Christmas Season Meals

This Christmas season has been a lazy one. Daughter is home so that is nice but hubby was in Malaysia. It was just the three of us- mother, daughter and son. Just hanging out together, laughing, watching lots of tv and movies and eating what nots. We decided we would make one special dish a day for dinner to celebrate rather than one great feast.

Day after daughter L came home we headed up to Temecula. Her friend J joined up. I made Salmon en Croute up - a dish I just saw being made on that morning by Laura Calder on French Food at Home. It was good.

Oven Roasted Crab

Ingredients

Tomalley Sauce ( `Koh' from the Crab )
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
5 gloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Reserved crab juices, if any
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Crab
4-5 lbs of cooked Dungeness crab, cut into 8 pieces each
8 tablespoon ( 1stick) unsalted butter
4 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
kosher salt and pepper to season
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh flat leaf pasley
lemon slices or wedges for garnish

Crusty bread, to mop up delicious gravy


Method

For the Tomalley (`Koh') sauce
Using a wooden spoon, push the tomalley/ Koh through a fine sieve into a small saucepan. Add red pepper flakes, garlic, thyme, and lemon juice. Stir in crab juices if any. Cook over medium high heat and bring to a simmer. Stir and remove pan from heat. Pour into a small bowl to cool. (start roasting the crabs when the tomalley/Koh sauce is cooling). As soon as tomalley/Koh sauce is lukewarm, stir in mayonnaise. Slat and pepper to taste. Set aside.

For the Crab
Place a rack in the middle or lower third of the oven and preheat to 500F.

In an ovenproof skillet, heat the butter, olive oil, garlic, thyme and lemon zest over medium heat until hot. Add crab and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. If you do not have a big enough skillet or do not have an ovenproof skillet, just heat the crab seasoning in a regular skillet. Put the crabs in a large roasting pan. Pour hot prepared seasoning over the crabs and toss to mix before placing roasting pan in oven.

Roast crabs in the oven until crab is hot throughout and garlic is golden brown, 5-7 minutes. It should smell wonderful. (Watch carefully as crab heats up quickly and garlic burns easily.) Remove from oven, drizzle with reserved lemon juice, and sprinkle parsley on top. Toss to mix.

Serve immediately with hot crusty bread and tomalley/Koh sauce.

** This recipe is adapted from Cat Cora 's Oven-Roasted Crab Buon Natale***