It's Crab Time!
San Francisco has this gorgeous crab - Dungeness. This large fella has a sweet briny flavor...and restaurants all over town have a crab salad on the menu during the season (often paired with sliced or pureed avocado and sometimes enhanced with herbs or even mango with mache, watercress, frisee, or bibb lettuce). It is in season in the Winter - typically from mid-November and all the way through June (although most are fished and eaten in the Winter and Early Spring).
A part of SF culture that took a while to grow on me (but now I’m all in) is the crab feeds that take place around town during the early part of the season (typically January). Every school has a crab feed as a fundraiser, most churches and cultural centers have one as well...and that isn’t even counting the private folks enjoying their crab during the Christmas and New Year break. A typical crab feed menu includes bread, salad, pasta, pre-cracked crab (often both regular and garlic), and drawn butter. A token sweet is thrown in at the end, but this is really all about the crab.
The hard-core attendees to these functions are pros. They are there to eat crab and eat a lot of it (it is usually brought out in big foil pans and it just keeps on coming). They show up with jars of their homemade drawn butter (much more flavor than the plain melted butter offered at the feed), a candle or heat source to keep it warm and their own crab crackers and picks to get every last bit of the meat.
Who am I to argue? Next crab feed...tote bag of supplies in hand...I was ready!
Now I love a good drawn butter (who doesn’t?). But I have to say that it was a “draw” (PUN intended) with a vinegar dipping sauce that was being passed around the table quite a bit. I’ve included both sauces below because why serve one when you can serve two? Try to get yourself some crab this season (Dungeness if available...there was a glitch with the commercial season this year and it only just became available) or another type that you love. Or try these with other seafood/shellfish as you like.
The “How To” Details:
Crab-Dipping Vinegar Sauce (makes approximately 4 servings)
¼ cup water
¼ cup fish sauce
½ cup white wine vinegar (or rice wine vinegar)
3-4 tablespoons granulated sugar (to taste)
¼ cup chopped green onions
¼ cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons grated lime zest
2 teaspoons chopped mint
Mix all ingredients, making sure that sugar has dissolved (start with 3 tablespoons). Adjust sugar to taste.
Crab-Dipping Drawn Butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
3 cloves finely chopped garlic
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 sticks butter (unsalted)
1/4 teaspoon dill (fresh or dried)
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt to taste
In a small saucepan, heat oil and saute shallot until it begins to soften. Add garlic and cook 30 more seconds or until fragrant.
Add the white wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the butter and allow to melt, reduce heat as needed to keep from burning. Add the dill and pepper and stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and add lemon juice. Stir and add salt to taste.
At this point you can leave it on low or turn off the heat and allow it to cool down. As solids appear on top - skim some off (you can leave a bit of the fat but try and skim off most). Reheat before serving in individual ramekins or small bowls.
YumScrum and enjoy that delicious crab with the vinegar, butter…or like me, with both!