Cajun crab boil

To all the crab lovers out there, you haven't really tasted crab until you’ve gone the whole shebang — the Cajun Crab Boil. ‘Crab boil’ refers to the spice mixture used to flavour the water in which the crabs or other shellfish are cooked. But instead of just boiling the crabs in the seasoned water, I prefer to take it up a notch and serve the highly addictive sauce with the crab in plastic bags. It’s a messy business — wear a bib and have plenty of paper napkins ready — but you’ll soon be a crab boil addict.

INGREDIENTS

1 lemon, quartered

4 blue swimmer crabs, cleaned and halved, claws cracked

4 corn cobs, cut into 3 cm chunks

1 crusty baguette

CRAB BOIL SEASONING

300g butter

1 garlic bulb, cloves finely chopped

2 tablespoons herbie’s bay seasoning, (see note)

2 tablespoons cajun seasoning

2 tablespoons cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons lemon pepper

2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons hot sauce, such as Tapatio or Frank’s RedHot

2 tablespoons sugar

METHOD

To make the crab boil seasoning, melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium–low heat, add the garlic and sauté until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the bay seasoning, cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, lemon pepper and paprika, and stir to mix well. Add the hot sauce and sugar, stir until well combined. Reduce the heat to very low and let it simmer while you prepare the crabs.

Half-fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Squeeze the lemon juice into the water before dropping the lemon quarters in and add 125 ml of the crab boil seasoning. Drop the crabs and corn into the boiling water, put the lid on and boil for 7 minutes.

Put the crabs and corn in a large bowl and add 250 ml of the stock. You can keep the remaining stock if you are going to boil more seafood, if not just discard it. Pour the remaining crab boil seasoning over the crabs, then toss until everything is well coated in sauce.

Divide the crabs and corn along with the sauce into four equal portions and place inside plastic bags. Serve immediately with the crusty baguette on the side to soak up the flavourful sauce.

NOTE

If you can find it, buy the Herbie’s brand of Bay Seasoning — a mixture of salt, paprika, celery seed, chilli, bay leaves, mace, mustard, allspice, ginger, pepper, cardamom and cinnamon. Otherwise, look for the classic Old Bay Seasoning spice mix.

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