Glancing through my grocery store fliers for good bargains the other week I came across a great deal on crab legs at a local grocery store near me. Immediately my mouth began to water and for the first time I decided to take on the challenge of cooking some crab legs for dinner. I always thought it must be complicated and it was always usually too expensive to think of feeding crab legs to my family for dinner, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I decided to make up some yummy but simple sides to go along with the crab legs as well… and I was particularly in a “buttery” sort of mood that evening so I chose to do some roasted garlic and chilli pepper broccoli as well as some tarragon red potatoes as our sides. This was all a spur of the moment, make it up as you go along kind of meal… and it ended up turning out pretty darn delicious! Try it if you dare!

A few tips to remember about cooking with crab legs that I got from a handy little website called www.helpwithcooking.com are:
*The best way to buy crab legs is frozen or pre-cooked, then frozen crab legs as this will give the most fresh flavor. Buying thawed out crab legs tend to cause them to lose their flavor and freshness.
*Thawed out crab legs can maintain freshness for about two days in the refrigerator, but it is recommended they be cooked the same day they are thawed.
*To defrost crab legs place them on a rack in a watertight container in the fridge for 8 hours to allow the ice to melt and drain while they are defrosting.

Now on to the recipe…

You will need:
crab leg clusters (1-2 clusters per person, or however many you desire)
clarified butter (recipe below)

Step 1: Rinse off the frozen crab leg clusters and set aside.

Step 2: Fill a large pot about half way or a little less than halfway with water. Salt the water. Then bring the pot of salted water to a rolling boil ( I didn’t have a steamer, so i used the good old big pot of boiling water with a colander and a lid on top method. It worked beautifully ).

Step 3: Place the crab clusters into a metal colander and place the colander into the boiling water with the handles resting on the lip of the pot.

Step 4: Place a lid over the top of the colander to allow the crab legs to steam. Steam crab legs for about 5 – 7 minutes or until heated through and you start to smell their sweet aroma… its so divine!

Step 5: Remove the crab legs from the steamer and serve immediately (its a good idea to start your sides ahead of time so they are almost finished when you start steaming the crab legs, as they only take a few minutes). The meat from the fresh crab legs is so sweet and succulent… it is a very satisfying experience! Don’t forget to place a small dish of clarified butter at each place setting to dip the crab meat in! Enjoy!

Clarified Butter

Place 2 sticks of unsalted butter into a small sauce pan. Melt over low heat, watching carefully so as not to burn it. Remove butter from the heat once the milk solids have sunk to the bottom of the pan. Strain butter through a cheese cloth into a clear storage container ( i usually use an old recycled glass jar). Discard the solids left behind. You can store the clarified butter in the fridge and use for any recipe that calls for regular butter or use it in such instances as the crab legs as a dipping sauce to enhance flavors of a dish.

Broiled Chili Pepper Broccoli

1-2 heads of broccoli, cut into big chunks
olive oil for drizzling
2 Tbsp. butter (optional)
1 Tbsp. chili pepper flakes
2 large garlic cloves, minced
sea salt and black pepper to taste

On a large baking tray, spread out the chopped broccoli pieces and drizzle with olive oil. Toss the broccoli pieces in olive oil until well coated. Cut up chunks of 2 Tbsp. of butter and place randomly throughout the spread out broccoli pieces. Sprinkle with minced garlic, chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Broil in the oven for about 10 minutes or until tops of broccoli begin to brown and crisp, but not too much. I recommend tossing the broccoli pieces every few minutes to evenly brown them.

Taragon and Buttered Red Potatoes

4 medium sized Red potatoes
3 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. dried tarragon
sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a medium sized pot place the 4 red potatoes. Fill pot with water until just covering the tops of the potatoes. Bring the pot of potatoes to a boil and boil until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain the water from teh pot and let the potatoes cool for a few minutes. Peel the skins from the potatoes and chop into large bit size chunks. Place in a serving bowl and top with 2 Tbsp of butter, tarragon, salt, and black pepper until well coated over the potatoes and the butter is melted. Serve warm.