• HOME
    • MY HERBAL ROOTS
    • HERBAL ROOTS
  • ME
    • ABOUT ME
    • CLASSES AND EVENTS
    • CALENDAR
    • SERVICES
    • MEDIA
    • CONNECT
  • SEASONS
    • ALL SEASONS
    • SPRING
    • SUMMER
    • FALL
    • WINTER
  • HERBS
    • ALL HERBS
    • ARUGULA
    • BASIL
    • BAY LEAF
    • CHERVIL
    • CHIVES
    • CHOCOLATE MINT
    • CILANTRO (CORRIANDER)
    • DILL
    • EDIBLE FLOWERS
    • EPAZOTE
    • GRAPEFRUIT MINT
    • HYSSOP
    • LAVENDER
    • LEMON BALM
    • LEMON GRASS
    • LEMON THYME
    • LEMON VERBENA
    • MARJORAM
    • OREGANO
    • ORANGE MINT
    • PARSLEY
    • PEPPERMINT
    • PINEAPPLE MINT
    • PINEAPPLE SAGE
    • PURSLANE
    • RED BASIL
    • ROSEMARY
    • SAGE
    • SAVORY
    • SORREL
    • SPEARMINT
    • SPECIALITY HERBS
    • TARRAGON
    • THAI BASIL
    • THYME
  • WANDERINGS
    • MAP
    • ASIA
    • AUSTRALIA
    • CANADA
    • CARRIBEAN
    • CENTRAL AMERICA
    • EUROPE
    • MEXICO
    • SOUTH AMERICA
    • USA
  • RECIPES
    • SEARCH
    • SEASONS
    • HERBS
    • PLACES
    • VIDEOS
    • BLOG POSTS
  • HOME
    • MY HERBAL ROOTS
    • HERBAL ROOTS
  • ME
    • ABOUT ME
    • CLASSES AND EVENTS
    • CALENDAR
    • SERVICES
    • MEDIA
    • CONNECT
  • SEASONS
    • ALL SEASONS
    • SPRING
    • SUMMER
    • FALL
    • WINTER
  • HERBS
    • ALL HERBS
    • ARUGULA
    • BASIL
    • BAY LEAF
    • CHERVIL
    • CHIVES
    • CHOCOLATE MINT
    • CILANTRO (CORRIANDER)
    • DILL
    • EDIBLE FLOWERS
    • EPAZOTE
    • GRAPEFRUIT MINT
    • HYSSOP
    • LAVENDER
    • LEMON BALM
    • LEMON GRASS
    • LEMON THYME
    • LEMON VERBENA
    • MARJORAM
    • OREGANO
    • ORANGE MINT
    • PARSLEY
    • PEPPERMINT
    • PINEAPPLE MINT
    • PINEAPPLE SAGE
    • PURSLANE
    • RED BASIL
    • ROSEMARY
    • SAGE
    • SAVORY
    • SORREL
    • SPEARMINT
    • SPECIALITY HERBS
    • TARRAGON
    • THAI BASIL
    • THYME
  • WANDERINGS
    • MAP
    • ASIA
    • AUSTRALIA
    • CANADA
    • CARRIBEAN
    • CENTRAL AMERICA
    • EUROPE
    • MEXICO
    • SOUTH AMERICA
    • USA
  • RECIPES
    • SEARCH
    • SEASONS
    • HERBS
    • PLACES
    • VIDEOS
    • BLOG POSTS
Blog Posts Tips & Tricks Winter

Crab Cleaning

December 26, 2019

Crab Cleaning

DECEMBER 26th, 2019

Finding useful information on cooking and cleaning Dungeness crab isn’t easy. I personally always forget the instructions, even though I have done it countless times. I figured a photo-post would make the most sense to share my knowledge, which is essentially self-taught from various You Tube videos and trial and error. Next year when I try to remember how to cook and clean them, I can look at my own notes cemented inside of this blog post.

Here is a quick  and useful breakdown on how to cook and clean fresh Dungeness crab.

Prepare Your Tools

The right tools make all the difference. A lot of liquid comes out and off of the crabs so use trays to capture the juices. Lots of kitchen rags are also handy. Crackers, hammers, small forks and knives will help you extract the meat. Hands are still one of the best tools for the job.

