In article >,
"Bob Terwilliger" > wrote:

> Here's what I did for two diners:
>
> Extract big lumps of meat from one or two crab claws (depending on how big
> the claws are) and reserve. Cut up remainder of crabs (we had a big
> Dungeness crab and a King crab leg) into chunks (including shells).
>
> In a big wide pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add crab chunks and
> cook, stirring occasionally, for about a minute. Add a roughly-chopped
> onion, two cloves of roughly-chopped garlic, the greens from a large leek
> cut up into three-inch lengths, and a roughly-chopped stem of celery. Stir
> for about a minute, then shove things over to the side and add two
> tablespoons of tomato paste into the bottom of the pan. Cook until tomato
> paste turns a rusty color, then stir everything together and cook for
> another two minutes or so. Remove from heat, add a couple shots of cognac,
> then return pan to heat and stir everything around, scraping the bottom and
> side of the pan. (The leek greens can be used as a kind of squeegee to
> scrape off the fond.)
>
> Add water to cover, then add a big pinch of thyme, a pinch of saffron, and a
> good grinding of pepper. Taste and add salt if needed. Bring to boil, reduce
> to simmer, and simmer 45 minutes.
>
> Use tongs to pick out crab chunks and put into food processor. Process to a
> kind of "crab sludge." If (like mine) your food processor does not have a
> gasket at the top, you might want to wrap something like paper towels around
> it to keep from splattering crab goo all over the kitchen. Return crab
> sludge to pot. Add cream (I only used about a third of a cup) and more
> water. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and cook for another 30 minutes.
>
> Strain soup well, pressing down to extract as much liquid as possible. I had
> to do the straining in two parts, once through a coarse strainer and once
> through a fine strainer. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, or cream to suit
> your palate.
>
> Just before serving, bring to boil again. Place reserved crab meat into
> bottom of bowls and add soup. Squeeze lemon juice into each bowl of soup and
> serve. (We used Bearss limes, which are wondefully fragrant.)
>
> The recipe should work fine for crawfish. Bourdain's recipe is for lobster,
> and crawfish are more like lobsters than crabs are. With crawfish I might
> use different seasoning than the tomato-thyme-saffron combination, though.
>
> Bob

Thanks! Recipe saved to file... Shrimp has been cheap lately, and so has
snow crab. I prefer dungeness as available.
--
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