Holiday Crab Feast
Marinated Crab
Clean and crack crab. Keep refrigerated while you are
making the dressing/marinade. This recipe is for 5 crabs so you will
have to cut it down to the number of crabs you are preparing. If you are
preparing 3 or more crabs I would probably make the whole recipe.
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Dash of red wine vinegar
1 large clove of garlic per crab and one extra all chopped
Chopped fresh Italian parsley
Kosher salt and fresh black pepper
Add lemon juice to a blender and measure out 1 cup of good tasting extra
virgin olive oil. Drizzle in to the blender which is set on puree. The
ratio is a one to one ratio but you will have to taste it as you are
blending it to see if the lemon flavor is too strong for your taste. If
it is too strong add a little more olive oil.
After you have blended the lemon juice and olive oil pour into a bowl
and add a dash of red wine vinegar. Then add your chopped garlic and
chopped parsley. Mix and taste. Should taste pretty good by now. Then
add a pinch of salt….not too much and a couple grinds of fresh black
pepper. Pour marinade over the cracked crab and refrigerate. If you are
going to eat the crab for dinner depending on how strong you like your
marinated crab you can do this in the morning. Two to five hours is good
also but not longer than 8 hours because it may get to strong. If you
like you can add more red wine vinegar but be careful it will get kind
of mouth puckering from the lemon juice and vinegar.
Serve with sourdough bread and lots of napkins!!
Hot Crab with Pasta
This is the recipe for the sauce. You can use it just over the crab in
an oven proof bowl and serve the pasta on the side or the pasta in the
bowl. This recipe is enough for approximately a pound of pasta and 2
cooked, cleaned and cracked crabs. You could throw in what ever other
kind of shell fish you would like.
2 bottles clam juice (See cooking instructions A & B)
5 – 20 cloves of fresh garlic chopped
¼ lb butter
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup Pinot Grigio white wine
¼ tsp Hot Pepper Flakes
½ tsp Anchovy paste (optional -- some like it – others don’t )
½ fresh lemon juiced
1 cup or more fresh chopped Italian parsley
Fresh ground black pepper
Combine all of the above ingredients except the parsley in a sauce pan
and cook for at least 15 minutes. Its hard to say how much garlic each
person likes so put some in and taste it. Remember you want a good
flavor so don’t be skimpy with the garlic……..
A. If using pasta under your crab cook the pasta to approximately 2/3
done and drain. Place the pasta in an oven proof dish that has a top.
Then place the crab and other shellfish on top of pasta. Pour sauce over
and sprinkle with ½ of the parsley. Place the top over the dish and
place in the oven at 350 degrees until the shellfish is hot. If using
clams, muscles or shrimp make sure they are cooked before you serve. If
you need to stir just move the pasta around so that the seafood gets
into the hot liquid. When done sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve
with sourdough bread.
B. If you don’t want to cook your pasta with the crab cut the sauce down
and add only 1 bottle of clam juice. Pour the cooked sauce over the crab
(and other shellfish if you are using it) and just cover it. Place it in
a 350 degree oven until the crab is warm but not too hot. Sprinkle half
of the parsley over the warmed crab and use the other half over your
pasta. Serve with sourdough bread.
Its hard to tell how many this will feed since my husband eats a whole
crab himself but I would say that 4 average people who love crab can eat
a pound of pasta and 3 crabs………enjoy…..
