Dungeness crab!
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Rhodie Ranch
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Delish!!
I was just watching some fishing dude snipping off barnacles from crabs. Interesting.
I was just watching some fishing dude snipping off barnacles from crabs. Interesting.
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Dahlia
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Why was he snipping off barnacles? I just leave the barnacles on and cook them! The barnacles I usually see are fairly small though.
Rhodie Ranch
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They were huge and it was a commercial fisherman tv show episode. They were throwing them back into the ocean.
baymule
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That looks delicious!
Pulsegleaner
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Thanks to an experience in Chinatown, I found I am quite fond of Mantis Shrimp. I just wish they weren't so difficult to get the meat out of, or so painful (those spines on the bottom of the shell are like needles!)
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Dahlia
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Interesting! I've never had Mantis Shrimp, but they sound similar to spot prawns in that spot prawns have some pretty pokey areas on them and you should be careful when processing them. I got stabbed through a fairly thick glove once when I was processing them. The good news is that they are really easy to get out of their shells.
Pulsegleaner
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Mantis shrimp are probably worse, since their shells are hard, like a lobster or crab. The "pokey bits" are the edges of every single segment of the body along the bottom, which is where you have to grip to peel the shell off of the tail (pretty much the only meaty bit).
It also doesn't help much that the meat, rather than the pinkish red we associate with cooked crustaceans, is dark purple on top (sort of the color of raw squid).
Pulsegleaner
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Speaking of crabs, one other little trick I learned in my travels in that area is how to skew my purchases for better seafood broth.
One very common commodity you can buy in many grocery stores there is dried shell on shrimp (for use in stock and other things) by the scoop.
Like anything else, this comes in multiple grades. The top grade stuff is pretty much pure shrimp. I however have learned to see out the lower grade, in which you will also find the occasional tiny squid, crab, fish etc. and to skew my scoops to get as many of those as possible. This tends to give a richer flavored broth since it is multi seafood.
More importantly a lot of those little crabs are females, with their roe still attached, so you basically have a both cheap and legal way to get that (crab roe is pretty heavily regulated as to fishing, so as to keep the crab population stable and healthy.)
And you get used to the appearance (well, the dried mummified fish are a little off putting, but you get used to it.)
One or twice I have also seen off species shrimp in the fresh seafood market. I think the main shrimp they sell there alive is the grey shrimp. But once in a blue moon, there is a single smaller shrimp that looks very different, it pink even when it's raw with fine lines all over them and the eyes are black (not greenish grey). My best guess is deep cold water shrimp but it's hard to tell. I assume it's deeper water by the fact I've never seen one alive (or why I can't tell you how they taste, I'm not dumb enough to buy dead shrimp carry then around in my non-refrigerated bags for several hours, then try to eat them) and while I HAVE tried to preserve one, something in rubbing alcohol makes all of the pink drain out of them into the liquid.)
One very common commodity you can buy in many grocery stores there is dried shell on shrimp (for use in stock and other things) by the scoop.
Like anything else, this comes in multiple grades. The top grade stuff is pretty much pure shrimp. I however have learned to see out the lower grade, in which you will also find the occasional tiny squid, crab, fish etc. and to skew my scoops to get as many of those as possible. This tends to give a richer flavored broth since it is multi seafood.
More importantly a lot of those little crabs are females, with their roe still attached, so you basically have a both cheap and legal way to get that (crab roe is pretty heavily regulated as to fishing, so as to keep the crab population stable and healthy.)
And you get used to the appearance (well, the dried mummified fish are a little off putting, but you get used to it.)
One or twice I have also seen off species shrimp in the fresh seafood market. I think the main shrimp they sell there alive is the grey shrimp. But once in a blue moon, there is a single smaller shrimp that looks very different, it pink even when it's raw with fine lines all over them and the eyes are black (not greenish grey). My best guess is deep cold water shrimp but it's hard to tell. I assume it's deeper water by the fact I've never seen one alive (or why I can't tell you how they taste, I'm not dumb enough to buy dead shrimp carry then around in my non-refrigerated bags for several hours, then try to eat them) and while I HAVE tried to preserve one, something in rubbing alcohol makes all of the pink drain out of them into the liquid.)
