So Mark who never eats rice suggested and cooked this. Strange lockdown goings on. We couldn’t decide what to do with the birthday crabs and in the end this won. It was a messy eat but bloody lovely.
We aimed to cook for 2 (as per usual) but it would’ve fed 4 or 5. Can never get rice quantities right. Ate it all though. 🙄
For between 2 and 5:
2 cooked crabs
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
Half a fennel bulb, diced
1 red pepper, diced
100g spicy cooking chorizo, diced
150g paella or risotto rice
1 glass white wine
150g cherry tomatoes
1 chicken stock cube
Handful broad beans or peas
Bunch of parsley, chopped
4 sprigs tarragon, chopped
Prep the crab by removing the legs and cracking any large claws with a rolling pin. Pull the body from its shell and pick out any body meat.
Heat a splash of olive oil in a paella or frying pan and gently sauté the onion, garlic, fennel, pepper and chorizo for 10 minutes, seasoning and adding the crab body shells with the brown meat inside to sauté along with the veg and add a crabby flavour.
Stir in the rice then add the wine and allow to bubble for a minute. Throw in the tomatoes, crumble in the stock cube and add about 200ml water. Cook for 10 minutes or so until the rice is just cooked adding more water as needed to keep the texture loose and not stodgy.
Meanwhile in a hot pan or on a bbq heat the cracked claws and legs to warm through. Remove the crab shells from the pan and discard, then stir the broad beans and herbs into the rice, check the seasoning, top with the crab legs and any picked meat, and serve with crab picks, a bowl for shells, and lots of kitchen paper!
If for some strange reason you don’t happen to have a couple of freshly cooked whole crabs kicking around use a tub of crab meat instead adding for the last couple of minutes to warm through, or some juicy little prawns.
