The River Cottage Fish Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Author:Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall [Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60774-063-6
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Published: 2012-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Crack your own crabs

It’s not always necessary to fuss around preparing dressed crab for your guests. If you think they’re even half-competent shellfish enthusiasts, it’s much nicer to put the cooked whole crab on the table and let them dig in for themselves.

Arm them with appropriate tools for shell cracking (rolling pins, small mallets, nutcrackers) and for prying (tweezers, chopsticks, small knives), provide a couple of dishes for the disposal of dead man’s fingers, then sit back and watch as everyone sets to. It’s a fantastically sociable way of doing things.

It’s worth doing this with crabs alone—perhaps 3 nice big ones for 6 people—but there’s no need to stop there. Cook some langoustines or prawns too, some lobster if possible, and perhaps some whelks or periwinkles. Make sure that your table is laden with the right sort of accompaniments. There are no fixed rules but a good mayonnaise, ideally homemade, is pretty much essential. You can customize it, if you like, by adding a little scrap of crushed garlic, some chopped chives, and a squeeze of lemon. We’d also recommend good bread and butter, a green salad, a new-potato salad, some English mustard, Tabasco sauce, and lots of lemons. A copious supply of napkins is advisable.

And if you want your guests to feel really pampered, you might even provide them with finger bowls of warm water and a slice of lemon.

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