Soft-shell crab

Crabe mou

What it is

Callinectes sapidus translates as beautiful savoury swimmer, and for a few hours a year the swimmer has no armour at all — watermen hold crabs showing a red line on the back paddle in floats and pull them the moment the old shell splits. Twelve hours more in the water and the new shell has hardened, the animal is worth a fraction of the price, and the whole trade turns out to be a business of watching.

In the kitchen

Clean it raw: snip the face off behind the eyes, lift each shell point and pull out the grey gills, then take the apron off the underside. Dry it hard before it meets the pan — water left under the shell will spit violently in hot fat and steam the crust away.

Goes with

Butter Lemon T55 flour Garlic Parsley Espelette pepper Tomato Chives

In season alongside

Brill Arctic char Brown crab Crayfish Cuttlefish Dentex

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