Soft-Shell Crabs with Tomato and Basil

Name: Soft-Shell Crabs with Tomato and Basil
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: salt and freshly ground pepper; 1 cup fresh basil leaves; 1 cup tomato concasse; 4 cloves garlic, peeled, finely chopped; ¼ cup fish stock; 1 cup flour; ½ gallon peanut oil; 6 tablespoons sweet butter; 8 small soft-shell crabs, cleaned; 1 cup fresh Italian parsley leaves; 1 cup aioli

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Jeremiah Tower's New American Classics

By Jeremiah Tower

Published 1986

About

Soft-shell crabs can be sautéed or grilled, but deep frying, for me, gives the most even cooking and the crispest results. Crabs placed on top of a sauce, as they are in this recipe, do not become soggy, as they might if the sauce were poured over them.

Ingredients

8 small soft-shell crabs, cleaned
1 cup fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup

Americas
United States
Fish course
Pescatarian

Method

Clean the crabs by lifting up the side flaps and pulling off the feathery gills. Remove the flap underneath. Rinse in cold water.

Puree the parsley in a mortar and pestle or in a food processor with the aioli. If using the mortar, mix the parsley puree into the aioli. Thin with a little water