Recipes

Beer-Steamed Crabs

  • Serves

    serves 2-4

ANDRÉ BARANOWSKI

In this dish, fresh blue crabs are steamed in a flavorful mixture of chile, garlic, lime, and beer.

Ingredients

For the Dipping Sauce

  • 4 tbsp. fish sauce
  • 2 small red or green Thai chiles, stemmed and sliced into thin rings
  • Juice of 2 limes

For the Crabs

  • 12 live blue crabs (about 4 lbs.)
  • 4 (12-oz.) bottles of lager beer
  • 2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 10 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 3 Thai chiles, stemmed and split
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 2 limes, halved

Instructions

Step 1

First, make the dipping sauce: Whisk together fish sauce, chiles, and lime juice. Set aside.

Step 2

Rinse crabs under running water. Pour beer into a 6-quart pot; bring to a boil over high heat. Add salt, garlic, chiles, and cilantro. Squeeze in juice from halved limes; add limes.

Step 3

Add crabs to pot; cook, covered, until they turn a vibrant reddish-orange, about 8 minutes. Using tongs, transfer crabs to a platter. Serve with sauce. (See How to Eat Blue Crab), for instructions on eating this dish.

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