If you live here on the central Oregon coast and you’re anything like my family and me, you’re trying to get outside to take advantage of as many of these sunny days as possible, especially when this beautiful weather is combined with some pretty spectacular tides.
This past weekend was definitely one to take advantage of with some awesome high tides in the afternoon, perfect for crabbing, and the minus tides in the evening that were ideal for clamming. And since we weren’t able to harvest an animal this archery season, our freezer is looking a little empty, so we weren’t going to miss an opportunity like that to fill it up.
We kicked off the weekend waist deep in the Alsea Bay Friday evening raking for clams. My family and I always park at the Alsea Bay Historic Interpretive Center and walk just under the Alsea Bay Bridge, where we wade out into the water to rake for cockle clams. It’s such a great family activity, and the kids absolutely love it.
The following afternoon, while my husband cleaned the all of clams from the night before, I packed sack lunches for our little ones, then we all headed to McKinley’s RV Park and Marina to take advantage of the high tide right at lunch time to go crabbing. We have our own boat, but if you don’t have a boat and want to take advantage of these tides and get out there and crab, McKinley’s also has crab boats available to rent that come fully equipped with everything you’ll need for crabbing- from all the crabbing gear, including crab bait and life jackets for the whole family. McKinley’s even has a crab cleaning station and can cook them right there on site, too.
While snacking on our sack lunches, we pulled up crab pot after crab pot with keeper after keeper, some pots even having four or five keepers each. My little ones are such hard workers out there, too. They snag every single buoy out of the water for us to pull up and even help measure the crab and throw the pots back out.
The help certainly doesn’t stop when we’re back home, either. Our oldest, who just turned eight, has really taken a lot of pride in knowing how to catch, clean and cook crab, so he’s always right by my husband’s side during the entire process. He even takes it upon himself to come into the kitchen to grab the salt and Old Bay Seasoning once our crab boiler gets fired up.
Another perk of that job is that he also gets to be the first one to eat the crab straight out of the pot.
I must admit, fresh hot crab right out of the steamer is definitely our favorite way to eat it, but did you know that you can just as easily freeze your crab to save it for another day? After steaming your crab, just bag it as is and throw it in your freezer. Keeping them in the shell helps keep it fresh, and it’s such a simple way to save all of those crab for all of your favorite future crab recipes.
If you don’t have a favorite crab recipe, let me share mine with you. This Spicy Crab Dip is the perfect way to use up your frozen or leftover crab and impress your taste buds at the same time!
Spicy Crab Dip
Ingredients:
2 cups lump crab meat, plus 1/4 cup for topping dip after baking
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh chives
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Sourdough bread bowl for serving dip in plus
1 tablespoon butter and 1 garlic clove for frying sourdough bread crumbs.
Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Add softened cream cheese, mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, garlic, Worcestershire, crushed red pepper flakes and chives in a mixing bowl and mix until combined. Gently fold in 2 cups crab meat.
• Cut off top of sourdough bread and gently hollow out loaf, leaving enough bread around the edges for structure. Fill bread bowl with crab mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden and bubbly.
• While crab dip is in the oven, break up leftover sourdough bread into small pieces. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in skillet and add one smashed whole garlic clove, add bread and sauté until golden and crisp. Remove garlic clove.
• Top hot crab dip with bread crumbs, chives and crab meat. Serve with sliced bread, crackers, vegetables or maybe just a spoon because this dip is delicious on just about anything!
The Link LonkOctober 23, 2020 at 03:26AM
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The Kitchen Wild: Spicy Crab Dip - Newport News Times
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