Recipe #197: Crab Legs

I guess this isn't really a recipe.... it's more of a method.  I almost didn't post it, actually, because it's THAT EASY.  I absolutely love crab legs (especially snow and dungeness) but was always leery about making them myself, mostly because of the cost.  If I messed them up, it would be a sort of expensive screw up.  I don't know why I was so worried, because this was really simple, and I already want to try new ways to prepare them (mostly involving Old Bay seasoning...........)

I bought a 2lb box of frozen snow crab legs.  Today, I moved them from the freezer to the fridge in the morning.  I took them out about a half hour before I wanted to cook them, and I let them sit on the counter a little to let the rest of the ice melt more.  I rinsed them in the sink in tepid water.  I put a vegetable steamer (yeah I had to improvise) in a large pot, which had about 1-2" of water in the bottom.  I also put some ground ginger and garlic powder in the water for a little flavoring.  I got the water boiling, then added the crab legs and covered the pot.

In the meanwhile, I melted down sticks (yes, plural... sure, it was a little overkill...) in another little pot.

Everything took about 5 minutes, and I let the legs sit in the covered pot while I finished prepping everything.

I served them with a side of corn (meh, not too impressive) and some long grain and wild rice (I cheated- Uncle Ben's 90 second bags in the microwave...), but it all came together alright.  The rice and corn weren't all that interesting compared to the legs anyway.

You can't see it in the pic here, but I put aluminum foil over the platter to keep them as warm as I could.  I LOVE crab but they get cold so fast.  By the end, I was heating them up in the microwave again at about 30 seconds... not sure if that did anything to the flavor, as I was done with them at that point, and Nick was eating the rest, but it didn't seem to bother him.

This is a simple method for what to do with the frozen crab you can buy at the grocery store, but it made me long for fresh seafood in Maine, Hawaii, California, Greece, Spain......   Maybe it's best that this is as good as I can get right now, so I don't know what I'm missing!