How to: Prepare live crabs

Salam to all,


The thought of "fresh live crabs" might sound delightful if you're a seafood lover like me, until you buy a bunch and reach to the next thought ; "how the heck to I kill/clean/cook them?? " ..

Well, it turns out its not that hard.. My mom showed me how and I'd like to pass it on to you guys.. I f you have the heart...


BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN THEY ARE ALIVE...  one can come up and try to snatch your knife or finger or whatever touches it. Dont worry they don't walk around though. They do stay in place and move their arms around, depending how alive they are. Some would be already dead by the time you get home.

Ok lets get started, shall we?
 
1) place them in a large bowl..

2) with a small sharp knife, the fastest way to kill it is to stab it in the heart, as shown (sorry if this sounds like a horror movie, I can't think of another way to explain it)

 3) It will immediately die and you will be able to carry it. (Thanks to Nur for hand modeling for me lol)

4) Here comes the real job.. .Start by pulling off the moving thingy part.. that covers the lungs i think.. (i have no clue what the name is) you can see it sticking up in picture #2 above..

There, now its off..

5) next step, is to pull off the hard shell.. the easiest way to do it is to hold the crab from the side, grab all the legs tightly in one hand, and pull on the shell with the other hand, til they come apart..

The younger the crabs, the softer the shell, the quicker the pull..

Try to pull gently so the legs dont break off, it will make it a bit harder to pull off.

 Once all Shells are off, throw them away..(unless you can figure out something to do with them?).. the next step is to clean off the lungs, and the gooey inside parts. (shown in picture above as orange and yellow blobs.. my mom claims the orange stuff is what gives crabs its flavor.. but i just couldnt leave it on there lol)

the lungs are dark grey/brown and you can easily pull them off by hand.

You can see the lungs here on the cutting board.. take off the orange stuff as well, if you want..

And there you go! wash with water and lemon juice.. and break in half (optional) or keep as whole..

Congratulations, you just completed course KILLCRAB 101..

Now to cooking it...

Many people have different ways to cook it.. this is by far the easiest and best way known (to me) and here it goes:

ingredients:

Cleaned crabs (as many as you want)

cloves of garlic, minced (how much depends on your taste , and the number of crabs you have)

a bunch of cilantro, chopped

salt

black pepper

Directions:

1) In some olive oil, saute garlic til browned.

 2) Add crabs

 3) once they turn orange, add about 1 cup of water, or just enough to cover them halfway.

 

 Let cook for 10-15 minutes, then add cilantro, dash of salt and pepper to taste...

Leave for another 5 minutes for flavors to blend in.. and you're done!

Make sure you cancel any plans you had after dinner, because eating this stuff is time consuming.. But its sooo worth it!

Watch out for the shells and bones, and don't waste no meat!

Let me know how it goes, but preferably just send me a plate :D