Baked Stuffed Lobster with Jonah Crab Meat and Lobster Stuffing - Cooking the Catch

Let's face it, lobster tastes twice as good when you have to dive your butt off to get them. This recipe  is easy as can be and an makes a great impression on your lady friends for all you single divers out there. To this day every time I prepare this for Mrs. NEF she brings up "remember the first time you made this for me when we started dating?" See..... Crab meat freezes excellent so this is a tasty way to use some of that Jonah Crab meat we took the time to remove form the shells a couple of weeks ago. Blue crab is also another great local substitute for the crab meat.

What you need: recipe for 2 stuffed lobsters

• 4 fresh lobsters - two to stuff the stuffing in and two to remove all the meat to add to the stuffing.
• 2 cups of crab meat (one cup per stuffed lobster) 
• Ritz crackers 
• butter
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper

1. Half the two live lobsters down the muddle from their mouth to tip of the tail. Clean out anything undesirable from the body cavity and tail.
2. Steam the other lobsters and remove all the meat you can from the tail, claws and body. Remove in the largest lumps you can, whole claws and tails cut in  4-5 pieces works nice.
3. In a large ziploc bag add a 3 sleeves of ritz crackers, close bag, and roll out with a rolling pin to crush them up good.
4. In large bowl mix the crushed ritz crackers, add lobster meat and crab meat, and one stick of melted butter. Add about a teaspoon of garlic powder and salt and pepper to your desired amount (not too much salt) .
5. Stuff the lobsters generously with the ritz cracker, lobster meat and crab meat stuffing you prepared.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When oven is ready at temperature place the stuffed lobsters on a cookie sheet and cook for about 25 minutes.

Stuffing in lobsters should be a golden color in about 25 minutes and usually a sign that the lobster has cooked perfectly. Serve with melted butter, I love a baked potato and asparagus as my sides.

Cheers,
Mike

Bahamian Style Jonah Crabs and Rice, a New Englander's take - Mike Chace

Recipe: Bahamian Style Jonah Crabs and Rice
Contributor: Mike Chace 

I saw you all giving my crazy looks when i posted my pic from our lobster dive the other day when i harvested my limit of local Jonah Crabs. Many think they are a lot of work to get the delectable crab meat out, being their claws lack the size of their Northern Stone Crab cousins. I don't hold it against you, and you not wanting to harvest any leaves more for me. Actually I may only harvest them once or twice a year when the really big ones come inshore in Spring and they are in in good numbers. When they are sparse I let them be. They seamed to be everywhere this last weekend so I chose to harvest some with a couple of recipes in mind. We are always trying to find creative ways to utilize some local resources here in the north east and the Jonah Crab is definitely one of them.

If you have ever had Bahamian Crab Rice or even been lucky enough to have even been in the home of a local there while making it, you would understand my desire to want it back here at home. The fragrance alone should be bottled and sold, but the taste is so unique and recipes vary from house to house. The traditional Bahamian way is to make this dish with red or black land crab, but I figured the sweet Jonah would be a nice substitute.

Ingredients:
12 - large Jonah Crabs (save the crab fat and liquor in shell)
3 cups of long grain rice
1 yellow onion
3/4 cup of pigeon peas
salt and black pepper
1 scotch bonnet or hot pepper of your choosing
6-8 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 small bay leaves or 1 large
1 - sprig of fresh thyme
6 cups of water

Second, let it be noted there is some work involved. I find the best system is a two day process. First I boil or steam up the crabs. Then I let them sit overnight in my "shellfish fridge", yeah... I have one of those. The boiled - then chilled process makes their strong shells a little more brittle and easy to crack open claws and legs the next day. The following day I remove the meat from 6-8 crabs, being sure to save the crab fat and save that with the tasty liquor inside the main shell. I then take another 6 crabs and remove the back shell, crab fat & liquor, then remove the gills and clean the rest of  the body under running faucet, keeping with the legs and claws intact.

At that point take a large knife and split the body section in two - 4 legs and claw on each side. Now to actually cook it.

1. In a rather large pot bring 6-8 tablespoons of vegetable oil to heat, then add the onions and cook until they are almost translucent.
2. Add the crab fat and liquor.
3. Add about 4 teaspoons of salt and black pepper, bay leaves, fresh thyme and the hot pepper of your choosing, and 1 cup of pigeon peas. I could not get a scotch bonnet so settled for a cow horn, probably making it a little more New Englandized.  Let this simmer for about 5-6 minutes until onions look done.
4. Then add the halved crabs to simmer for a few to get them releasing their juices in the mix.
5. Add the tomato sauce and mix to simmer a few.
6. Add the lump crab meat we removed from the shell, the long grain rice and water. Gently fold everything together and let slow simmer to begin cooking the rice.

