Scary Dinners From the Deep

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Soft shell crabs!

One of our favorite dishes is the Soft Shell Crab at New Tokyo on Broadway, which is deeply fried and delicious. These little crustaceans were just hanging out at Treasure Island the other day and, on a whim, F and I decided to give it a shot. How hard could it be, we figured. Turns out it's not hard at all. A little salt and pepper, a little flour, then a quick sizzle in some butter.We took our crabs out to the back patio, which seems to be the setting for our stranger experiments with sea creatures. They were crisp and salty and surprisingly rich. When I broke into the back of mine, however, I unearthed a pocket of grainy green ooze. I figured that our fish man missed something when he cleaned our crabs, and that this mysterious slime was probably some undigested crab food. Although I knew it likely wasn't poisonous, it put me off my dinner just a little. I guess I'm not really as adventurous as I'd like to think.

I definitely recommend this recipe--just make sure your crabs are clean!

Sauteed Soft Shell Crabs
From Cooking Light, April 2003

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 crab)

Ingredients

4 (3 1/2-ounce) soft-shell crabs, cleaned

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon butter

Preparation

Sprinkle each crab with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow bowl. Dredge each crab in flour, turning to coat; shake off excess flour.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add crabs to pan, top sides down; cook 3 minutes. Turn crabs over; cook an additional 2 minutes.