Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Dungeness Crab




When we lived in Philly, Josh's love for seafood was born. One of our friends introduced us to a little place called The Clam Tavern. It's such a great place. It's hidden away so well in a little neighborhood in Clifton Heights and has that quaint "crab shack" feel. Don't let the looks fool you though, the food is amazing! The steaks are juicy and tender and the seafood is fresh. Plus, on Wednesday nights, it's all-you-can-eat Dungeness Crab.

We just don't have a restaurant like that here in Pittsburgh. It's really sad. It's even more sad that to get semi-decent seafood, you have to dress up and pay an arm and a leg to get small portions and bad service.

What we do have is Wholey's Fish Market. What Wholey's doesn't have 99% of the time is Dungeness Crab....but they had it last Saturday. My heart nearly stopped. I bought 4 of 'em. Believe me, that was more than enough for the 2 of us.

Dungeness Crab
4 Dungeness Crabs
1 bottle of beer Old Bay Seasoning lemon wedges melted butter
Fill a large stock pot about 3/4 of the way full with water. Add the beer and several tablespoons of Old Bay Seasoning. Bring the water to a boil.
Add the crabs
Boil for approximately 20 minutes.
Remove crabs from pot and clean.

What I did was:
Cut the crabs in half - right down the middle.
Remove the upper and lower shells, gills, and "mustard" (this is the yellow-green stuff inside the cavity of the crab.)

Once the crabs are cleaned - place into a large bowl and sprinkle with Old Bay Seasoning.
Serve with lemon wedges and melted butter.