March Recipes
Spider crab
The spider crab is a woefully neglected treasure of British seas that I would love to see more of on our menus, especially since the popular brown crab is overfished in some areas. In fish markets on the Cornish coast you can hear merchants on their mobile phones, flogging the spider crab catch to the Spanish, French and Italians who, in their wisdom, love these crabs to bits.
This clever creature sticks cuttings of sea plants to its spiny back with saliva, effectively to cultivate a small garden for camouflage against the seabed. Its legs are meanly thin – hence its name. There is some brown meat in the body shell, but it lacks the flavour of the rich brown meat in the brown crab. It is the white meat in the spider crab's legs that has the real value. It breaks into beautiful, clean strings when cooked. Available direct to your door from coastal fishery mail order between March and July, the crab mysteriously disappears in the intervening months (see the Shopping Guide).
How to cook and pick a spider crab
Fish merchants will sell you the crab ready cooked, or even the meat freshly picked from the legs. But should you buy or even catch a live one, you can kill it humanely by piercing it with a sharp spike or Phillips screwdriver under the flap-like apron on its belly side. Be warned: it will struggle. It is perhaps better to put it to sleep instead, by chilling it in the freezer for two hours before boiling it.
Fill a large pan with water and add a mugful of salt. When the water boils, lower the crab or crabs into the water, bring back to the boil and simmer for 12 minutes. Lift out from the water and allow the crab to cool naturally. Use a hammer or nutcrackers to break open the legs. They are quite tough and prickly, so wear rubber gloves if your hands are sensitive. Pick out all the white meat and break apart the chunks; they will separate into strings. Discard any cartilage – the transparent inner bones attached to the meat. A large spider crab will yield about 180g/6oz meat.
Spider Crab Salad
Serves 2
the meat from 1 large, cooked spider crab, plus the roe if female (reserve the shell)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 small fennel bulb, very thinly sliced
2 sprigs of soft fennel leaves, or bronze fennel (or flat-leaf parsley), chopped
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
a large pinch of sea salt
Mix all the ingredients together and pack the mixture back into the main body shell. Serve with toast.
Kitchen note
Add the skinned kernels of fresh or frozen broad beans to the crabmeat, if you wish.
Chicken Cooked in Cardamom and Milk
Eat this delicate chicken curry, based on the milk cookery of the Hindus in India, with flat bread or rice, and dishes of flaked almonds and diced banana in lime juice on the side.
Serves 4–6
30g/1oz butter
1 red chilli, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 onions, chopped
12 cardamom pods
12 fennel seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
8–10 chicken thighs, or 4 chicken legs, skinned
450ml/3/4 pint whole milk
4 sprigs of coriander, chopped
sea salt
To serve:
2 bananas, cut into 1cm/1/2 inch chunks and dressed with lime juice
2 tablespoons flaked almonds, toasted in a dry pan until golden
Melt the butter in a large pan and add the chilli, garlic, onions and spices. Cook gently for 1 minute, then remove from the heat. Roll the chicken meat around in the spice mixture in the pan. Allow to stand for half an hour, then pour over the milk and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, then taste for salt and throw over the chopped coriander. Serve with the bananas and toasted almonds on the side.
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