Spicy Summertime Crab Fry

SPICY SUMMERTIME CRAB FRY

Boiling: Put a large pot of water and a handful of salt on to boil. When water reaches a boil, throw 4 crabs in for 5 minutes. Pull out and rinse under cold water until they cool enough to clean. Reserve 1 cup of the water from the crab boil.

Cleaning:
1. Twist off the claw and set aside.
2. Pull off the legs and set aside. Do the same for the other side.
3. Pull off the chest plate and discard.
4. With both thumbs or a knife, separate the body section from the shell and discard the shell.
5. Remove the gills (they’re the weird, finger-looking things) from the body and chop the body portion in half.

Ingredients:
½ cup vegetable oil
Boiled crab pieces
5 red serrano or red peppers, seeded and minced
1 large thumb of ginger, minced
10 large cloves garlic, minced
1 cup water from crab boil
¼ cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 lemons, juiced
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 bunch green onions, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon ground black peppercorns
1 lemon, juiced

1. Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a wok, skillet or wide pan. Add the crab pieces and fry for 3 minutes. Add the pepper, ginger and garlic. Stir quickly and be careful not to burn the garlic.
2. Deglaze the pan with 1 cup of the water used to boil the crabs. Add the soy sauce and brown sugar and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the crab and set aside.
3. Add the butter, lemon juice and half of the chopped cilantro and green onion and thicken the sauce. Toss the crab pieces in the sauce again to coat and place in a large bowl. Spoon the rest of the sauce over the crab and top with the rest of the cilantro and green onion.

Eating: This is a messy, roll-up-the-sleeves type meal so I like to serve this dish family style with plenty of napkins and lemon water. Add some corn on the cob and ice cold beer and enjoy this Southeast Asian twist on a Northwest classic as the sun sets over the Puget Sound.