The Joys of Spring

Remember this book?

Back in October I celebrated the arrival of Virginia Willis' second book but I've been waiting until now to make one special recipe. Grilled Stuffed Soft Shell Crabs with Lemon Gemolata.  What exactly are soft shell crabs?

The Atlantic Blue Crab (Callinecties sapidus or beautiful swimmer) has a life span of roughly three years.  During those years the crab molts or sheds it's shell in order to grow.  Since it takes a few hours for the crab's shell to become hard again, crabmen of the Chesapeake Bay have developed numerous methods of finding and harvesting soft shell crabs.  Luckily for me there's a couple of sources for unfrozen soft shells that show up here in Kansas City in early May.  However if the fishmonger is not in (as happened to me at this particular store), you may end up cleaning them yourself like I had to do because the fishmonger's assistant was too grossed out to barely touch the un-moving crabs.

Not that it was a problem since cleaning is fairly simple but should only be done just before you plan on cooking your soft shells.  Cut off the flap on the underside of the crab (it's either shaped like the Washington Monument (for males) or the Capitol Dome (for females).  Next lift up the pointy flap of each side of the top shell.  Underneath you'll find the lungs which you need to snip off with scissors.  Finally you need to cut off the front edge of the crab, just behind the eyes.

Usually the simplest way to cook soft shell crabs is normally your best bet.  Most folks dust them with a flour mixture, fry them and them plop them between two slices of white bread for a quick sammie.  Virginia keeps it simple also by grilling them with just a bit of shrimp filling and a little zesty lemon gremolota

Ideally softshells should be cooked and eaten on the day they were captured to ensure that lovely sweet crab meat taste.To a confirmed omnivore and a lover of all things Chesapeake Bay, it's a beautiful thing.  But not everyone enjoys the concept of eating the entire crab no matter how it's cooked.  This does not bother me in the least.

Just leaves more crunchy legs for me.

Basics to Brilliant Y'all.

I don't cheer on too many teams. My days of watching and supporting professional sports have faded into the misty fanaticism of my youth (a certain cross country Winnebago trip to feed the Washington Redskins ribs as they prepared for the Super Bowl fixed that). These days my cheerleading is reserved for the health and well being for our country as a whole. GO USA. However there is one team that I am wholeheartedly on the Winnebago for. That's Team Willis. It's pretty easy to figure out why. Whether getting quoted in the NY Times about wistfully hoping for gay marriage rights in Georgia, coming to terms with being "a big gal", pulling the curtain back on making of a cookbook or sharing her love of all things seafood, Virginia is a kindred spirit that I love seeing success rain down on her self described offensive lineman's shoulders.

Photo by Angie Mosier

If you've followed this blog at all you know I've been casually cooking my way through Virginia's most excellent first cookbook, Bon Appetit Y'all. It's not just beautiful and graphically amazing, I have not yet found a bad recipe. But you just knew that Virginia had more than one delicious cookbook's worth of recipes tucked away in the nooks and crannies of her chef's jacket. Now comes Basic to Brilliant Y'all, her second stunning offering.

Right off the bat I have one minor issue. Really, just a little one. It's this recipe right here....

Photo by Helene Dujardin

...and the fall release date of this book. You see, to prepare a dish the best way you sometimes have to cook seasonally. This recipe of grilled soft shell crabs with lemon gremolata really only should be prepared with fresh soft shell crabs. Which for yours truly, will not be available until the next spring. Let's just say it's going to be a long, cold winter before I can satisfy my hunger for that particular tidbit. But that's OK because when digging into a new cookbook, I like to make the very first recipe the author lists and since the theme of this cookbook is basics, it's only appropriate that we start with chicken stock (and participate in Virginia's Virtual Potluck). Now again, if you readers have been following along you also know I jibe pretty closely with the Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen crowd. I've been using their basic chicken stock recipe and have not been disappointed in the flavor. But then again, they don't use chicken feet.

That's right, Virginia suggests that two pounds of well washed chicken feet would make an excellent chicken stock. I just happen to frequent a grocery store that has a well stocked meat counter with big piles of chicken feet. Which brings us to the weirdness factor of your basic American cook. Why am I a little skeeved out handling chicken feet? I know why.....the fact that we (mostly) are generations removed from killing and butchering our own meat. My grandmother made a mean fried chicken but that meant starting the process of the meal by chopping the head off a chicken. Attending yearly hog butcherings at an early age keeps you from being squeamish about meat but still, chicken feet are skeevy. Of course that didn't stop me from making the stock.

Liquid gold, baby. I'll probably make Virginia's Meme's Chicken and Rice.

You will be sad because you won't be able to just drop in to see what I'm cooking.