Hello fellow foodies! Welcome all to my series "Have a bite with Fëanor" and enjoy some food porn
Today i went ahead and made this meal, but i clearly did not think it all the way.
Cooking Sapateira is not that easy when you buy it raw instead of pre cooked but like you readers might noticed if i can make it in the house i will surely try
Sapateira (Cancer pagurus)
To start i went to the market with the aquarium so i could make sure it was fresh and got this bad ass crab!
When making this i was thinking to myself, "wow im going to make this top notch and never pay for it again in any restaurant".
Thing is, like all things you are not used to do, i made some basic mistakes, time wise costed me hours on end. I need boiled eggs for this, so i should have them on the way already by now, because once done they still have to be cool enough to handle and take only the yolks for the dish... lesson learned!
This is what you need from the eggs.
Preparing the crab
First you need to boil the crab with salt and some onions, a glove of garlic also. Cook it for about 9 to 12 minutes depending on the weight, the bigger the crab, more time might be needed, it is a good rule you keep and eye on it and control the time, you need to cook it properly but not too much, also dont be shy on the salt, usually this crabs will only take a part of the seasoning.
After you boil it, you should wait for it to cool down, so now i realize that my second mistake was to not prepare this the day before, let it cool down properly, then work with it the next day when consistency and temperature would not be an issue. Again, lesson learned...
Once this is cooked and cooled down, you need to take the legs out, you will need them for the stuffing.
Once the legs are off you need to open the crab with care so you can take out the gills and the inside mushy substance that will make for the base, along with the eggs, of you stuffing. You gently but firmly twist the tale section up, after removing the mouth and it should be like so:
You should start with the part that comes out, all that orange and red stuff and the light brown it to put aside, you take the outer part that are the respiratory system, but everything inside that skeleton is meat, the passages from that part to the legs are full of meat, use a toothpick and a knife to take that all out.
Crack the slim legs and take out the meat inside, don't dispose of the crabs carapace, and also put the big pincers aside.
I took more out but for some reason only have this pic of the meat of the legs you get the idea.
Preparing your stuffing
After you have that meat sorted in a plate, put you eggs inside, some bread crumbs, some minced pickles , and put some beer, then smash it all to make a uniform texture the best you can.
After you have it nailed texture wise, put half a chalice of Porto into it, also add a soup spoon half full of mustard to the mix, and a bit of ketchup but not much.
You then mix it again, if it is a bit liquid put some more bread crumbs on it, when you get your desired consistency, taste and season for salt, and once salt is on the spot grind some black pepper and mix in there, you should get something that looks like this.
Serving your Sapateira
If you managed to get it done so far, then you need only to put that inside the carapace of the crab and chill it in the fridge for an hour or so, it will be better fresh. You should serve it with toast made with fresh bread and cut into pieces after being buttered.
Ours looked like this once it was all done.
Wine is GOOD!
We had a home made red wine bottle, it is basically a Merlot mixed with some Alfrocheiro casts, one imported and one local cast, it is not one that will last many years but still it is a great wine, any stupid story told about it and a nice logo and it would sell on any top notch wine store no matter the country, that i am certain.
I call it the NoLogo Brand 😂
Hope you all liked it, follow me for more foodie stuff!
Cheers!