This recipe I
tried a couple of months ago and thought it so good, it should make an
appearance as the fish course in my pop-up restaurant earlier in the month. The recipe
has been lifted from a pamphlet by Elizabeth David called English Potted Meats and Fish Pastes. You can find the pamphlet in
her anthology An Omelette and a Glass of
Wine (a book any interested cook worth their salt should own). Ms David
honourably adapted old recipes and updated them for the contemporary
population. They still hold up today, I take some pride in taking up her baton
– via Jane Grigson – albeit on a small scale, in showing that these dishes need
to be brought back and celebrated. They are so different from the nasty little
pots found on our supermarket shelves.
For this recipe
you need to start with a large 2 pound crab
– ask your fishmonger in advance to bagsy you a large, hefty-clawed male for
you. If such a thing is not available, buy 2 smaller hen crabs. At home, dip
into your toolbox for a hammer and root out your lobster tools (or
alternatively a nutcracker and skewer) and get to work picking and scooping the
meat from the crab, keeping the brown meat in separate pots from the white.
It’s worth mentioning that you can buy the tubs of pre-picked crabmeat, but the
result will not be anywhere near as delicious.
How do you pick a
crab of its meat? This
excellent walk-through guide from Channel 4 is very good. One day I’ll
write my own, if I ever get round to it!
Season the crab
meats with salt, black pepper, mace, nutmeg and Cayenne pepper, as well as a good
squeeze of lemon juice. Now layer up
the two meats in a single mould such a stoneware pot, or several smaller ones.
Start with half of the white meat, then the brown and then the remainder of the
white. Pack it down firmly and pour over melted slightly-salted butter; you will need around half a pound of butter
altogether. Griggers here recommends Lurpak, which eats much better in this
sort of dish.
Bake in a ban Marie at 150⁰C for 25-30 minutes.
Remove and pour over some clarified
butter. Allow to cool and store in the fridge covered with foil or
clingfilm. If you put a good thick layer of butter over the crab, it will keep
for several days. Don’t forget to take it out of the fridge a few hours before
you want to eat it.
I served the
potted crab simply with spelt bread and a lemon wedge.
#378 Elizabeth David’s Potted Crab.
Absolutely delicious, the rich butter and creamy crab meat are suitably
sharpened by the warming spices and lemon juice. This must be the best of the potted
meat and fish dishes in the book and I cannot sing its praises high enough.
10/10
2 comments:
This really is one of my favourite recipes from one of my favourite writers. So very simple and so very good. And I'm lucky to have local crab fishermen so I can order my crabs the day before I want them and collect them straight from the boat. I hope your customers appreciate your kindness in making it for them
Congrats on the ever increasing number of readers - I pride myself that I found you so early in your career. Look forward to visiting the inevitable restaurant
It is a great recipe. It's funny , I find Ms David's English and Frencxh recipes work very well, but those from her Mediterranean Cooking etc very difficult to work with. Strange.
Thanks for being such a good commenter on the blogs. Next stop - restaurant!
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