Sunday, June 22, 2008
Food, Recipes

The beautiful swimmer

The soft-shell crab

By Gerry Klaskala

Living in Savannah for six years gave me a sense of the rhythm of the seasons, the down beat and the back beat. The arrival of warm weather and the soon-to-follow soft-shell crabs. It just happens like that. The crabbers trap the crabs and dutifully look for what low-country folk call busters. A keener eye can even see the emerging pink spot on the back fin—a telltale sign that this one is about to more than quintuple in value. Buster crabs and what others might call peelers, crabs that are just beginning to molt, are then set aside in the buster tanks waiting for the shedding process to fully unfold. You really want the ones that have just shed, they’re the ones that are as soft to the touch as a baby’s you-know-what, hence the nickname “velvets.” Velvets are the crème de la crème of soft shells, not the ones that are cellophane hard, also known as paper shells, which are still descendents of soft shells but not the ones we really want. When crabs are this perfect, your next choice is male or female. A connoisseur would only want the females, which are sublime.

I’ve had the pleasure of cooking for the doyenne of Italian cuisine and cookbook author Marcella Hazan on many occasions. On her first dining visit, knowing she lives in Italy, a country where quality and freshness are of the utmost importance and specifically in Venice where seafood is revered, my weapon of choice was our native American “beautiful swimmer:” the soft shell. My intentions were a dagger through the heart, so to speak, where an instant of gustatory rapture would quickly and surely ensue. Judging from the smiles and the calls of bravo, I had rendered her firmly in my culinary pincer grasp.

To fully appreciate all this delectable crustacean has to offer, a visit to Aria where we serve it with our inspired dill shallot sauce for dipping, is encouraged. SP
Gerry Klaskala is the executive chef of Aria. 390 East Paces Ferry Road. 404-233-7673. www.aria-atl.com.

SOFT-SHELL CRAB

Ingredients

• 4 fresh soft-shell crabs, cleaned
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup whole milk
• Peanut oil

Instructions

Perfect execution of the perfect soft shell requires cleaning at the moment of preparation. Use a sharp pair of culinary shears to remove 3/8th of an inch of the front of the crab spin and remove the tail. Males have spiked tails, and the females have quite wide ones. Next step: Lift end flaps of the top shell to reveal the lungs, also known as the dead men. Remove the lungs by trimming as close to the body as possible. Carefully look for any sand grains which have a tendency to find their way there. A little quick rinse will remove any found.

Arrange two large bowls: one with all-purpose flour seasoned with salt and freshly milled white pepper and a fat dash of cayenne, and the second bowl with cold whole milk. Cooking soft-shell crab this way is akin to preparing Southern fried chicken. Your next choice is do you want crunchy or extra crunchy? For crunchy, place the crab in the milk first and then into the seasoned flour. For extra crunchy, the crab goes into the flour first, then into the milk and then back into the seasoned flour. Shake off excess.

In a suitable pan filled with 3 to 4 inches of high-quality peanut oil, make sure there is at least 3 inches of pan above oil line exposed to compensate for the violent confrontation of cold crab and hot oil. Heat the oil to 365 degrees F. Slowly and carefully place the flour-crusted soft shell into the hot oil backside first allowing the legs to float up. Cook for three to four minutes on the backside. Carefully turn the crab over, continue to cook for another minute, allowing the legs to crisp. Carefully remove the crab to a draining rack legs, up, season with salt and serve immediately on the backside down with legs straight up.