[Sca-cooks] Mastajhi Soup

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Craig Jones.:
>  >Actually, I don't think it's all that unusual.  There are a lot of
>recipes
>>that call for removing the rice from the heat and allowing it to
>stand while
>>it absorbs any remaining water.
>
>Ah, Ok.  I'm not a big rice eater (apart from Risottos and the Steamed
>Jasmine Rice I eat with Thai food)
>
>>Your recipe sounds great.  I'm not sure we can get the kind of crabs
>you
>>speak of...mostly we get those lovely blue crab.
>
>Thanks Kiri.  I'd probably go with any sweet tasting crab with a top
>carapace you can stuff (spanner crabs and balmain bugs are out
>then...)
>
>Cheers,
>
>Drake.

I assume Kiri and other East-Coast US-types can use blue crabs, which
are very sweet, but somewhat smaller than the ones I think you're
referring to. They do have a removable, dish-like carapace (Kiri,
think Crab Imperial, medieval Chinese style), probably with each
decent-sized one serving one. The only problem is that with blue
crabs being smaller, the proportion of meat to shell is probably
different, and it's probably just a little more difficult to pick
that much meat out of just the claws and legs. Actually, the best
meat probably is in the body section anyway... maybe this could be
made with the meat of as many crabs as needed to provide one shell
per serving, and then augment it with good-quality lump or backfin
crabmeat. (People used to getting this in cans may not be aware of
the availability of excellent-quality, fresh, refrigerated, shelled
crabmeat, but it exists...)

Adamantius