Soft-shelled crabs in tempura batter
Question: When can you eat an entire crab – shell and all?
Answer: When it’s a soft-shelled crab.
If you haven’t seen one before, the idea of eating soft-shelled crab can be difficult to get your head around. Yes, you really do eat the entire crustacean: claws, head, legs, carapace. And by some miracle of biology (see below) none of it is bony. In fact, they are delicate and sweet, with an interesting, but not off-putting set of soft-and-crunchy textures that work beautifully when the crab has been swiftly deep-fried in a light, crispy tempura batter.
Soft-shelled crabs can be difficult to buy fresh. But fear not, because there’s a growing industry in cultivating and freezing these little fellas. Many good fishmongers stock them, but if yours doesn’t, take a look in your nearest Japanese, Chinese or Thai supermarket and the chances are that they will hide little boxes of these in their freezers. I thoroughly recommend transferring them to your own freezer at your earliest convenience. The crabs themselves are about 7.5-10cm wide (3-5 inches) and are often wrapped in little discardable plastic sleeves to keep them from moulding together into a block of crabby ice.
This is one of those meals that you have to cook a portion at a time whilst everyone starts eating around you – if there’s too much food in the deep fat fryer, the temperature will lower and everything will become soggy and too fatty. But at least there’ll be a round of applause as you sit down to eat your own.
What is a soft-shelled crab?
These really are little miracles of science. A crab’s shell is solid and doesn’t grow with the crustacean itself, so once a year when the crab has outgrown its armour it moults and sheds its old shell before growing a new one. The crab is nude, soft and vulnerable for up to two months, pumped with water to simulate the new, larger size it plans to be, during which time it has to hide from predators and hence can’t eat.
Shortcut
If you’re a lazybones, don’t worry: ready-prepared tempura batter mix works absolutely fine, if you can find it in your nearest Asian supermarket. And whilst you’re there, pick up a bottle of ponzu – an amazing sweet citrus and soy dipping sauce.