On medium heat cover the pot and be sure to keep stirring often and do not burn the rice. Easy to do. After maybe 10 minutes the rice should have absorbed all the liquid and be done cooking. Remove from heat, stir well, then let it sit for a few minutes to an hour if you have the time.

This is excellent served hot or room temp with some crusty bread. You can eat the tasty rice and break apart the crab legs and sections to remove the meat still in the shells that has now been infused with all the other flavors of this dish.

For those who like finding a tasty treat from an unlikely source, give this dish a try.

Be well,
Mike
 

Bass Cheeks, Tog Arancinis and Skewers ... Oh My - 2016 Tristate Kill N' Grill Report

Event:  2016 Tristate Skindivers Kill N' Grill 

Date: 2/13/2016

Every winter for the last 8 seasons the Tristate Skindivers Club has sent out a calling to wake us hibernating North Atlantic spearos from our winter slumber. A calling of the culinary clansman for a banquet of medieval proportions to challenge those who can match their cooking creations with their prowess at spearfishing, hunting and harvesting. Set precisely at mid-winter this gathering provides a chance for the tribesman of the North to gather for some camaraderie and shake off the doldrums of our off season home confinement sentence.

The Club sets forth one rule for this Olympiad of the oven… each competitor must have killed, grown or harvested yourself an ingredient in your culinary entry. From fish to beast, to shellfish and crustaceans, venison and water fowl to gardeners and foragers… what these individuals throw down in this kitchen cage match expands each year. Everyone attending sits in the judge’s seat and picks their top three favorite dishes with the winners being determined by the sum of these votes. The fair Maidens of Tristate hold this all together and handle the balloting and results.

Some find the most creative ways to utilize parts of fish, fowl and beast that others would usually discard unknowing of the potential delicacy there. Tautog Cheeks! Who the fuck takes the time to remove the tiny cheeks from blackfish when filleting? But I guess if you are "the Reverend" Kelly Gillette, your usual tautog harvest size is a little larger than the average spearo up here and then henceforth makes his tog cheeks not so tiny and worth his added effort. Candied Bass and Tautog Cheeks - yes, Bass Cheeks Wrapped in Bacon… well that’s like a 1-2 punch the emotions and senses!  You might catch me fishing through his gut piles near the dock in 2016 to find something he missed. 

 

Smoked Striped Bass and Cabbage Pierogis with Yogurt Dill Sauce? Somebody please slap Wayne Woodbury for just getting ridiculous on the creational level and tell him “do not enter the light and come back to our world”. Mad skills buddy. Last year he showed up with these stuffed bass bites with an aioli sauce that just blew my taste buds away, so I was wondering how he could step it up from here… well evidently, this is how.

 

Mike Landau whips up “Buffalo Tautog Arancinis with Buffalo Ranch Dipping Sauce”.  Not even fair, right?  Mike always brings game but this dish had to be one of my favorite ALL TIME kill n’ grill bites. 

When my effort with “Sriracha & Brown Sugar Mahi Mahi and Mango Kabobs finished with a Warm Honey drizzle and Cilantro” doesn’t even make an honorable mention. I was clearly outclassed by an extraordinary field of entries this year and rightfully so.

But Top Honors for the 2016 Contest were rightfully earned by the Captain of the Imagination, Jason (there will be no bananas or fuckery on my boat) Saiz with his outrageous - “Grass Fed Beef and Pork Stuffed Meatballs with Guancaile, Chiles, and Cream Cheese” !  Yes butchered by him, grown by him and I do not even doubt that he wills his own cream cheese into existence from milking pure happy thoughts, heating it with his bravado then culturing it with stories of past adventures at sea... arrrrrghhh. Congrats Jason ! 

Chowders, lobster bisque, venison sausages and skewers of happiness. Then fried bass cheeks, baked scallops, smoked hake followed by more – more - more as you proceed down the banquet tables. It is an all-out assault on the senses and you definitely get your money’s worth for the show. 

But it is always the kinship of seeing great friends and sharing diving stories, tales of the ocean and a chance to show off new spearfishing gear that we have built or acquired that is the underlying theme of the event. With divers coming from New York to New Hampshire, the crowd is always diverse and fun. New faces in the spearfishing scene are welcomed in and soon weaved into the fabric of the freediving community while we also get a chance to grab some advice from the local veterans in the sport. My personal tactic is to pry a few secret spots away under the sponsorship of a shot or two.  With the conclusion of the event we all leave with full bellies, our sides hurt a little from laughing, and we are now only a few weeks away from getting back in the water and chasing some tautog locally. 

Thank You Tristate Skindivers and Cheers to the upcoming 2016 season!  

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