I've eaten baby goat, I've eaten snails, I've had oysters, cockles, lamb, quail, pheasant, ostrich; I'm not afraid of eating animals. Normally the rule is: if I'm not allergic, I'll try it. I know that I'm not allergic to crab; I know that I really like crab meat. As I saw the 3 pre-cooked crabs in the fish section, I selected the one with the least amount of barnacles, with the best colour, in short, the cutest crab available. Tonight, I pulled that crab out of my fridge & prepared to turn him into a seafood quinoa-isotto.
After having done my research on the best way to open a common crab, I set to work. But he looked so darn cute. I like to dive and if I saw this guy underwater, I'd stop for a while and look at him, maybe even have a little chat - he's that cute.
Now, I know it's a little silly to be remorseful over the same food I was so excited about while in the supermarket.- crab is dead
- if I didn't buy it, someone else would have - on sale!
- he's here now and it would be wasteful to not use it
I took the shell apart, breaking the top off allowing me to get into the inside to pull out the meat & buttery bits. At this point, I realized that I was dealing with a female crab. This is the result of my meticulous meat extraction:
This is the plan for seafood quinoa-isotto:take 200 g squid & 100g shrimp out of the freezer
sautee 1 onion (chopped) & 2 cloves of garlic (minced) in olive oil over low heat.
Add 1 cup rinsed quinoa & stir around.
Add safron-infused chicken broth (I had some in the fridge) bit by bit, allowing liquid to soak. Maybe about 2 cups.
Throw in cut up squid & allow everything to cook for 30 minutes.
At the last minute add shrimp, & both crab meat & crab red stuff (I think it was roe, but I'm really not sure - I was just squeamish).
The result was decent, my girlfriend came over & said it beat the pants off the salad she was about to make herself.
I still have a bunch of meat (& cheese & wine) from the shopping trip - I'll try to post about that as I slowly extract things from the freezer.
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2 comments:
I love how you rationalized cooking the crab! I have always had an issue eating something that still has eyes. I will hide the head of my trout under lettuce so I can eat the rest of my meal! Is fresh seafood expensive in Germany?
The sad thing is, I love it when my uncle will call & say "I just got a bunch of blue crab, come over for dinner" - they're whole but they are covered in a thick curry. No eyes!
Seafood is not only expensive here but it's hard to find. Case in point: Oysters cost €1 - €1.50 per piece here. In France, I bought 3 dozen for €16. Plus, a lot of the time, when I find seafood, it's in some sort of salad form, which just has a lot of questionable creamy sauce on it.
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