Soft Shell Crabs Make Us Happy

By Caroline Clough in Food on May 15, 2006 3:50PM

Chicagoist had been having dreams of crabs, specifically soft shell crabs for weeks and finally we couldn't take it anymore. These entirely edible crustaceans are sublime in their taste and texture and not all that hard to cook up. So we thought we would share with you the glory and ease that is the soft shell crab dinner at home.

Chicagoist picked up our soft shell crabs at The Fish Guy Market but we also called Isaacson and Stein and they, too, had the goods. We were just closer to The Fish Guy. The crabs were smaller and slightly more expensive ($5 each) than some we've had in the past, but the man behind the counter did a good job of picking crabs that were the freshest ( in other words, still alive ) and also cleaned them for us at no additional cost. Chicagoist is a bit of a purist when it comes to soft shell crabs and this recipe reflects that stance, we're thinking about trying something a bit more fancy-pants next time, but we strongly believe that this is the quintessential way to have a soft shell crab. Chicagoist can eat at least two crabs in one sitting, especially when they're small and we suggest you do the same.
What You Need
Soft Shell Crabs (we cooked up five)
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
Vegetable oil
Lemon wedges

What You Do
1. About half an hour before you plan on cooking the crabs, put them in a shallow bowl and pour a cup of milk over them. The crabs shouldn't be entirely immersed in the milk, you should be able to see their tops. You may need a little more or less milk depending on your bowl. Put the bowl into your refrigerator until you're ready for the next step.
2. In a heavy frying pan pour about two inches worth of vegetable oil, again you don't need to completely cover the crabs in the oil but you do want them to be almost submerged. Heat the oil until it sizzles when you put a drop of water into it, but not until it's so hot it smokes. We put our burner on high until the oil was hot and then turned the heat down to medium high once it got up to the temperature we wanted.
3. In another bowl mix the flour, salt and pepper.
4. Take a crab out of the milk, allowing the milk to drain a bit, then lightly coat the crab in flour. You don't need every single part of the crab absolutely floured, more of a dusting than a coating really, this will allow the crab a certain crispiness without drowning its wonderful taste in flour.
5. Put the crab in the frying pan and fry. You may fry as many crabs as will fit in your pan, allowing a little 'breathing room' for each.

6. Fry for about three minutes on one side then flip the crabs and cook for another three minutes.
7. Take the crabs out of the oil and put on a paper toweled plate. Serve as soon as possible.

This time around we served the crabs with cheese grits, steamed asparagus and lemon wedges. Mmmm, mmmm, good!