You Got Crab?

Dungeness crab is plentiful on Whidbey Island and the season opens just after July 4th every year. Each person is allowed to set one trap per day and then pull it within 24 hours. The limit is six crabs per person per day. Only males that are at least six inches wide are kept. The crab is cleaned, boiled, and then ready to crack. One Dungeness crab weighs in at over two pounds and yields at least one pound of meat.

When we first moved to Whidbey, everyone we knew just cracked crab and ate it plain as they went along. This was fun at first, but then you get crab fatigue and begin to wonder what you might be able to do with it. Over the years we have made many different dishes using crab. Here are a few of our favorites:

As a stuffing for ravioli!

Angry Crab is always spicy and messy!

Crab cakes are everyone's favorite treat!

Crab and avocado salad!

At then end of the day, the cooking is the easy part. Getting up at 6:00 am when the tide is right, tying chicken legs to the traps, driving the boat down to the launch site, and throwing the traps over the side of the boat is hard work. And hours later, you have to go back out and collect the traps, brave grabbing the crabs without getting pinched, and cleaning and cooking them. Many weekends, we decide to pass on going out on the water and head down to the store and buy a crab for $6.99 per pound. Luckily our neighbor Lyle always shows up at our door with a bucket of cooked and cleaned crabs hollering, "you got crab"?