How to Peel and Devein Shrimp
Here’s a pretty straightforward video that demonstrates how to prepare your ridgeback shrimps for cooking. While this video doesn’t use a ridgeback shrimp, and not all shrimps are created equal (i.e. ridgeback may be the best!), the preparation is essentially identical. Good luck!
How to Butterfly a Spiny Lobster Tail
In this video, Tommy, a local processor from Catalina Offshore Products, demonstrates how to remove, clean, and butterfly a spiny lobster tail. But BEWARE….when they’re alive, lobsters tend to protest to the “tailing” process! You may want to kill the lobster as demonstrated in the video below before attempting to remove the tail.
How to Kill a Lobster Before Cooking
This is a quick video demonstrating the perfect way to kill a lobster before cooking it. Personally, if you’re going to cook the lobster whole (either steaming or boiling), I like to remove the gut tract by breaking off the antennae and sticking it into the anal cavity, giving it a quick twist, and pulling it back out. This is a simple and effective trick (for a demonstration see the video above)! Another cooking option that works really well with our local spiny lobsters is to continue the initial killing cut and completely bisect the lobster. This will allow you to clean it out completely and then you can butter it up and throw it on the grill…mmm mmm good!
How to Open and Clean a Live Red Sea Urchin Video
California Red Sea Urchin yield some of the best uni in the world! Although processing can be a little messy (best done in the kitchen sink!), the result is the highest quality uni sashimi you’ll ever eat. Here’s a video that teaches you how to prepare a live sea urchin using only two spoons!
Another Way to Open and Clean a Sea Urchin
I realize it can be intimidating (what moving spiny ball isn’t?!), but opening a sea urchin is farily straight forward. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find you can open and clean a sea urchin in under a minute! Here’s a link to another well documented “how to”! CLICK HERE
How to Process and Clean a Live Rock Crab Video
Maybe you’re a little nervous about handling a live crab, or maybe you just can’t wait to try processing and cleaning your dinner (from ocean to plate…quite literally!). Either way, check out the video below to see how Chef Becky Selengut (author of Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the Pacific Coast) cooks and cleans a live dungenous crab. Note: Rock crabs have a thicker shell than dungenous crabs, and also appear to be more feisty than the one in this video, so be careful!
I’ve bought a LIVE CRAB…Now What??
Congratulations! By buying live, locally caught crab you have made the decision to shorten your personal food chain, and support your local fisherman and his small-scale, sustainable fishing practices. The question is: what do you do with a live crab?! Below are some helpful hints about how to process and cook your crab. Note: Processing a live crab prior to cooking it has it’s advantages, but it’s not necessary to enjoy a delicious crab dinner. The other option for how to cook and clean a live crab can be seen in the video above. Either way, you’re about to taste the freshest crab you’ve ever eaten. Enjoy!
- 1. It’s important to cook your crab as soon as possible. Crabs can be kept alive in the fridge for a couple of hours, but the sooner you cook them, the fresher they are! Hold your crab in the position shown in the picture to the right (belly up, with your fingers on the top of the shell and your thumbs grasping the legs and claws).
- 2. Using the above hand position, break the body of the crab in half by hitting the shell repeatedly on a blunted edge (the spacer between a double sink is perfect for cracking the shell, but any hard edge, like the edge of a counter, will work too).
- 3. The body of the crab should break completely in half using this method. However, if it doesn’t, you can break it sufficiently to remove the top half of the shell. Then, using a sharp knife, cut the body of the crab down the middle. This will allow you full access to the inedible parts of the crab, so that you can remove them completely.
- 4. Under cool running water in the sink, remove the guts (yellow in color) and the gills (brown/gray in color) from the body of the crab. In the end, you will have two clean crab halves that are ready to cook! Boil a big pot of water, and cook the crab halves for 11-13 minutes. Pick, dip, and enjoy!