Boiling the Live Crab

Bring a very large pot of water to a boil, add about 2-3 tablespoons of salt (Bolinas Seafood Salt) per gallon of water. Add the live crabs and cook for about 15 minutes for crabs weighing about 1 ½ – 2 ½ pounds, 20 minutes for 3-pound crabs. Rinse well and refrigerate or leave on ice until usage.

Remove the Apron

On the bottom of each crab, on the bottom side, is either a small (males) or large (female) triangle shaped piece of shell. It’s called the apron. Grab hold of it and pull it off.

Remove the Carapace

Removing the apron will create a small hole in-between the body and the top of the shell. Use your finger to gently pry the carapace off. This is the top shell. Hold the body with one hand and the shell with the other and pull, using the hole as leverage.

Reserve the Crab Butter

Once you pull off the top shell, you will expose some yellow-ish gooey liquid, this is called the crab butter. You can either reserve it for stocks and sauces or discard it.

Remove the Gills and Mandibles

The crab’s insides are now visible and exposed. Remove and discard the gills and mandibles. The inedible gills line each side of the crab and look spongy. The mandibles are the mouthparts of the crab on the front side of the crab.

Rinse & Clean

Rinse the crabs well under running water to remove all the inner particles and gooey liquids out.
All of the parts left (beside the shell) are edible and ready to be cracked and removed for eating and cooking.

Break the Crabs in Half

Break the crabs in half leaving legs on both sides, this helps expose the crab meat and makes it easier to extract. Typically this is how crab is served when eating cooked and cleaned crab that you crack.

Break off Crab Legs

Twist of the claws and legs pulling them off one by one.

Extract Leg & body Meat

Use crackers and hammers to crack shells. Little spoons and forks help but fingers are still the best for extracting the meat from most of the parts.

Refrigerate Crabmeat

Refrigerate crabmeat until use. It should last 3-4 days once its removed form the shell.

Make Stock with Leftover Shells

Use the shells to make a rich stock. Add water, onions, herbs and salt and cook for about 1 hour. Strain and freeze or refrigerate until use.

Blog Posts Tips & Tricks Winter

Crab Cleaning

December 26, 2019
December 26, 2019
ABOUT ME
About Me

Noted herb expert, culinary educator and recipe developer. Small business consultant traveling the globe in search of food and cultural knowledge, while working with small, local, organic, sustainable, and fairtrade farmers.

GET CONNECTED
LATEST POSTS
  • “Different” Chicken Congee
    December 31, 2022

    It’s New Year’s Eve Day, I’m in Miami, Florida where I have traveled with my pets for a little 45-day snowbirding experience (and possibly the subconscious desire to travel to the source and unravel some deep seeded and complicated emotions I have been carrying for far too long). It’s currently 80 degrees and I’m in my swimsuit outside by the pool near the beach with my pets. I have a sweet little menu prepared for a dinner tonight and was just lollygagging a bit when I got a text asking me for the recipe for that cold weather chicken congee I made during the recent artic chill. You remember, the congee recipe that I had labeled one of my best dishes. The one I was supposed to have posted the recipe for already, the one I keep getting asked for. Here you go. I’ll warn you, my congee recipe is a little different. But what do I know, I had never made congee before. But different is who I am and what I do and staying authentic to who I am is a constant goal, New Year or not.

  • Nissa’s Christmas Mole (& Tamales)
    December 20, 2022

    I make really good moles, and I don’t think it’s because of my connection to Latin America. Despite the fact that I learned a lot of my flavors in my travels there starting even before I traveled there at 10 years old. I think it’s because, as a cook, I embody what a mole really is: a melting pot of ideas and concepts that continuously evolves. It has no real recipe, no real beginning, and no real ending. I cook, like a mole is. My first mole was a Cherry & Duck Mole for a special Taco Party event at my old cooking school in Brooklyn. From there I went on to create such masterpieces as my Passion Fruit Pork Mole, which came to be while I lived in Ecuador where passion fruit practically dropped from the sky. That recipe is also where I came to use carrots as a source of natural sweetness and a thickening agent (moles generally use a myriad of ingredients as thickeners). I even make mole cocktails and once made a recipe for a Cherry Mole Manhattan. The mole-making process delivers immense pleasure for me and reminds me of the importance of openness in cooking. It reminds me that even in what most consider traditional and culturally specific there is diversity.

