May 13

Soft Shell Crabs

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• Pan-Fried Soft-Shell Crabs [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 4 medium crabs (cleaned)
  • 1 cup buttermilk (well-shaken)
  • 1.5 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning (divided)
  • 4 drops hot sauce
  • 1 cup flour
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 tablespoon butter (divided)
  • oil

  Instructions

  We buy the crabs from the market and ask for them cleaned. We rush them home and, in a resealable plastic bag, we add the buttermilk, ½ tablespoon Old Bay, the hot sauce and the crabs. We mix well, seal the bag, and place it on a large bowl of ice. We refrigerate for 25 minutes.

  Meanwhile, we pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees. We get a medium bowl ready for the coating. We add the flour, the rest of the Old Bay, stir with a fork, and add salt and pepper to taste. We also get ready a dinner plate with paper towels to drain the pan-fried crabs and a cookie sheet with parchment paper to keep the cooked crabs warm in the oven.

  When the crabs have soaked for at least 20 minutes, we remove them from the fridge. Instead of using a frying pan, we use a large pot to pan-fry the crabs since they will cause a lot of splattering. We add ¼ inch of oil to the pot and begin heating. When hot, we add half of the butter.

  Taking 2 crabs at a time, we lift them out of the buttermilk, add them to the flour, and toss to coat. We try to shake off as much flour as possible and, when the butter has melted and the foam subsided, we carefully add the crabs to the pot with tongs. We cook for 3 minutes on one side, and turn over with clean tongs when they are nicely browned. We cook for another 2 minutes and then drain on the paper-towel lined plate. We put these on the cookie sheet and place in the oven. Off heat, we wipe the pot clean with tongs and paper towels since the oil got a bit dark. We add more oil and the rest of the butter and we repeat the pan-frying with the rest of the crabs. We serve the drained crabs along with the reserved ones in the oven.

• Pan-Fried Battered Onion Rings [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1 large egg white
  • .5 cup buttermilk (well-shaked)
  • .75 cup flour (divided)
  • .125 teaspoon cayenne
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 medium onion
  • oil

  Instructions

  We start by pre-heating the oven to 450 degrees. In a medium-sized bowl, we beat the egg white with a whisk until a little frothy. Then, as we continue to whisk, we add the buttermilk, ¼ cup of the flour, cayenne, a pinch of salt and some black pepper. When the batter is nicely combined and free of lumps, we set it aside to prepare the onion.

  We slice the onion into ¼-inch-1/3-inch slices and then separate the slices into rings. We reserve the small inner parts of the slices in a bag for the refrigerator. We have a total of 22 rings. We pour the rest of the reserved flour into a small bowl, season it with salt and pepper, and then get a dinner plate ready covered with paper towels.

  We add some oil to our nonstick pan to cover the bottom of the pan, about ¼ inch, and heat over medium heat. When the oil is hot, we dip 5 rings into the flour, and then into the batter, turning to coat well. We use our hands which gets messy so we keep washing them between batches.

  We gently put the rings into the oil, one at a time, and cook for about 1 minute. We turn them with our heat-safe rubber spatula and cook for another minute or so. We want the rings golden. We remove them to the paper-towel-lined plate and sprinkle with salt. We put 5 more rings into the flour and then the batter and repeat the frying.

  We transfer the already cooked onion rings to a parchment lined rimmed cookie sheet. When all of the rings are browned, we place the cookie sheet into the oven and cook for 5 minutes. We turn the onion rings with tongs, and cook for another few minutes until they are crispy and nicely browned. We generously sprinkle them with salt and serve.

• Olive Mayonnaise [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • .5 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoon olives (minced)
  • 1 teaspoon capers (drained and minced)
  • .5 tablespoon parsley (cleaned and minced)
  • .5 teaspoon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

  Instructions

  In a medium bowl, we combine all the ingredients and stir well with a small spoon. We allow the flavors to mingle for about 10 minutes while we finish cooking the seafood. The leftover sauce we cover and refrigerate for a couple of days.

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