I ate my first Dungeness crab a couple weeks ago! Dungeness crabs are very popular over here in the Northwest and they have an excellently maintained fishery along the coast from California to Alaska. We bought our crab at the farmers market (already cooked; that’s just how this vendor sells them) and excitedly made a recipe from our Vietnamese cookbook.
Here is the crab:
I roasted some Brussels sprouts while Toby cut up the crab and made a sauce. The sauce used the tomalley and fat inside the crab, along with other delicious ingredients. We didn’t have oyster sauce, so we substituted fermented black beans. I was surprised to learn that the tomalley (which is the liver of the crab) had very little flavor. It just had a pleasant richness, rather like an egg.
We also steamed some mustard greens to go on the side. Yum!
It was a delicious feast. The crab was incredibly messy to eat, since the sauce was all over the shells, but it was a neat dish. I definitely want to eat more Dungeness crab while I have the chance!
