Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, Beautiful, beauti--FUL SOUP! [1]

[rivka]

I'm waiting to post a full trip report of our visit to Edmonton and the Canadian Rockies when we have all our pictures loaded, but I promised therealjae that I would not further delay posting about our adventures in cream of crab.

When she visited Baltimore, we took her to a French-Asian restaurant called the Purple Orchid. Little did any of us know that the cup of cream of crab soup she ordered would change her life forever... but in fact she ended up with a bit of an obsession and a passionate longing for more. curiousangel and I debated whether it would be possible for us to pack an order of cream of crab soup in ice and smuggle it through Canadian customs when we visited. I decided that it would be better to call the restaurant and beg for the recipe. Surprisingly enough, the chef was willing to dictate the instructions to me over the phone.

He began with "cream of crab soup, very easy." And, in broken English, he described a complicated yet vague set of procedures and ingredients. It was pretty clear that he doesn't typically make this soup in small batches, and has never seen a written recipe for it in his life. therealjae and I decided to do our best to decode the recipe and make the soup. I researched some other cream of crab soup recipes online, trying to flesh out the instructions, but most of them don't start with whole crabs so it was a bit difficult to generalize.

We managed it, though.

The "recipe" called for 10 whole crabs. therealjae was incredulous, which I understood only after I'd seen the crabs on sale at her local supermarket. Let's just say that Dungeness crabs are a wee bit bigger than Maryland blue crabs. We bought two Dungeness crabs, weighing in at a total of about 2 1/4 kilos, and had the fish counter person steam them for us.

Back in therealjae's kitchen, curiousangel presented a crab picking clinic for minnaleigh. The two of them (with a little help from me) removed all the meat from the shells - we wound up with a generous plateful, which we set aside. Picking the crabs took a long time. minnaleigh then crushed the leg and claw shells vigorously with a heavy marble rolling pin. The crushed pieces went into the stock pot with a few cloves of chopped garlic and about two quarts of water. We boiled the stock for about forty minutes, reducing it by half, and were left with a sweet and not overly tasty broth. At this point, I think we were all a little dubious that the soup would taste good.

I strained the stock and added 1/3 as much milk - so, in this case, a third of a quart. While I was doing that, therealjae and minnaleigh melted 1/4 pound (one stick) of butter in a skillet and stirred in 1/4 pound flour. This was supposed to make a roux, but it looked more like a crumbly dough. As we heated the soup, we added the roux a little at a time, whisking constantly.

We were supposed to let it boil and then cook it for twenty minutes, but after stealing a few tastes and getting only an impression of floury milk, I got nervous. We decided to go ahead and add the plateful of lump crab meat to improve the crab flavor. We also started seasoning with salt and pepper - add a little, taste, correct the seasoning. By the end of the twenty minutes, it was definitely tasting like crab soup - but incredibly thick and heavy.

At that point, we started adding heavy whipping cream. We poured a little, stirred, and tasted. I think we wound up putting in about 1/3 pint (excuse me, 1/3 of a 500-ml container), but we weren't really measuring - just going by taste and by eye. At some point, a strange alchemy occurred: the taste went from "yeah, that's some decent cream of crab soup" to sudden weak-kneed ambrosial delight.

"I think it's done," I managed to say. Tastes all around. Everyone agreed that it was done, with slightly stunned expressions.

In the bottom of each soup bowl, we put a couple of tablespoons of Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry. Then we spooned the soup over the top. It was still very thick, and rich with big lumps of crabmeat.

I can't really manage to express how it tasted. My eyes still glaze over at the memory. For a brief period of time, I considered leaving curiousangel to be monogamous with my soup. The urge to monogamy passed, but my devotion remained. It's the best single dish I have ever made in my life. I'm still amazed that we were able to replicate that recipe ourselves, in therealjae's kitchen. It was an afternoon of work, but it was so worth the effort. Try it yourself. You'll believe me.

[1] It's the Mock Turtle's song in chapter 10 of Alice in Wonderland.

Comments

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

(The sushi gecko is the closest I have to a "food gecko", sniff)

Ohhhh, wonderful writeup, my dear! And illustrated! And the article about the Purple Orchid! Except that now I want some more sooooooup. Mmmm. Sooooooup.

-J

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, wonderful writeup, my dear!

Except that I have got to get control of my tendency to overuse adverbs. I swear I took out half the ones I wanted to use, and the entry is still rife with them.

Mmmm. Sooooooup.

