Blue Swimmer crabs

[Shinboners]

Hi all

Having been brought up to only buy crabs if you can get them alive, I've never bought the blue swimmer crabs that I see at the Queen Vic Market and on Victoria Street in Richmond. I assume these crabs have been cooked and frozen OR snap frozen.

Anyway, are they worth getting? Do I just eat them as they are or can I use them in the various blue swimmer crab recipes that I have?

[Pat Churchill]

Daniel

I wondered about that, too, as I had read that crabs should be used as soon after purchase as possible. I did a little research. According to the Sydney Fish Market site

"Blue Swimmer Crabs are one of the few crabs not sold live, but are available cooked or green (uncooked), as they don’t survive well once captured. Look for brightly coloured, firm, intact, lustrous shells, without any discolouration, particularly at joints, and a pleasant fresh sea smell. If possible, give them a gentle shake to ensure there’s no sound of sloshing water."

You could email their Fishline fishline@sydneyfishmarket.com.au

Got any good crab recipes?

[Shinboners]

Got any good crab recipes?

←

In regards to blue swimmer crabs, the recipes mainly involve using its meat for salads and for stuffing pasta.

I'm going to take a longer look at the recipes and try one in the next couple of weeks.

But for crabs in general, I like them cooked with ginger and spring onions (the way that you find in Chinese restaurants).

[Pat Churchill]

It's quite some time since I prepared a crab dish from scratch. I keep meaning to pick up a couple of crabs from the market and practise the dissection thing. I used to make a nice Thai chicken and crabmeat pattie. I seem to recall a lot of labour for little return! Like the artichokes I cooked the other night. A huge bag of discarded bits and four small artichoke hearts!

Twice recently I've had great softshell crab dishes - one at Misuzu's, Albert Park and the other at Longrain.

[piazzola]

Not quite my taste and with plentiful live spanner crabs in the markets I'll give the bw a miss

Be careful with QVM,Vict street and Springvale, seafood stuff some of it is quite old (ready cooked) and quite a lot is imported from SEA brought up in murky polluted ponds

You best bet is to check out for seasonality and availability in Australia so you can be sure it is fresh and good

Edited October 17, 2006 by piazzola (log)