Skip navigation
No crabbing about new takes on a familiar seafood treat

No crabbing about new takes on a familiar seafood treat

Fans are legion for traditional crab cakes, steamed crab legs and crabmeat salads. Yet some casual restaurant operators can't resist fiddling with the sweet-tasting crustacean. They tempt novelty seekers with such culinary tricks as dunking crab legs in hot oil and dusting them with Mexican spices and encasing crab cakes in pretzel sticks.

Although consumption of crab doubled between 1991 and 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available, that nets out to just .64 pound per capita, ranking it seventh among seafood species, according to the National Fisheries Institute in McLean, Va. Shrimp, by comparison, tops the list at more than four pounds per person.

Some believe that more inventive cookery might bring new consumers into the fold. "I love a great crab cake myself," said Michael Bloise, executive chef of Wish restaurant in Miami Beach. "But I think restaurants need to start challenging people to try new things."

"I think you'll see a large increase in crab, and chefs will pair it with higher-quality ingredients," said Phillip A. Crispo, lecturing instructor at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. "There's no end to the versatility of crabmeat, if handled the right way."

For many consumers, crab is more of a splurge than a staple. Dan Blumenthal, executive chef and co-owner of Bravo Italian Restaurant and Bar in Jackson, Miss., pays $26 per pound for jumbo lump crabmeat and $20 per pound for backfin lump crabmeat for his popular Pan-Seared Crab-Crusted Fish of the Night, which sells at market price in the $25 vicinity. "It's very expensive," said Blumenthal. "But it sells the fish."

Blumenthal's crust is crabmeat bound with mayonnaise, creole mustard, breadcrumbs and parsley spread atop the fish fillet. A similar idea is found at Mark's Las Olas in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where chef-owner Mark Militello crowns his Crab-Crusted Black Grouper ($36) entrée with lump crabmeat, mayonnaise, egg yolk and horseradish.

Then there's the much-loved crab cake. When creative chefs set out to reinterpret it, they usually seek novel ingredient substitutions. At Citricos, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, executive chef Phil Ponticelli's Gateau of Crab ($12) showcases lump crabmeat in a rich custard of cream cheese, smoked cheddar, heavy cream, whole eggs and yolks and parmesan cheese.

The Pretzel Crusted Crabcake is the brainchild of David Burke, chef and co-owner of davidburke & donatella, an upscale restaurant in New York City. He sandwiches a crabmeat mixture between layers of Japanese pretzel sticks, ties the raft-like assembly with a chive band and deep-fries it in curry-infused oil. If that's not novel enough, the mixture is held together with softened whole butter and the cake's edges are coated with rice pearls. "It's one of our best-sellers," said chef de cuisine Eric Hara.

Also sans eggs and breadcrumbs is the Thai Crab Cake ($12) at Rain in New York City. Executive chef Gypsy Gifford favors Asian ingredients like Japanese Kewpie-brand mayonnaise, Chinese celery, sriracha chili sauce and panko crumbs. Her secret ingredient is out: it's the mayo. "It's sweet and tart, a little sweeter and creamier than ordinary mayonnaise," said Gifford.

Crab stars in cold preparations, too, like the Blue Crab and Tangerine Summer Roll ($18), Bloise's light, Asian-inspired appetizer at Wish. It consists of 3-4 ounces of blue crabmeat folded into a dressing of crème fraiche, tangerine zest, wasabi and Dijon, wrapped up in a thin Vietnamese rice paper sheet with avocado slices and baby pea shoots, served with tangerine sections and a crispy yuca chip.

Others rely on cooking methods for special effects. At Salty's at Redondo Beach in Seattle, one of the three Salty's restaurants in Seattle and Portland, executive chef Gabriel Cabrera roasts Dungeness crabs in a 500 degrees Fahrenheit oven rather than steaming them in the local practice. "The high heat sears in the juices," said Cabrera.

Also typically steamed and served with butter are Alaskan king crab legs. But not at Rockin' Baja Lobster Restaurants, a seven-unit casual-dining concept based in San Diego. There they are deep-fried in the shell Baja style and dusted with piquant Mexican spices "that flavor the fingers as well as the crab," said vice president of operations Houston Striggow. The Cabo Wabo King Crab Bucket ($28.95) serves one pound of king crab legs in a metal beer bucket. "Anytime you fry something in oil, it tastes better," said Striggow.

TAGS: Operations
Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish