Help with dinner tonight, with crabs!

[Yooper]

I have a pound of beef stew meat, already cut up but I don't want stew.

I was able to catch 6 nice sized blue crabs today, but that's not enough for two for dinner so I want to try to come up with something for a second main dish, using the beef. I am drawing a blank!

What can I make using that stew meat that would sort of 'go' with 3 crabs each?

 

[TallDan]

I choose to only read the subject of this thread and no message contents. My advice to you is to find someone else to be your date for dinner.

 

[kev211]

Do you have a pressure cooker? You could always pressure cook the stew beef to get it nice and tender (and not need to be in a stew). Then you could treat the beef like a steak and do a lump crab bernaise sauce over it?

Or maybe some kind of gumbo? With beef instead of sausage?


Or get the beef nice and tender and do beef sliders with a crab salad over the top?

 

[Conman13]

Option #1:
Grill smorgasbord:

Marinate the beef cubes with an asian marinade and grill them on a kabob. Some sesame oil, chili oil, fish sauce, lime, soy sauce, black pepper, a little simple syrup.

Grill the crabs also. Wrap each one in foil along with some sliced lemons, herbs and olive oil and maybe a splash of water (or haus pale ale)!.

After the crabs are done, make a crab dip out of them and serve with thick sliced cucumbers to dip with. Or just do that with a couple of the crabs, and eat the others whole straight off the grill.

Option #2:
Beef + crab burgers:

Chop up the beef cubes and make them in to patties.

Make a crab salad to go on top of the patties.

Think baja-mexican style for the toppings and seasonings. Lime, cumin, onion, cilantro, olive oil, salt + pepper, chili powder, cayenne for heat if desired.

 

[unionrdr]

I'd say use some light-flavored sweet dry rub on the meat & broil it slowly till tender. This would somewhat simulate BBq'ing it. We like how Joe's Crab Shack puts the seasoning on the shells of the crabs, so when you eat them the rub/seasoning gets on your hands & into your mouth with the crab meat. Just a thought. Maybe serve the meat with a rice pilaf or other? After reading the posts that beat me to it, I forgot about the Japanese version of mom's cucumber, green onion & sour cream salad. The Japanese add crab meat to it. Oh yeah, it's really good & the flavors go well together, being lighter.

 

[SnakeRidge]

I would wrestle the other person for all the crabs. Let them fend for themselves.

 

[mdbrewer1]

I would wrestle the other person for all the crabs. Let them fend for themselves.

This is the appropriate response.

 

[Brewsncrabs]

Well Yooper, I guess I have to answer this one for you as you always have answered my brewing questions.
1. Cook beef anyway you want to. Season to taste.
2. Steam crabs for 20 minutes in water and a little apple cider vinegar or beer. Coat crabs in JO Spice #2 from Baltimore. Do not boil crabs or use crab boil to season.
3. Crack a beer and a crab!
4. Give beef to dog.
5. Enjoy!

Chris "Brewsncrabs " from Pa.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Do you have a pressure cooker, yoop?

 

[Yooper]

Do you have a pressure cooker, yoop?

No, not here. We leave the heaviest things up north when we make our pilgrimage down south. We have a portable gas grill, and other basic necessities, but nothing else.

I asked this on a foodie group, and got a response similar to Conman's- but I did three Asian dishes last night, including crab spring rolls.

So I am still doing kebobs with the beef, but I marinated it in a red wine vinegar/garlic/black pepper marinade and now have them on skewers. I have red onion slices, red bell pepper, and summer squash on skewers also.

I can grill the kebobs while I steam the crabs. I cleaned them and they are laid out in a makeshift steamer with "Slap Yo Mama" seafood boil sprinkled on them.

I think they'll be great, but wish I had even more crabs!

Thank you all for your responses!

 

[SnakeRidge]

There are never enough blue crabs.

 

[Yooper]

I cleaned them first (live), then steamed them. Then, served them on the plate with the kebobs. I only had super short little skewers, or super long ones, so I went with the short and did individual items.
Here are the photos:

 

[lhommedieu]

For the next time:

Boil the crabs, cool and extract the meat. Mix with mayonnaise. Add spices (garilic, mustard, parsley, scallions, chives, whatever you like). Stuff into mushrooms and heat in oven until mushrooms are ready.

Stuffed mushrooms are good as an appetizer, or as a side dish with red meat.

 

[SnakeRidge]

Nice!

 

[Conman13]

Glad it worked out Sounds delicious.

 

[Melana]

Nice! Sorry i missed this Yoop - i've been hit hard with Strep and an ear infection...

 

[AnOldUR]

Yeah, I missed this thread also. Family spent summers at the Jersey Shore as a kid. We stayed on an old 32ft wooden boat parked in a marina. Every night we'd walk the docks, netting crabs that gathered around the lights. My favorite dish was a simple one. Clean them live and toss them into hot marinara with fresh garlic until the meat was tender and white. Cook up some spaghetti and pour the crab infused sauce over it. The marinara soaked crabs were great! All us kids would have sauce dripping from chin to elbow trying to pick out every bit of meat for hours, nibbling at the spaghetti to keep up our energy. I really miss those days. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[unionrdr]

I watched a video on YouTube once where they used this little rolling pin to get the meat outta the legs. I would've never thought of that one.

 

[lhommedieu]

For years this has been a winter holiday staple. It's incredibly rich, so serve to a large crowd.

Hot Crab Dip

24 oz. cream cheese
1 lb. crab
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp. mustard
2 tsp. onion juice
1/2 Tbsp. Laury's Salt
1/4 cup dry vermouth
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar.

Season to taste.

Beat all ingredients except crab together in a mixing bowl. Stir in crab and heat in a double boiler. Serve warm in a chafing dish. Scoop up on small squares of brown bread or a sturdy cracker.

I'll bet you didn't expect to read the words "chafing dish" on the forum. This also makes an excellent cold tea sandwich piled into a hollowed out loaf of bread.

 

[lhommedieu]

And on the other side of the crab spectrum, soft-shells fried in bacon fat:

 

[Yooper]

Nice! Sorry i missed this Yoop - i've been hit hard with Strep and an ear infection...

Oh, no! I didn't know you were under the weather. Feel better soon!

Today, I used a few crabs and we made gumbo with friends. The thing is, it was supposed to be chilly and windy but instead it was nearly 80 degrees so it was weird having gumbo at halftime during the superbowl when it was 80 degrees!

 

[Sammy86]

Oh, no! I didn't know you were under the weather. Feel better soon!



Today, I used a few crabs and we made gumbo with friends. The thing is, it was supposed to be chilly and windy but instead it was nearly 80 degrees so it was weird having gumbo at halftime during the superbowl when it was 80 degrees!

I apologize if this is outta line but IMO it is never weird to eat gumbo...ever

:rockin:

 

[Melana]

oh yum... gumbo. Send some up here to the frozen North East.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Years ago when I went to New Orleans with my ex-girlfriend I ordered what turned out to be simply blue lump crab meat with hollandaise on top. I had a religious experience, it was so good.

 

[Melana]

Years ago when I went to New Orleans with my ex-girlfriend I ordered what turned out to be simply blue lump crab meat with hollandaise on top. I had a religious experience, it was so good.

OMG now i want this... with a fried egg on top.