I don't know how he's gonna take this, but when I think about my uncle Chick, I think about crabs.
(That can't have come out right. Better explain.)
See, Chick lives in Long Island, NY, and his property backs up onto a canal. He's got a dock, where he keeps a small boat, and where you could hang around all day watching other people going by on theirs.
It's nice.
But to see the best thing about my uncle's setup you need to look very closely. Tied to the wood railing that leads to the dock is a weathered and not very thick piece of line, which drapes down along a retaining wall and into the canal.
At the end of the line is a crab pot. It's Chick's, and it gets a lot of action. Always has.
Chick called me the other day to see if I could make it down for his annual Fourth of July feast. Which of course got me thinking about, well, you know.
And so I did it my uncle's way. Just not with the blue crabs he uses, because I can't get those up here in Maine, I can only get the local rock crabs.
I couldn't bear to cut into a live crab and so I steamed them a couple minutes and then cleaned the insides.
And into the red sauce they went.
Simmered for a couple hours at low heat.
And thrown together with tagliatelle.
Hope to see you this weekend, Chick. But if not I promise -- for real this time, I mean it, probably in July sometime -- to make it down for a boat ride this summer.And for some of your crabs.
(Hey, Vito, show this to your old man, would you. Last I looked there wasn't a computer at his place, so drag him over to your house and fire up yours!)
6 comments:
I wouldnt mind visiting for some of those crabs too! Looks good! Crabs are one of my favourite seafood.
All I can get in MN (feel sorry for me) are frozen snow crab clusters. I mean - you had three - could ahve saved me one.
crabs and pasta were made for each other.....wow....if my wife saw this post I'd be making crabs tomorrow!
great post and a wonderful meal!
Did you ever eat at "Joe's of Ave U"? They are the only ones who make a seafood sauce served over linguine that has crabs in it.
I love soft shell crabs for the very reason that the whole thing can be eaten, but otherwise I'd rather cook lobster in sauce as there is more meat from a lobster.
I have never cooked with crab and you scared me about starting off with them alive and cutting into them, I know I couldn't do that. So a soft crab, you eat the whole thing? Would this be a better option when doing a very saucy recipe?
Not a soft crab, no.
Frankly, to me, it's more for flavor. Though I have seen old-timers pick every last bit of crabmeat from the bodies.
A (very red and messy) sight to behold!
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