H-Mart, yesterday live Canadian or East Coast, $11.99#.
As good as any hard shell lobster I have ever had anytime and anywhere.
Three or four desultory looking Dungeness Crabs occupied one tank.
No King Crab as the last batch arrived dead.
The Frozen cooked Snow Crab clusters intrigued me.
I have watched many YouTube videos of Japanese sushi chef’s preparing these crabs for service. They invariably start with live or frozen uncooked which I cannot procure in the Mid West.
These were $179.99 for a 10# box or #19.99/#.
I purchased three clusters to try out the techniques.
Picking the body sections was no problem as we have picks, stout shears and a lot of experience.
The big claw again was not a problem, just cut around where the pincers join and wiggle and pull and the meat comes out in one piece, a ‘Cocktail Claw’.
The legs were another story.
Using a rolling pin just did not work without a lot of effort on a large segment.
Using a-sharp knife to cut a sliver along the leg was judged too fraught with danger after my first leg.
I used the shears to cut along the leg and then forcibly extract the meat into a somewhat contiguous segment, not pretty.
The body meat will be combined with a little cucumber, rested on a Shiso leaf with leg segments and one claw on top. A dollop of Ikura will top the presentation along with grated Yuzu my Granddaughter and I picked up at Mitsuwa yesterday as we made a Grand Tour.
I sure would like to find a source for this type of crab alive.
I have seen chef’s extract using a live crab, the meat raw from the big leg segment leaving it attached to the rest of the leg, This is then served with a dashi and the meat briefly swirled through the hot dashi and eaten.
One can if one wants serve the crab on a bed of Sushi rice which is a typical Japanese presentation.
-Richard