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Soft-shell crabs
Serves 6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- peanut oil, for frying
- 6 large egg yolks
- 2tbsp hot sauce
- 2tbsp double cream
- 540g cornmeal
- 255g plain flour
- 130g cornflour
- 1tbsp kosher salt
- 1⁄4tsp cracked black pepper
- 1⁄4tsp cayenne pepper
- 6 soft-shell crabs, cleaned
To serve
- butter
- lemon wedges
- fresh flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
Method
Soft-shell crabs are available, frozen, from thefishsociety.co.uk
Fill a large heavy-bottomed pot with 10cm of peanut oil and heat over a medium-high heat to 190C.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, hot sauce and cream. In a shallow bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, cornflour, salt, black pepper and cayenne.
Dip a crab in the egg mixture and allow any excess mixture to drip off, then dredge the crab in the cornmeal mixture, making sure it is completely coated. Be sure to coat under the flaps of the top shell and in the nooks and crannies of the legs and claws. Place the coated crab on a baking tray. Repeat the process with the remaining crabs, keeping the dredged crabs in a single layer, not touching.
Carefully add 2 crabs to the hot oil (they have a lot of moisture in them and will pop when they touch the oil). Fry for around 3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Transfer the crabs to kitchen paper to drain. Repeat to fry the remaining crabs in batches of 2, letting the oil come back up to temperature after each batch.
Serve each crab topped with butter, lemon and parsley.
This recipe was taken from the June/July 2020 issue of Food and Travel.
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