Overkill.

This is the King Crab before we broke it up into
manageable pieces.  Looks like the damn Kraken!

It might be a tad much.  Crab, that is.  Since I started working for one of the local tribes here in Kodiak, I've been able to get in on wholesale pricing with the seafood branch of their organization, called Wildsource.  Pretty sweet.

At the same time, the hubby got in on an order of crab from St. Paul that one of the Coast Guard crews was bringing in after a flight.  The translation is that I ordered 10 lbs of Alaskan King Crab from Wildsource, and he ordered Snow Crab from the incoming CG crew...which he neglected to get the details about as far as amounts.  Not 10 lbs.  FORTY.  It's absurd.

Basically, our tiny little garage freezer is currently stocked and overflowing with over 50 lbs of Alaskan King and Snow Crab at this moment.  Holy crap, right?  Waaaaay too much crab!  Not a bad problem to have, though.  I know - "Whoa is me, we have too much crab to eat!"

This is the Snow Crab - it's more delicate
and has a lighter flavor than the King Crab

So the result of all this crab overload is the obvious scouring of the internet for recipes that involve crab in some way.  On the upcoming menu is any number of the following:  crab cakes, crab fettuccine, seafood chowder, crab mac and cheese, steamed crab, crab bisque, etc.  Anyone have any good crab recipes they want to share?  Have at it in the comments.

The first of the list we attempted was crab bisque a few weeks ago.  Holy Lord was it good. We used THIS recipe for Lobster Bisque, but tweaked it a little.  Obviously instead of lobster, we used a combination of Snow and King Crab, & instead of heavy whipping cream, we substituted with low fat cream cheese and used a stick blender to blend it all together.

Started with sautéing some shallots, blending the
cream cheese into the stock & then adding the crabby love

It's always nice to find a substitute that doesn't take away from the overall flavor of a dish.  And it helps that it's less heart attack-y with the low fat cream cheese.  Bisque isn't the healthiest choice for soup!

Another (not as healthy) tweak we did was serving it in bread bowls.  Probably not necessary, but this isn't about need.  Might as well take it up to the next level.  Especially when the next level involves bread bowls.  You really can't go wrong.

We picked up one round sourdough loaf and cut it in half instead of having one bread bowl per person. - Because that's way more bread than anyone needs in one sitting.  The sourdough was a really nice counterpoint to the bisque.

Even cutting the loaf in half still equaled a pretty big serving, but it's not like this is our weekly routine...yet.  Just kidding.  We'll keep the bisque indulgence to a minimum.  The end result was nothing short of fabulous.

Running my spoon along the inside edge of the bread bowl, where the soup makes the bread all soft and gooey and you get that bisque-y, bread-y combination?  Heaven.    Check out this crabtacular soup:

This ain't no straight creamy bisque - we've got chunks of crab going on.  Eff tradition, this is the the way to do it!

So, you should expect future posts involving crab meals.  And again - if anyone has a good crab themed dish to share, comment away at the bottom of the post.  I'd love any suggestions.  We do have 50 plus pounds to hoover through.  Damn.

Ta-ta for now.


P.S. - By the way, the Pugbull was incredulous over the fact that he was not involved with the crab preparation:

"I'll take that crab off your hands, if you need me to."

"Wait - not all dogs have a bed in the kitchen?  Now about that crab....."  Spoiled.