Let’s Talk Food: Strange names characterize the delectable crab's days

I lived in Charleston, S.C., about a thousand years ago. No sooner had I arrived when a neighbor introduced me to blue crabs and, most specificall­y, catching the critters.

Every Sun­day, loaded down with plenty of insect re­pellent, sun screen, pimiento cheese sandwiches and frosty beer, we’d head for crab country. If you’ve complained about the price of crab meat, I suggest you spend the day catching the elusive blue crabs. It’s easy to catch them; just cast out your line with a piece of scrap meat (I used beef kidneys) attached and, if you’ve picked the right spot, within minutes you’ll have a nice, juicy crab nibbling on the line.

The hard part begins when you lug that basket or bucket of crabs home and set about cleaning them. It takes hours to methodically open the crabs and pick out that de­lectable white meat. Little wonder that crab lump meat is priced from $15 to $25 a pound.

The blue crab is a member of a large variety of crusta­ceans that live mostly in salt water, have a hard shell and have five pairs of legs. The blue crab is considered the most beautiful in a family of 4,400 species of crabs. Its Latin name, Callinectes sapidus, means “beautiful swimmer.” This darling of the gourmet crowd is con­sidered the most important species of all the crabs, al­though stone crab, Dunge­ness and king crab enthusi­asts might disagree.

The female of the species carries those all-important eggs and is generally called sponge, ballie, punk or sook. Meanwhile, her male coun­terpart answers to the name jimmy.

Just in case you’re in­terested in the sex life of crabs (the seafood speci­men), sooks and jimmies go through a fascinating and romantic process. A couple of days before the female is ready to molt, the jimmy overcomes her, turns her so she is stomach up and carries her off to a patch of eelgrass. When she starts to molt, he couples with her for six to 12 hours, and then continues to embrace her for another two or three days until her new shell hardens. His contribution to the in­crease in the crab population completed, Mr. Jimmy goes off to find another playmate. As for the sook, she now has about a million eggs and is fertile for the rest of her life.

When the crab begins to shed its shell it is called a buster, peeler or rankpeeler and has one to three days before it totally sheds its shell.

This is when the critter becomes a soft-shelled crab, the darling of gourmets and gourmands.

Crab cakes took the spot­light at the 1939 World’s Fair when they were introduced by a group of Maryland chefs. Eventually, recipes for crab cakes became a popular item on menus throughout the country.

Crisfield, Md., lays claim to producing the finest crabs in the entire universe. Crabs are so important to the Cris­fieldians that each year they hold a Hard Crab Derby.

I truly cherish the reci­pe from Arnaud’s in New Orleans for crab cakes, while the Crisfield, Md., formula for perfect deviled crab has all the elements to produce a great and unfor­gettable dish.

DEVILED CRAB

Ingredients

5 tablespoons butter

1⁄3 finely chopped onions

¼ cup finely chopped green pepper

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1½ cups half-and-half

2 large eggs yolks, lightly beaten

Dash cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon salt or to taste

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1 pound lump crab meat

1 cup soft fresh bread crumbs

Preparation

■ Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously grease a 1-quart baking dish or individual serving dishes (scallop shells or other oven­proof containers).

■ Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy saucepan and add the onions and green pepper. Sauté until tender then add the flour; combine until smooth.

■ Stir in the half-and-half gradually over medium heat and keep stirring until the sauce thickens. Remove a small portion of the hot sauce from the pan and mix into the egg yolks, then add the yolk mixture to the saucepan.

■ Heat the sauce for 2 minutes more, then remove from the heat and add cayenne, salt, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and chives.

Mix well. Stir in the crab meat and spoon the mixture into the casserole or individual ramekins or shells. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and combine with bread crumbs and sprinkle the mixture over the crab meat mixtures.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until crumbs are gold brown.

Serves 4 to 6.