  • The Herbal Dry Brine
    November 13, 2022

    As you are probably aware, brining helps create a more succulent meat. I am a big fan of the dry brine when it comes to cooking a turkey or even a chicken. The dry brine is easier and less messy than wet, and it delivers moist meat and a crispy and flavorful skin, which I happen to be a fan of. Adding herbs and spices to a dry brine (salt) adds flavor, texture, and a joie de vivre by creating an aromatic and flavorful experience customized to your palate. The salt on the skin draws moisture from the turkey and then comingles with the herbs, spices and salt and gets re-absorbed back into the turkey, creating flavorful, succulent and juicy meat. The salt and air dries out the skin which allows it to become extra crispy when roasted, and the herbs and spices add extra flavor as they cook and get embedded into the chicken skin by means of chicken fat. If you are lucky enough to get a jar of my Chipotle Cranberry Mezcal Herbal Brine in time for Thanksgiving, you will need to know how to use it. And if you didn’t get one (which is likely because I made limited quantities this fall), you can still make one using the same formula.

SEARCH BY SEASON




POPULAR TAGS
Blog Posts
USA
Winter
Spring
Fall
Rosemary
Summer
Edible Flowers
Sage
Mint
Parsley
Uncategorized
Basil
Chives
Cilantro (Corriander)
Connect
Oregano
Lavender
Odds & Ends Using Up Herbs
Europe
Asia
Thai Basil
Bay Leaf
Thyme
Tarragon
Mexico
Tips & Tricks
Categories
Hyssop
Arugula
Herbs
Places
Lemon Thyme
Herbal Crafts
Cocktails, Mocktails, Bitters & Mixers
Sweet Things
Herbed Pastas, Grains and Legumes
Meat, Poultry and Fish
Salads, Dressings & Vinaigrettes
Herbal Nibbles
Speciality Herbs
Marjoram
Pineapple Sage
Seasons
Savory

FOLLOW HERBAL ROOTS ON INSTAGRAM

View
Open
Crows garlic - a specifies of wild garlic. I bought some and planted with all the bulbs I bought, again not knowing it was edible. Im fairly happy and am making my first garden salt when these things go into full bloom, I suspect soon. They don’t necessarily bloom like you’d imagine I guess they look like little tight buds, which fascinates me. They spread like crazy too I guess and I’m totally not mad at that. 

The flowers come on these super tall wiry and strong center stalks. They are super wierd and super cool. Im in love. 

Leaves, stalks flowers all edible. More as more happens. 🌸💐🌿
View
Open
Lavender & Brown Sugar Ice Coffee
Makes 2 Coffees

This is a refreshing and easy to make ice coffee using your leftover coffee. The additional hint of lavender adds a touch of luxury and extravagance, yielding a pleasant afternoon pick me up.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon light brown sugar
a few lavender blossoms or 1 teaspoon lavender flowers (dried)
1 – ½  cups leftover coffee
½ cup half and half (better texture than milk!)
¼  teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups of ice

Directions

Muddle the brown sugar and lavender flowers together in a cocktail shaker for about 20-30 seconds. Add the coffee, half and half and vanilla. Fill with ice until the shaker is ¾ full and shake vigorously. Strain (double straining preferable) into a glass over ice. Garnish with a fresh lavender twig.

If you don’t have lavender growing in your garden, no problem, you can buy dried culinary lavender flowers. I love Curio Spice Company @curiospice  for all things spice related, and they have amazing lavender flowers from Oregon. Which I use in the winter when my garden is dormant.
View
Open
I’m so happy to have Jasmine in my life again I can’t wait till my plants grow bigger and produce lots more blooms. I love using them in cocktails.
View
Open
I’m a big pineapple, sage fan not only does it attract pollinators and hummingbirds with it’s vibrant fuchsia flowers, but it tastes heavenly, beautiful, herbaceous pineapple essence -one of my favorite everyday uses is in a ham and cheese omelette. It’s so delicious in a ham and cheese omelette.
View
Open
Garden leaves salad …. #happyNiss 

My garden to be clear 🤣💃‼️
View
Open
My pink dianthus, that I planted last year, are finally blooming this year. Their bright, magenta and hot pink flowers, mingled perfectly with a new. Recipe I’ve been working on (Actually and old {everybody’s favorite} winter recipe Cranberry Pear Coffee Cake ) I’ve been making a spring version using strawberries and Rhubarb - what you’re looking as is the crumble part (it goes inside and on top of the cake because of course) I make the crumble part of the recipe  super easy to make and I think more delicious because the flavors are melted into the butter - spreading around the flavor@more before it’s cooked. I put the dianthus in after the crumble is fully mixed - they taste like close and nutmeg so they will be perfect (and beautiful) in this Rhubarb, Strawberry and Blueberry Pink Dianthus Cardamon Rose Coffee Cake. - I don’t care that my titles are too long / the information in a title is key. 

