Boat

Salads are one place where Julia Child really gets the first "Last Word."
It is all about the dressing, and as she said, there is nothing like one made fresh.

     In a galley, where refrigerator space is at a premium, giving up real estate to a salad dressing bottle is out of the question.  So, what to do instead?  Use the pantry ingredients that have other jobs, but were always intended for making salad dressing.

     All successful oil & vinegar or vinaigrette dressings have just a few essential elements, and the rest is poetic license.  You just need a fat, an acid, an emulsifier and some seasoning.  Such an open ended recipe is perfect for the galley cook working at the end the stores, or with unfamiliar material.
     Fat can be oil, melted butter, or even bacon drippings (yum...) or some combination.   For acid we often think of vinegar, but it can be a citrus juice or anything sour.  Mixes of acids from what you have on hand can make some serendipitous flavors (lime juice and rice vinegar, lemon and balsamic).
     The job of the emulsifier is to add body to the dressing by getting the oil to hook itself to the vinegar even if just for a little while.  Mustard (prepared or powdered), egg yolks & anchovy paste all fit the bill, and have a decent chance of being on board.  Mayonnaise will even work in a pinch, since that is a vinaigrette that has just been whipped to another state - peek at the ingredients to see what I mean.
     Seasonings are all about personal style.  I like to add salt and pepper to taste, and usually a minced clove of garlic (or the powdered equivalent). This is a great place for seasoning salt or your secret spice blend.

The measurements are standard, but do not suffer from being eyeballed, and then adjusted as you go.

Dressing for a  Big Green Salad

1 tsp mustard (or 1/2 tsp dry mustard)
1 garlic clove chopped fine (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
1 Tbs vinegar or citrus juice - a little more if using powdered ingredients
A pinch of salt and pepper

Mix these together with a fork in a cup or in the salad bowl.  Then while stirring, slowly pour in

2 Tbs oil

 All these ingredients can also be put into a small jar/tupperware and shaken vigorously by some crew member just sitting there, watching the cook work.

     Toss this with whatever tender, leafy greens you get your hands on - lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and add in thin slices of whatever vegetables and/or tart fruits are on hand.  Some excellent combinations include; onions & mandarin orange slices, tart apples & celery, onions & sour plums.

This, of course, all works on dry land too.

Dungeness Crab Salad

The best part about crab salad is once you have made it, it can go in the refrigerator/cooler and then you have the base for a few quick meals while under way, or after a long day.

And you can make as little or as much as you want based on the number of crab legs/claws you have left over from the crab cracking the night before.

Since this is the galley edition, the amounts are all going be very approximate, and proportional, since you will always have the amount of crab meat you have.

And since this is my blog, I urge you, as always, to go with your own taste as the final judge.

Ingredients:

Picked leg and claw meat (can use body meat, but that's so good for crab cakes & crepes &...)
Celery and/or Parsley
Red Pepper or Paprika
Onion (purple or sweet or green or...) or Garlic
Mayonnaise
Salt
Lemon or Lime juice

For each heaping cup/large handful of crab meat:
dice or chop fine about 1/4 that amount of Celery and Red pepper (if using paprika, sprinkle in to your taste at the end).
dice a piece of onion slightly bigger than your thumb, or crush and mince a clove of garlic

Toss all these together, and add about a tablespoon of mayonnaise, a pinch of salt and the juice from half a lemon.
Stir together and taste.
Adjust the amounts of ingredients to your taste.

What can you do with this?

Serve it over some of your Big Green Salad - with some warm bread on the side.

Put some on an English muffin (a toasted sourdough one is my favorite), and melt some swiss cheese over it. - Crab Melt!  Beats the flippers off any tuna or patty melt out there.

And if you do bring crab home, and make it there... and there's just too much to eat - it FREEZES!  It is not quite as amazing as fresh.... but what is?
However, you can keep it in the freezer for a few weeks, thaw it in the fridge, and enjoy it your favorite way when you want to impress friends, or just because you deserve more crab.

