Previous Item: Pan Roasted Soft Shell Crabs with a Roasted Tomato Pan Sauce over Orzo Pilaf ($16 Per Person / Time to Cook: 20 min / Cook by Day: Friday)

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Meal Description

Early Summer is the perfect time for Soft Shell Crabs straight out of the Chesapeake.  Soft Shell crabs are blue crabs that are molting, meaning shedding their hard shell exoskeleton as they grow larger.  On average, a crab increases in size about 25-40% every time it molts.   Once the Crab emerges from the exoskeleton, the Crab then fills itself full of water to fill the news shell.  For a period of about 2 days, the new shell remains soft until it calcifies through the reaction of the salt in the water.  This is why soft shell crabs are immediately removed from the water.

A molten crab is entirely edible except for the lungs, eyes and mouths.  These will be removed just prior to deliver so the crab is as fresh as possible.  The crab will be dusted with seasoned floured and pan fried and then finished in the oven.  

The tomatoes will be oven roasted over 4-6 hours, which will dehydrate them concentrating the sugars, and then sauteed in Vermouth, which will then act as a base for the pan sauce.  The soft shell crabs are served over an Orzo Pilaf.

Crab Jeopardy:  What is a Cephalothorax?  The answer is that Crabs are tailless and instead have a massive “cephalothorax,” which means the head and the body are fused together, much like some spiders.  This structure allows the crab to live in the deepest sea, burrow on land, or even climb trees.  

Bon Appétit!

Time to Cook:  30 min.

Cook by Day:  Friday

Items included (serves 2)

Softshell Crabs

Seasoned Flour

Mirepoix & Garlic

Oven Dried Tomatoes & cooked Vermouth

Lemon

Orzo

Chicken Stock

*Menu items subject to slight variation based on the availability of fresh ingredients; Picture is not necessarily representative of final dish

Meal Contains (including add-ons):  Wheat, Shellfish.  We store, portion, and package various meal kits containing all eight (8) major allergens (milk, wheat, egg, soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, and tree nuts) and cannot guarantee that cross-contamination will not occur between kits.

Add-on Checkout Items

Extra Crabs

Extra Servings