ARNAUD'S CREOLE CRABCAKES

Crabcake ingredients

1 pound lump crab meat, shell and cartilage carefully removed

1 tablespoon Creole or Dijon mustard

1 egg

½ cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ small red onion, finely diced

1 green, red or yellow pepper

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup fine, fresh breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

½ teaspoon black pepper or to taste

3 tablespoons butter

½ cup olive oil

1½ cups Creole sauce (recipe below)

¼ cup lemon butter sauce at room temperature (recipe below)

Fresh basil sprigs for garnish

Crabcake preparation

■ Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the crabmeat, mustard, egg, mayonnaise and lemon juice until well blended. Add the onions, peppers and cilantro and combine. Add crabmeat and blend, forming into 3-inch cakes.

■ Mix salt and pepper into the breadcrumbs. Line a sheet pan with parchment and dust lightly with breadcrumbs.

■ Heat the butter in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the crab cakes for about 1 minute on each side until golden brown.

■ Transfer to the prepared sheet pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Heat the Creole sauce in small saucepan then strain.

■ For each serving, ladle Creole sauce in the center of a heated dinner plate and drizzle lemon butter sauce over it. Place 4 crab cakes around the sauce, garnish with sprigs of basil and serve. Serves 4 as an entrée.

Creole sauce ingredients

1⁄8 cup olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

½ cup diced green peppers

1½ cups chopped celery

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 cups veal, beef or chicken stock

¾ teaspoon granulated chicken bouillon

1 bouquet garni (½ bunch parsley, 3 bay leaves, a sprig of thyme and a stalk of celery)

½ cup diced tomatoes

1½ cups tomato puree

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cayenne pepper and Tabasco to taste

Sauce preparation

■ Heat olive oil in heavy saucepan over high heat; add onions, green pepper, celery and parsley. Stir for 2 minutes, add garlic.

■ Add the stock, chicken bouillon, bouquet garni, diced tomatoes and tomato puree and bring to a boil.

■ Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add seasonings to taste.

LEMON BUTTER SAUCE

Ingredients

1½ sticks butter

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and white pepper

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

■ Melt butter over high heat and add lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and white pepper and then add chopped parsley.

■ Remove from the heat and keep warm until needed.

ASK DORIS

Q: I have never fixed duck and now have several of them in my freezer, cour­tesy of a generous uncle. The best duck I ever ate was in Carmel, Calif. It was pre­pared with grapefruit juice and was the most delicious I ever had. I would love to have the recipe, if possible.

— Grace Lindstrum, Estero

A: This sounds like a great dish and is relatively simple. If your ducks are not whole, follow the recipe by drying the ducks and then surround the pieces with the onion in the roasting pan.

GRAPEFRUIT-HONEY DUCK

Ingredients

4½- to 5-pound duck

Salt and pepper to taste

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

1 cup strained fresh grapefruit juice

½ cup honey

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Preparation

■ Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Wash the duck under cold running water and cut off the wing tips at the first joint. Pat the duck dry inside and out with paper towels. Rub the cavity of the duck with salt and pepper and insert the onion quarters. Truss the duck securely. For a crisper skin, prick the surface around the thighs, the back and lower part of the breast with the point of a sharp knife. Place the duck breast up on a rack set in a large shallow pan and roast the duck for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and remove the accumulated fat.

■ Turn the duck on one side and roast for 30 minutes and then turn to the other side and roast for 30 minutes longer.

■ Combine the grapefruit juice, honey and soy sauce in a bowl and mix well. Turn the duck breast up and, with a pastry brush, spread 2 or 3 tablespoons of the grapefruit mixture evenly over the bird.

■ Roast the duck for 30 minutes longer, basting it twice with about 3 tablespoons of the grapefruit mixture. Pierce the thigh of the bird to make sure it is cooked through. The juice that trickles out should be clear yellow; if it is slightly tinged with pink, roast the bird for another 5 to 10 minutes.

■ Transfer the duck to a heated platter and allow to rest for about 10 minutes before carving. Serves 4 to 6.

Doris Reynolds is the author of “When Peacocks Were Roast­ed and Mullet Was Fried” and “Let’s Talk Food.” They are available for sale in the lobby of the Naples Daily News. Also available is a four-part DVD, “A Walk Down Memory Lane with Doris Reynolds.” Contact Doris Reynolds at foodlvr25@aol.com.

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