Sunday, March 1, 2009

Davey Jones Dinner After Action Report

I cooked something last night I had never prepared before: Alaskan king crab legs. They were extremely easy to prepare and were delicious! Cooking both of these shellfish really could not be easier. I brought tow pots of salted water to a rolling boil, then I put the crab legs and lobster tail into each pot and cooked them until they were done. The crab legs were put into a pot with about 3 inches of boiling water and a strainer, while the lobster tails were placed into a full pot of boiling water. I cooked the crab legs for 7 minutes and they were simply perfect. I cooked the lobster tails for 18 minutes and removed the tails from the pot. However, the lobster tails needed a few more minutes in the pot. I ended up cooking the tails for a total of 23 minutes. The tails were frozen when I placed them into the pot, which added to the required cooking time.

The
sides were simple: Pine Nut Cous Cous and tossed greens with a lemon/honey dressing. I will work on getting the recipe for the dressing loaded into the Cafe's list later today. We sipped on a bottle of 2005 Forman Napa Valley Chardonnay, which was recommended by our friends at Art of the Table. The wine was a perfect compliment to the seafood. Clearly, Samson was interested in what I was making as he stayed in the middle of the kitchen throughout the cooking process. He spent most of the meal next to the Maven, hoping that gravity would work its magic for him. He did get a few snitches of crab meat. Once again, Samson liked what we served to him.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

Now you need to give us the details on the origin of the Davey Jones Dinner.

The Alaskan King Crab legs for sale at the Public Market in Seattle made me salivate. I wanted to cook them...badly. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I have a pot big enough. :-)

L.

Paul's Blog said...

Well, the origin of this meal was that Deirdre and Ann Marie wanted me to cook them crab legs and lobster tails. Since lobsters and crabs live in and around Davey Jones Locker, it seemed like an easy fit for the meal to be called "Davey Jones Dinner."

As for the crab leg, I used my meat cleaver to cut the legs into 8 inch pieces. I certainly did not have a pot large enough for an entire crab leg. It was amazingly easy to cook the crab legs. I heated up a pot with about 3 inches of water in it, along with an internal strainer. Once the water (salted, of course) was in a full boil, I threw the crab legs into the pot and cooked them for 7 minutes. Yum!

Jewels said...

Not only is he handsome, he is well fed :)