Steamed crabs with a simple lemon and pepper dipping sauce

Last night, I put together a crab curry with spanner crabs. I was disappointed. Spanner crabs, it turns out, have a worse meat to shell ratio than crabs I usually buy, the humble blue swimmers that readily available in about every Melbourne fishmonger. And too, the flavour of the gravy dominated the flavour of the meat. And yeah, I managed to stab myself on one of the crab's spines. So, yeah. Crabs. I like them, really, but only when they're prepared the right way. I've prepared them a few different ways now and, honestly? I really dig the way I first did them, when I first had them myself one Saturday with the kids. Whole lot of fun, that was.

Now, to cook crabs, I recommend steaming. The flavour of steamed crab is superior to that of boiled crab. I steam with salt water, but there's nothing stopping you using white wine or vermouth. Some folks use beer. I understand that flat beer imparts a better flavour. The best way to flatten beer is to pour it into a bowl and leave it to sit for a hour or so at room temperature.

So. Crabs. Buy the freshest ones you can get your hands one. The best way to ensure freshness is to buy live crabs, but sometimes the fishmongers don't have those or they're too expensive. So long as the blue swimmers at your local fishmonger have been killed recently, they'll be fine. Heck, ask your fishmonger if he can get some live ones in specially for you. He might be able to hook you up. Whether you buy male or female crabs is up to you. Female crabs sometimes have eggs. Male crabs are generally larger.

To steam the crabs in water, pour water to a couple of inches deep into a stock pot. Add salt until the water tastes like sea water. Crank the heat, bring up to the boil, add the crabs legs-up and jam the lid on. If using white wine or vermouth, heat the pan fry. When smoking, add a couple of inches of wine, add the crabs legs-up and jam the lid on. The general rule with crabs is to cook them for 15 minutes for the first 500 grams, followed plus an additional 10 minutes for every additional 500 grams. Now, that's just a general rule. The best way is to keep an eye on the things. When they're bright red all over, they're cooked. Pour the contents of the stock pot into a colander and hold the crabs under cold, running water. Not only does this arrest the cooking process, but it also makes them easier to handle and loosens the shell.

To deconstruct a crab, grab the claws at the base and give them a good twist to separate them from the body. Twist the legs off in a similar fashion. Somewhere on the underside of the crab you'll see a flap. Pull it towards you. Do it right and you'll take the top shell away with it. If you bugger it up, it's possible to prise the shell open with a knife in the same way you'd shuck an oyster.

Most of a crab's internals are edible, although you need to keep an eye out for small pieces of clear membrane amongst the meat. The only pieces you really can't eat are the stomach sac that's immediately behind the crab's 'face' and the grey, finger-like things on the crab's belly. I believe they're the lungs. Be sure to throw them away. Do hang onto the shell if you intend to knock up some seafood stock in the near future, though.

Eating crabs is meant to be a hands-on experience. Rather than taking all the fun out of it, simply serve your guests the claws and legs whole (although it is a good idea to crack the claws first--I used a meat mallet to do that). So far as hands-on lunches go, you really can't beat sucking crab meat from the legs and claws.

Oh and the dipping sauce. I almost forgot. This one can be whipped up while the crabs are steaming. It was shown to me by a Vietnamese friend. She simply squeezed the juice of a couple lemons into a bowl and gave it a liberal grind of black pepper and sea salt before mixing well with a fork. If you wanted to be creative, I suppose you could add a little fish sauce or chilli sauce. No need to be too fancy.