Crab Cakes

When selecting live crabs from tanks at the market, choose lively ones that feel heavy. Keep them refrigerated and cook them as soon as possible; it’s important to cook them while they are still alive. Once out of water, they start to decline. The easiest way to cook crab is to boil it. Bring an abundant quantity of water to a boil, enough so that the crabs will be easily submerged. (You may only have a pot roomy enough for one or two large crabs, such as Dungeness; if you have more crabs, boil them one or two at a time.) Throw in a lot of salt; the water should taste salty. When it has reached a rolling boil, pick up the live crab between its back legs (to stay clear of its pinching front claws) and drop it in. Start timing the cooking from the moment the crab enters the boiling water. Keep the heat turned up all the way, but don’t worry if it never comes back to a boil. The amount of time the crab will take to cook will be anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes for a Dungeness crab, to just a few minutes for a small blue crab. Ask your fishmongers for their advice, or look online; there are many Web sites with information about cooking and cleaning the many different varieties. The cooked crabs can be cleaned and eaten right away, or cooled briefly in cold water and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Serve cracked crab with melted butter or homemade mayonnaise (see page 47), with a squeeze of lemon for a little zing. I like to serve a garlic mayonnaise (see page 47) flavored with the orange crab butter (or tomalley) that is found under the shell. Be sure to taste the crab butter first and use it only if it is not bitter. To clean a crab, turn it onto its back and pry up the triangular apron. Pull and twist it off the body. Turn the crab over and grasp it by the corner of the top shell or carapace. Pull it off with a twisting motion. Remove the lungs, the feathery fingers that run along the sides, and the mouth. Scoop out and save the tomalley or crab butter if you like, discarding the white intestine. Rinse the crab clean under cold running water. Split the crab in two (or not) and crack the claws with a mallet or crab cracker. Large crab can be reheated after they have been cooked, cleaned, and cracked; the meat can be picked out or the crab can be reheated later. (The delicate pointed tip at the end of a crab leg is the perfect tool for picking the crabmeat from the shells.) To reheat the crab, brush with melted butter or oil (flavored with herbs and spices if you want) and heat for 5 to 7 minutes in a 400°F or hotter oven, just long enough to heat the crab through. Much of the foregoing advice for cooking crab applies to lobster. Choose lively, heavy lobsters and cook them as soon as you can. Cook lobsters in abundant salted boiling water for 7 minutes. Put the lobster in head first and start timing from the moment it enters the water. Turn the heat down to a simmer if a boil is reached before the time is up (a rolling boil toughens the meat). Cooking lobsters too long also makes the meat tough, so keep an eye on the clock. If you are going to reheat the lobster or add it to a sauté or other dish, cook the lobster for only 5 minutes. Drain the cooked lobster and either serve it right away or cool it down under cold running water or in an ice bath for a few minutes. Lobster can be left whole or split down the middle, or it can be broken down into claws, knuckles, and tails. To do this, twist the tail away from the head and twist off the claws. Crack the claws with a mallet or crab cracker and remove the meat. With a pair of kitchen shears, make a cut down the soft , nearly transparent shell on the underside of the tail. Using a towel to protect your hands, grasp both sides of the tail and bend them back, splitting open the shell along the cut. Pull out the lobster meat. You can also cut the tail in two lengthwise to remove the meat. Some recipes call for cooking a raw lobster cut in pieces. To k...