Sooooooooup.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Rivka, dear, you really should join the food_porn community Gesi started 9I think while you were gone). This definitely fits.

And, damn, I live in the land of abundant Dungeness crab ... (-:

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. I shall make this for my mother, and I suspect I will have hugs and smooches and wondrous adoration to pass along after I do. Thanks!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It turns out that it's not actually all that complicated, but it's a lot of work. Especially going over the crabs picking out all the meat. Budget a lot of time for that.

And if you do make it, I want to know how it turns out!

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

I suppose I could always buy pre-cooked crabmeat, no? (Though I probably wouldn't. Might as well do it the right way, even if it means ripping little crab carcasses to shreds. ;-)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I suppose I could always buy pre-cooked crabmeat, no?

I don't think there would be any harm in buying lump crabmeat, but then you wouldn't have shells to make the broth. wcg and I were just discussing it at lunch. We decided that if we had to make the soup with small crabs, we'd put the legs and claws into the stockpot without trying to pick them first, and use a tub of pre-picked lump crabmeat for the meat in the soup.

Might as well do it the right way, even if it means ripping little crab carcasses to shreds.

You're on the west coast, so you should be able to get big crab carcasses. I mean, these Dungeness crabs we bought, when the fish counter person put them on the scale, their legs were waving off the sides. Two crabs made enough crab soup for six people. Much less frustrating than trying to get meat out of small crabs. Although if you're not a skilled crab dissecter, you're going to want to solicit help from someone who is.

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tips! (Heh, I'm realizing I probably have more crab-ripping-to-shreds experience than most vegans. ;-)

Shake them crab

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I'm shocked and dismayed that a google for "crab shaking" doesn't turn up any instructions on this fine art (although it does turn up one of my Web sites, with mention of a crab-shaking demonstration during a recent marine science festival our program sponsored in Newport).

It's one of those things I can do but I can't describe (maybe nobody else can either and that accounts for the dearth of Web sites), but it's a surprisingly fast way to clean large crab such as Dungeness. It is what it sounds like - you break apart the legs and claws and shake out the meat. It comes out in large pieces, too...

Re: Shake them crab

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Ooh. I wish I'd read this (it was posted during my hiatus from online life) this summer, as I'd have loved a demonstration. Eh bien, perhaps another time.

[lcohen]

don't forget your old(er) friends!!!

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I make crab soup for you, and what do *I* get?

YourOpportunistOldFriend

[lcohen]

far from capacious accomodations chez cohen-craven?

squired about the city of chicago in a manner to which you may wish to become accustomed?

some wonderful dish that i have yet to invent because everything that i can think of that i make that is vegetarian has cheese in it and thus is not vegan?

my undying gratitude and admiration?

any of those appeal?

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Wow, I totally get the good end of this deal.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is torture. I try so hard to do package-deal food-eating, but Wim is totally unable to eat dairy... (and who will help me pick the crabs if I go it alone?)

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

(and who will help me pick the crabs if I go it alone?)

where are you? ;)

n.
seafood addict

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Far away!

Kylee
Seattle addict

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

APC9 crabsoup making lab.

yum.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I'm told that Baltimore is a lovely place to visit, this time of year. :-)

[eilonwey.livejournal.com]

This sounds absolutely fantastic. My fiance loves crabmeat and is handy at picking it out of crabs - we'll have to try this.

Mmm. I'm drooling.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

That sounds amazing. I want some. NOW.

Ah well, I guess I'll have to wait.

How was the sherry in this soup? Based on some mock turtle soup I've had, I'd have guessed a dryer sherry would work. Was the cream sherry good?

Re:

[rivka.livejournal.com]

That sounds amazing. I want some. NOW.

Ah well, I guess I'll have to wait.

If circumstances allow you to be at Capclave, perhaps we can run up to Baltimore for dinner.


How was the sherry in this soup? Based on some mock turtle soup I've had, I'd have guessed a dryer sherry would work. Was the cream sherry good?

I'm not a sherry expert - I think this was the first time I'd ever had sherry of any kind - so I can't really say how it would compare to dry sherry. (therealjae, can you weigh in?) But this was just. marvelous. Having tasted it just before and just after the sherry, I can say for certain that it made exactly the right difference.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

I'd say it really should be sweet cream sherry. The savoury needed the sweet edge. Just make sure not to put in too much, if you're hesitant. Or when you make it, try one bowl with dry sherry and one bowl with sweet sherry. :-)

-J