Summer of Weekend Cruising - Part III.

Miss K up "on deck" with Daddy.

Baby M during bath time in the cockpit.

I caught a BIG crab.

T & K having quality time bellow deck.

M - a master climber, while underway,  at 15 months (still not walking).

Crab Louie

I made an genuine effort to ketch a Dungeness crab this last week (I released a lot of legal red rock crabs).  I was able to get one legal Dungeness and a larger sized red rock crab (I didn't want to bother with cooking just one crab).

T cleaned the crab and I cooked them in the pressure cooker (in the galley) for 5 minutes on the low setting.  Once the crab was done cooking, I carefully carried the pressure cooker to the stern of the boat and released the pressure (steam) outside the cabin.  I was pleased with the complete absence of crab smell inside the boat! 

T asked for Crab Louie... here is my simplified version:

Crab Louie:

• Iceberg Lettuce
• Avocado
• Hard Boiled Egg
• Cooked Crab (meat picked)
• Tomato
• 1000 Island Dressing

When I shelled the crab, I separated the Dungeness and Red Rock meat so that T and I could see if we had a preference.  Both of us agreed that we liked the taste of the Red Rock slightly better... however, it was still full of shell (despite my best effort).  The Dungeness was much easier to pick and the shell of the crab was easier to crack.  For practical purposes, I prefer the Dungeness.   

Totally worth the effort this time.  Yum. 

Red Rock Crab - our first scavenging experience

I purchased my crabbing license last week for $17.  I dropped my husband's collapsible crab pot off the dock on the off chance that I could be successful. 

We caught three red rock crabs (supposedly as tasty as dungeness... I am not sure I would go that far).  After watching numerous videos on YouTube about how to kill/clean crabs we went for it with success.  We choose to pressure cook them to minimize shell fish odor.  

It was a good learning experience and the finished product was decent.  However, when I drop the pot again, I am going to hold off for a nice large dungeness.  The meat of the Red Rock crab was decent but the crab itself is much smaller than dungeness and it was far too much work to get the meat from the shell.  Despite my best effort, there ended up being a lot of shell in the meat.  Lesson learned.