{"id":1535,"date":"2009-06-05T00:29:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T05:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankymouse.com\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2010-01-10T16:05:25","modified_gmt":"2010-01-10T21:05:25","slug":"crab-on-the-grill-keep-your-kitchen-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/2009\/06\/05\/crab-on-the-grill-keep-your-kitchen-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"Crab on the Grill: Keep Your Kitchen Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to grilling, some things are obvious.\u00a0 Burgers<\/a>, hot dogs, steaks<\/a>, chicken<\/a>.\u00a0 But others are less obvious.\u00a0 Pizza, pineapple<\/a>, asparagus<\/a>, crab.\u00a0 Crab?\u00a0 Yes, crab.\u00a0 Why not crab?\u00a0 That’s what I thought to myself a few years ago when we found ourselves with two pounds of crab legs and the desire to cook them somewhere other than in a big pot of boiling water in the middle of the summer.<\/p>\n

You see, around the O6 residence, we shy away from air conditioning unless it is unbearable for days on end.\u00a0 That means that when it gets hot in Minnesota (and it does), we do as much cooking as possible outside.\u00a0 It keeps the kitchen cool, and as a bonus, it reduces the amount of dishes later on.<\/p>\n

So, as I was saying, hot day, crab legs, grill…As it turns out, cooking crab on the grill wasn’t as straightforward as I thought it should be.\u00a0 I turned on the grill, put the legs on the rack and waited for them to get hot.<\/p>\n

The result was crispy shells with dried out shrunken meat inside. It still tasted like crab, but the experience was less than perfect.\u00a0 The challenge was on.\u00a0 It is a rare day that I let a oversized sea bug get the best of me, so over the years I have developed a surefire (sure fire?) – surefire – method for cooking up the perfect crab leg without heating up the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Last week, Shaina came home from a rare solo trip to the grocery store with two neat white packages.\u00a0 After a brief interrogation, she revealed that the local store was having a sale on snow crab at a price too good to pass up – $4.99 per pound.\u00a0 So, naturally, she bought four pounds.\u00a0 The funny thing about items such as crab is that they are kind of difficult to estimate how much you actually need because included in the weight (and price) is a lot of inedible shell.\u00a0 As it turned out, four pounds was more than enough for the meal, but who am I to complain about crab salad for lunch the next day?<\/p>\n

So, how did we prepare the crab?\u00a0 I’m glad you asked.\u00a0 As with some of my other dishes, this one needs very few extras, and you can even work in a recyclable.\u00a0 I use foil pans for lots of stuff around here, and usually they get destroyed in the process, but the ones that can be washed are thrown in the dish washer and stuck back on the shelf for next time, this method for crab is a perfect utilization of such a pan.\u00a0 To get started you’ll want:<\/p>\n

Crab leg sections<\/p>\n

Old Bay seasoning<\/p>\n

Foil pan (an old one is good, as long as it doesn’t leak)<\/p>\n

Water<\/p>\n

Yep, that’s it.\u00a0 I set up my grill similar to the grilled chicken<\/a> I talked about last month.\u00a0 Remove the upper rack and place the pan directly on the lava rocks.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 You have those new style “flavor bars”?\u00a0 That’s ok too, just leave the racks in and put the pan on top, you’ll just have to turn up the heat a bit more – I would say medium if your gill is like mine, or med\/high if you’re putting the pan on the regular grilling surface.<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/a><\/p>\n

Fill the pan about halfway full with water and get it nice and hot, boiling is preferred.\u00a0 To that add your crab and a healthy dose of Old Bay.\u00a0 I can’t really tell you how much, because this is really a matter of preference.<\/p>\n

\"Seasoned<\/a><\/p>\n

No Old Bay around?\u00a0 That’s fine too; just go with things you like.\u00a0 Maybe paprika, salt, pepper, dry mustard and whatever else you like.<\/p>\n

So things are hot, yes? \u00a0Good, while things cook a bit let’s talk about the starting point for our crab.\u00a0 Thawed is good, but frozen is fine too, it will just take a little longer.\u00a0 Now, most stores around here actually cook the crab before it gets to you, so this is merely a “heat and eat” operation.\u00a0 I usually let them go for five minutes, then flip them, wait another five minutes and then turn off the grill.<\/p>\n

\"Flipped\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They can soak for a while in the hot water until the rest of the meal is ready.\u00a0 Remove them to a serving platter of some kind, set them out and dig in.<\/p>\n

In my opinion this is the fun part, getting a little messy, and breaking shells in search of the sweet tender surprise inside.\u00a0 It can be a bit frustrating when your meat reward is stubbornly hiding inside a tiny shell, but with a little practice, you’ll be a pro.\u00a0 The trick is to break it in the middle and carefully slide the two halves apart, the result should be a nice meaty tube hanging out one half.\u00a0 Carefully pluck it out and savor.<\/p>\n

\"crab-pull-1\"<\/a>\"crab-pull\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you do everything right, the end result should be a nice pile of empty shells.\u00a0 So get out of the kitchen and beat the heat without compromising the quality of your evening meal.<\/p>\n

\"Empty<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to grilling, some things are obvious.\u00a0 Burgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken.\u00a0 But others are less obvious.\u00a0 Pizza, pineapple, asparagus, crab.\u00a0 Crab?\u00a0 Yes, crab.\u00a0 Why not crab?\u00a0 That’s what I thought to myself a few years ago when we found ourselves with two pounds of crab legs and the desire to cook them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,12,30,10,219],"tags":[125,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-1535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured","7":"category-from-the-patio","8":"category-main-course","9":"category-recipes","10":"category-seafood-main-course-recipes","11":"tag-easy","12":"tag-grill","13":"entry","14":"has-post-thumbnail"},"mv":{"thumbnail_id":null,"thumbnail_uri":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4328,"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions\/4328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}