Cook and pick the crab.
Make Bloody Mary sauce.
Mix the brown crab with a spoonful of mayonnaise, season and add a pinch of smoked paprika.
Finely chop the chives and mix into the picked white crab meat, add a little squeeze of lemon and seasoning.
Toast the sourdough. Spread with a good large dollop of the brown crab mix. Top with the white crab put onto a plate. Dress the plate with blobs of the bloody Mary sauce. Top the white crab with sprigs of the chervil and finish with a drizzle of the crab oil.
Bloody Mary sauce
Mix the ketchup with 100ml of mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco and vodka. Season and taste adjust as to your taste.
Cooking the crab
Put the live crab in the freezer for an hour before cooking to help it calm down.
Bring a large pan with the sea water to the boil. Carefully put the crab in the boiling water and cover with the lid. Bring back to the boil and cook for around 15 minutes for a 600g crab, adding 2 minutes for every extra 100g. (Cooking credit to Nathan Outlaw, his British seafood book is a real must for all fish lovers). Leave to cool at room temp as putting in the fridge will make the meat stick to the shell.
Picking the crab
Remove the legs and claws from the cooked crab. Remove the dead man’s fingers, stomach sac and hard membranes from the body shell. Using a spoon, remove the brown crab from the top shell and put into a bowl.
Then cut the body in half to reveal all the little channels of white crab meat. Use the back of a teaspoon to pick all the crab meat from here. Put these into another bowl. Then with the back of an old knife or little hammer, break the claws and pick out the crab meat, removing the cartilage in the middle of each claw. Do the same with the meat from the legs.
When you have all the white meat in the bowl go though it carefully with the tips of your fingers to check for fragments of shell. There’s nothing worse than biting into a bit of shell!
Mayonnaise
Put the egg yolks, vinegar, mustards and salt and pepper into the bowl for the electric mixer. Mix well with the whisk attachment then gradually trickle the oil into the bowl, whisking continuously. If the mayonnaise is getting too thick, add a few drops of water and continue whisking the oil. When the oil is all incorporated, taste and re-season if necessary and add a little lemon juice & zest.
Crab oil
After the crab has been picked place all the bits of shell into a roasting tray and roast in the oven at 180oc for about 15 minutes. Cover with olive oil while still hot. Turn the oven down to 140oc and put the covered shells back for about 25 minutes. Leave to cool with the shells in. Then pass through a fine sieve.
Cook and pick the crab.
Make Bloody Mary sauce.
Mix the brown crab with a spoonful of mayonnaise, season and add a pinch of smoked paprika.
Finely chop the chives and mix into the picked white crab meat, add a little squeeze of lemon and seasoning.
Toast the sourdough. Spread with a good large dollop of the brown crab mix. Top with the white crab put onto a plate. Dress the plate with blobs of the bloody Mary sauce. Top the white crab with sprigs of the chervil and finish with a drizzle of the crab oil.
Bloody Mary sauce
Mix the ketchup with 100ml of mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco and vodka. Season and taste adjust as to your taste.
Cooking the crab
Put the live crab in the freezer for an hour before cooking to help it calm down.
Bring a large pan with the sea water to the boil. Carefully put the crab in the boiling water and cover with the lid. Bring back to the boil and cook for around 15 minutes for a 600g crab, adding 2 minutes for every extra 100g. (Cooking credit to Nathan Outlaw, his British seafood book is a real must for all fish lovers). Leave to cool at room temp as putting in the fridge will make the meat stick to the shell.
Picking the crab
Remove the legs and claws from the cooked crab. Remove the dead man’s fingers, stomach sac and hard membranes from the body shell. Using a spoon, remove the brown crab from the top shell and put into a bowl.
Then cut the body in half to reveal all the little channels of white crab meat. Use the back of a teaspoon to pick all the crab meat from here. Put these into another bowl. Then with the back of an old knife or little hammer, break the claws and pick out the crab meat, removing the cartilage in the middle of each claw. Do the same with the meat from the legs.
When you have all the white meat in the bowl go though it carefully with the tips of your fingers to check for fragments of shell. There’s nothing worse than biting into a bit of shell!
Mayonnaise
Put the egg yolks, vinegar, mustards and salt and pepper into the bowl for the electric mixer. Mix well with the whisk attachment then gradually trickle the oil into the bowl, whisking continuously. If the mayonnaise is getting too thick, add a few drops of water and continue whisking the oil. When the oil is all incorporated, taste and re-season if necessary and add a little lemon juice & zest.
Crab oil
After the crab has been picked place all the bits of shell into a roasting tray and roast in the oven at 180oc for about 15 minutes. Cover with olive oil while still hot. Turn the oven down to 140oc and put the covered shells back for about 25 minutes. Leave to cool with the shells in. Then pass through a fine sieve.
