This is one of the simplest courses I have ever served, but Jesus Christ it's delicious. It's just a fried soft shell crab with a light but crispy tempura batter, ranch dressing "aioli," and a hot sauce made by traditional lacto-fermentation.

It's kind of amazing how well this pungent hot sauce (similar in flavor to Tabasco, but very different texturally) goes with the ranch dressing, and how well the combination still lets the crab flavor come through.

The soft shell crab is from the Chesapeake Bay. They come in two sizes: "hotel," and "prime." The prime are much larger; far too large for a single course in a tasting menu. Even the hotel size is a bit large for a course. Still, they are crazy delicious. You should buy them live (I paid $35/dz), and eat them within a day after they stop kicking (but ideally while they are still kicking--they're actually edible raw when they're still alive). These are dusted in rice flour, then fried in a tempura batter:

Tempura Batter
50g corn starch
50g AP flour
100g rice flour
100g Trisol
2 eggs (~100 grams)
280g cold soda water

The ranch "aioli" is basically just a ranch dressing (buttermilk, mayo, sour cream, garlic, worcestershire, black pepper), emulsified with some oil and thickened with some xanthan gum and Ultratex-3.

The hot sauce is a fairly straightforward, traditional hot sauce. It's made by lacto-fermenting chopped fresno chiles in a pickling brine and letting them age (at room temperature) for a few weeks. They take on an awesome, complex flavor reminiscent of kimchi, but at the same time all American. Then I strained the chiles and pureed them (seeds and all), seasoned with a bit of worcestershire, soy sauce, salt, honey, and extra of the pickling vinegar. Then I thickened with xanthan and Ultratex-3, and pureed some more. The blender is better able to catch the pepper skins when the puree is a bit thicker, so if you thicken a bit then keep blending for a few minutes you end up with better yield and a more silky, flavorful puree, at the expense of making it a bit tougher to push through a tamis. Speaking of which, after thickening and pureeing, I pushed the puree through a tamis.

I have to say, I didn't do much here, but it was honestly one of my favorite dishes ever. On the last night of this menu, I fried up all the rest of the crab I had (eight or so), and we feasted on them in the kitchen as we finished out the night. Amazing.

Posted by Barzelay on 2010/08/08 @ 22:29 | Comments (0) | Comfort Food, Lazy Bear, Sauces, Condiments, Seafood