Steamed Dungeness Crab

So you've made the leap - bought a crab trap and a can of tuna, and dropped it near some other crab pot floats.

You go back, pull it up, and you have crabs - and they are keepers.  This is exciting!

Now what?

The bad news is you need to get these guys cooked pretty soon*.

The good news is cooking is as easy as boiling water, and after they are cooked, separating the tasty stuff from the yeuccchhhh is possibly even easier.

My Favorite Method**:

For the beginner - just leave the crabs whole and live.  Rinse them well with sea water (fresh water is OK too).  For the advanced crabber, get out your gloves, and clean and split the crabs first.

Get a hold of a pot with a Lid (essential) big enough to hold at least 1 crab, with some room to spare.
A "big, ol' crab cookin' pot" is great, but sometimes you just need to work with what you've got.
Line the bottom with smooth, flat rocks, the type that is easy to hold in your hand - the kind you'd think of as "skippin' stones."
[The rocks help hold heat.  With the little dinky galley burners, it takes a long time to bring the water back to a boil, so getting the rocks helps speed the cooking.  Wash them off and use them over and over. ]

Do you have to have rocks?  Nope - but they are handy.

Fill the pot with about 1inch of water - just over the top of the stones.

Bring the water to a steamy boil.
Put the crab in and clap on the lid.

Let the crab steam for 8-11 minutes.

Remove with tongs and let it cool enough to clean.

Cooling in the cockpit

Repeat with the rest of your crabs.  As you get a feel for your stove and the crabs, you can steam 2 or more crabs at a time.

When your crab has cooled - pop the top.

Get your crab to where you are going to rinse your crabs.  This is about to get messy.
You will need running water. The shower on your swim step, a hose, or a friend with a bucket of water to pour slowly over the crab while you are cleaning, are all good options.

Hold onto the shell the one hand, and the legs on one side with another.  Pull up on the shell.
All the soft stuff goes - and you can just rinse it over the side.  It belongs to the sea, so return it there.
Pull off the little "dead man's fingers" the floppy, pointy gills attached to the hard body under the shell.

Now your crab is clean.

Crack it open, extract the meat and munch!

can't talk, eating

- and to complete the perfect meal?
Melted butter (or even clarified/drawn butter or ghee - all the same thing)
Garlic Bread
a Big Green Salad

* Cook your crabs soon.  They can live out of the water for a bit - but they can get too hot or suffocate if it is too long.  Some options are:
Cooling the crab by putting it in your refrigerator in a paper bag.
Making a mini "live well"; If you have 1 or 2 crabs, they can go in your big crab cooking pot, just  change the water every 45 minutes or so.
If you have more crabs, a cooler works great - and change the water every hour.  The more crabs you have, the more important it is the water is changed thoroughly.  The crabs use up the oxygen from the water, and put waste products into it.  If you do not change the water, they can poison themselves if you have to hold them for too long in the same water.
The water changing method also means you can hold your crabs for quite awhile.  We've done it for 6 - 8 hours with no ill affects.  Just don't lose your bucket!

If you are unsure of the health of you crabs, poke them a little.  If they still act annoyed, you are in good shape.

**There are many other methods for cooking crabs, and all of them work pretty much the same - this is just nice for a small galley with a bitty little flame.

It is also a method that works if all you have is a big sauce pan, or a flat bottomed wok - with a lid.

However you cook the crabs, you must have a lid.

     You can also boil a pot of water and cook the crabs that way.  However - the crabs remove a huge amount of heat from the water when you put them in.  Then it takes the water ages to get back to the boil.  Fortunately it is not necessary for the water to be actually boiling to cook the crabs.
     Water boils at 212˚F, and the crabs cook at a much lower temperature.  Up to 3 crabs covered in water that started at boiling will still cook in about 8 - 12 minutes, as long as you keep the lid on, and the pot over the burner to keep adding heat.

You do need the rocks or something else to keep the crabs out of the water, to do the steaming method.
If the crab is half in the boiling water, the water will not come back to steaming temperature for quite awhile, and the part of the crab in the water will cook a different amount than the part out of the water.