Soft Shell Crab Cleaning

In the United States, the blue crab is basically considered as a soft-shell crab and in Asia, it is the mangrove crab that is soft-shelled. Crabs do not have the ability to get their hard shells expand while they age and so they molt the exteriors and bear a soft covering for some days, before the new shell hardens. This is the time when these crabs are the most vulnerable and can be used in various recipes. It is important to keep the crabs alive until just before you start cooking them in order to keep them fresh.

How to Clean A Soft-Shell Crab?
The first step is using a large pair of scissors with strong blades (shears) to cut off the front of the crab. You have to get rid of the eyes and mouth. Now, after getting rid of the eyes and the mouth, it's time to cut off the gills. You can see these once you lift up the side edges of the shell. You can simply clip these gills off with the shears.

Next step is getting rid of the apron. The apron is the covering on the crab's backside. Simply pull off the apron from the crab. After having done that, rinse the crab under running water. Take care about cleaning the area where previously the gills were situated. In some crabs, this area may have some amount of sand and that will definitely not taste good with the crab! Do not worry about cleaning away the intestines. Let them be where they are as they do not taste bad or do any harm to the crab recipe. So, there you have it, a cleaned soft-shell crab, ready to be cooked! It wasn't so difficult, was it?

Soft-Shell Crab Recipes

Recipe 1

Ingredients:
Soft-shell crabs - 4
Egg - 1
Milk - a cup
Flour - 1 cup
Cooking oil - as needed
Salt and pepper - to taste

Directions:
Clean the crabs as directed above and dry on paper towels. Put the oil to be heated in a deep fryer. In a bowl, prepare a mixture of egg and milk using a fork. Thereafter, use another bowl to mix the flour with salt and pepper. Now, cover each crab with flour and dip it in the mix of egg and milk and cover it once again with flour. Cover all the sides of the crab evenly and properly.

Place the crabs one by one in the frying pan and cook for about 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Flip the crabs and cook again until golden brown. Place the cooked crabs on paper towels to drain. Do not serve hot! Enjoy them when they are cool enough to eat!

Recipe 2

Ingredients:
Soft-shell crabs - 5
Large Onions - 2, cut in large pieces
Garlic - 6 cloves
Garlic powder - 2 tbsp.
Chopped parsley
Creole - for seasoning
Mixture of flour and oil - flour (half cup), oil (one-third cup)
Tomato sauce - 28 g

Directions:
Put the crabs in water (water quantity should be enough to cover the crabs). Add the onions, garlic, the seasoning and salt and let the mixture boil slowly at low temperature.

In a frying pan, fry the mix of flour and oil briefly over heat until dark brown. Add this mix to the previous mixture and simmer for some more time (a few minutes or so). Add the sauce and 1 cup of water and put in the parsley. Now, let the whole mixture be cooked slowly for about half an hour. Serve hot!

So there you have with you some quick tips on cleaning a soft-shell crab, and some 'crab-elicious' recipes to cook. So, clean well and enjoy the treat!