Recipe soon- im working on a #mango version as well for summer. That one with verbena.
View
Open
This is #joy 

Herbs!
View
Open
Did you know the probes petals are edible? They taste like of mild strawberry and peach with a tinge of cloves essence. They are delicious in salads, syrups (cocktails and kick tails) and baked goods and im going to grow tuen for sure. This one I stole from my neighbors yard.
View
Open
Lavender Butter Almond Toffee Ice Cream (made with dried lavender flowers)
View
Open
I needed some hot stuff this evening so I made a spicy shrimp, squid ink pasta puntanesca kind of thing. 

This is what happens when you have a well stocked pantry and are out of fresh food. The only fresh was some old garlic and the herbs from my garden (mint, oregano and parsley) chili peppers and shrimp were frozen. 

15 minute meal!
View
Open
I make a good chicken schnitzel anyone who’s tried it knows that -the secret obviously is the triple threat of #herbalforeplay - herbs in the flour mixture (along with spices), herbs in the egg mixture (along with mustard), herbs in the breadcrumb mixture (along with lots of cracked pepper).

But this impromptu black, chickpea, broccoli salad that I made last night is amazing 

It’s got roasted, broccoli, black, chickpeas, some carrots, a lemon, a garlic vinaigrette and dates, feta lemon zest and sumac - the main herb i used is anise hyssop and the licorice essence mixed with the chickpeas, dates and broccoli- holy wow!
View
Open
For me. Celebrating #cincodemayo is about #celebrating the spirit of the #Mexican 🇲🇽 people- here’s a quick history lesson on the holiday and my famous #crespoorganickitchen #margarita #recipe #featuring one of my better ideas—- #mangopit #margaritamix 

And of course a beautiful Nissa #HerbSalt - Diablo Chili Colantro Margarita Salt #salud

For the longer and more in depth hostory lesson head to my #Mangoblog #UnderTheMangoTree and read my post History & Histeria of Cinco De Mayo. 

Link in story
View
Open
Instagram post 17996034169808686
View
Open
Grab some @crespoorganic dried #ataulfo #mangoes
View
Open
Sorry mango people for the delay in my communication but olof and ivin found one of thosenozark barracudas (black snake) and I had to go get scared. 

The good snake was released in the woods and unharmed.
View
Open
I’ve had this idea percolating for a while and if you know me, you know that my head is always percolating ideas and then boom randomly I execute it tonight I felt like eating a cookie and even though I’m so busy I took a moment to try a new recipe idea using dried mangoes and pistachios in shortbread cookies holy shit was it fantastic I made a few plain short breads because I didn’t want to miss out on a good cookie experience and I wasn’t sure if the other anyhow I’m gonna continue working on the recipe for mango flavor is amazing in it the way they bake into the butter incredible. You’re gonna love it.

@tedlasso_official  will love these. Maybe I can meet up with @jason_sudeikis in Kansas City and trade shortbread for KC recommendations?
LATEST TWEETS

Could not authenticate you.
LATEST POSTS
  • December 31, 2022
    “Different” Chicken Congee
  • December 20, 2022
    Nissa’s Christmas Mole (& Tamales)
  • November 13, 2022
    The Herbal Dry Brine
  • HOME
  • ABOUT ME
  • GET IN TOUCH
@2019 Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center

HERBAL ROOTS

ABOUT

TEAM

MEDIA

CONNECT

MY HERBAL ROOTS

NISSA

EVENTS

CLASSES

SERVICES

VIDEOS

SHOP

RECIPES

HERBS

SEASONS

WANDERINGS

..

HOT OFF THE PRESS

THE HERB BLURBS

Crab Cleaning | My Herbal Roots