I've been wanting to make Crustacean's signature recipe, Roasted Crab with Garlic Noodles, ever since Crab Season started in November. There's just something about those noodles and the idea of a "secret kitchen" just for making this dish intrigued me. After a quick search, I found a recipe that I liked. Someone actually analyzed the dish and experimented with the recipe until they came up with a very similar recipe. I was excited! It was a very simple recipe but it required a live crab.
The idea of having to kill a crab for dinner was not appealing at all. And I actually had to kill TWO live crabs since it was a surprise dinner for John. I began searches on "how to kill a live crab humanely" and quickly decided I did not want to plunge the crab into boiling water. I found these two videos and both freaked me out! Here's the first and here's the second. Neither video looked humane at all.
I abandoned the web and asked around to see how my friends have killed their crabs. There was one technique that I took to. It required turning the crab onto its back, grabbing hold of the legs and pulling up while holding the shell down. Sounded easier than what I saw in the videos.
I went to Ranch 99 to pick up two live crabs. They packed the little guys up in plastic bags and for extra security measures, triple bagged it in a paper bag and another plastic bag. Which was great because when I got home, the feisty crabs punctured the first plastic bag and water was leaking out. Great...
I put the crabs into a pot of cold water so that they would stay alive until John got home. That's when I got a really good look at their faces. Big mistake! I felt terrible! And they have these tiny little hands right in front of their mouths that come together like they're begging me not to eat them. I poured myself a gin & tonic and ignored them. Hard to do when they are trying to escape and make "tap-tap" noises against the pot. This called for TWO gin & tonics, one for each crab I had to kill.
Hi Guys
It was finally time to prep the crabs. I tapped the crab's head against the sink to "put it to sleep" like the video instructed. I turned the first crab over onto its back and grabbed hold of the legs. At this point, I wondered if I should just keep them as pets. But the potential deliciousness I was about to experience gave me the strength to do it! I said I'm really sorry and thank you so much for providing a delicious meal tonight and ripped the legs up and dismembered it. I was so freaked out by all of the goo inside of the shell that I immediately started cleaning, forgetting that I should have cut the rest of the crab in half to make sure it was really dead.
One down, one to go. The second one was a lot easier. I said, "Sorry! and Thank you!" Cleaned everything up and chopped the crab up into bite sized pieces.
dismembered crab
I followed this recipe exactly so I'll spare you the details. Thank you Rasa Malaysia for sharing this awesome recipe!
Serve the noodles in the shell. delish!
