Soft-Shell Crab Salad with Meursault

Tonight’s ‘light’ supper, recovering from Wine & Chile Fiesta and associated events, was three small soft-shell crabs each atop greens dressed with a lime-yuzu dressing. The crabs were frozen and obtained with our last order from Catalina Offshore Products. They were small crabs, except for one that was almost twice the size of the others. The crabs were dredged in seasoned flour, dipped in an egg/milk mixture, and dredged in panko. Then they were fried in peanut oil at 340F for a few minutes, drained on paper towels, and placed on the greens dressed with Tahitian Lime Olive Oil and Yuzu rice vinegar seasoned with SI Spicy Seafood Seasoning, onion powder, Key Lime Pepper, Kosher salt, & SI Salad Herbs.

The crabs were tasty, sweet, and tender and very good on the greens. All was enjoyed with a 2002 Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet Meursault ‘Les Perrieres’ - medium greenish gold in color; rich nose and flavors of complex, spicy white fruits; complex fruity mid-palate with just enough acidity for the salad; and a long, spicy fruit finish. It was a very tasty meal eaten inside at our dining table because of gusty winds.

I love crab and Meursault. Well done Dick.

Love soft-shell crabs!

I always buy them fresh in season; will have to test out the frozen ones.

These were very good, I was pleasantly surprised. We occasionally got frozen SS crabs at Quality Seafood on the Redondo Beach pier (after the season). They were generally larger and not as sweet.

Since we only live in Santa Fe now, Catalina Offshore Products in San Diego had been a good source of seafood, FedEx’d overnight to us.

Soft shell crabs! Yummy, especially the sauteed kind. Got at taste of this while resting in MD for 3 years, but luckily we can get them here live for a price. The frozen kind is not worth the effort.
My recipe: turn them in flour that’s mixed with a pinch of red pepper and sauté in plenty of butter at medium low heat so the butter doesn’t quite brown. Alternately use grape seed oil if you want to fry.