**The Art of Preparing Crab: A Step-by-Step Guide**

As we sit down to enjoy our delicious crab dish, it's hard not to think about the process that went into making it. From selecting the freshest ingredients to cooking and seasoning them just right, every step is crucial in bringing out the best flavor and texture. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the preparation of crab, from start to finish.

**Starting with Fresh Ingredients**

The first step in preparing crab is to select fresh ingredients. This includes choosing the right type of crab, such as Dungeness or blue crab, and making sure it's stored properly to preserve its freshness. The crab should be stored in a covered container on ice to keep it cool and prevent spoilage. Once you've selected your crab, it's time to prepare it for cooking.

**Removing the Shell**

To start preparing the crab, we need to remove the shell. This involves taking off the outer shell and revealing the tender flesh inside. To do this, you'll need to use a kitchen tool specifically designed for removing shells from crabs. Simply twist and pull the shell away from the crab's body, taking care not to tear or puncture the delicate flesh underneath.

**Reserving the Crab Fat**

As you remove the shell, you'll also notice that there is a layer of fat beneath the flesh. This fat is rich in flavor and is an essential component of many seafood dishes. To reserve this fat, simply scoop it out with a spoon and set it aside. You can use this fat to add extra flavor to your dish or store it in the fridge for later use.

**Removing the Gills**

Next, you'll need to remove the gills from the crab's body. These are the feathery structures that line the inside of the shell and can give the crab a bitter taste if not removed properly. Simply scoop out the gills with a spoon or your fingers, taking care not to puncture the flesh underneath.

**Cracking Open the Crab**

With the shell removed and the gills scooped out, it's time to crack open the crab. This involves using a kitchen tool specifically designed for cracking shells to break open the crab's body. Simply twist and pull the shell away from the body, taking care not to tear or puncture the flesh underneath.

**Flipping and Cracking**

Once you've cracked open the crab, it's time to flip it over and crack it in half. This will allow you to access the tender flesh inside and add flavor to your dish. Simply use a sharp knife or your fingers to crack the shell and then flip the crab over, taking care not to spill any of the flavorful juices.

**Cooking the Crab**

With the crab cracked open, it's time to cook it. This can be done by simply placing the crab in boiling water for a few minutes or by cooking it in a saucepan with some oil and aromatics. In this article, we'll be using a simple cooking method that involves cooking the crab in a flavorful sauce.

**The Secret to Cooking Crab**

So, what's the secret to cooking crab? It all comes down to flavor and texture. You see, when you cook crab, you want it to retain its tender flesh and delicate flavor. To achieve this, you need to cook it slowly over low heat, allowing the flavors to meld together and the meat to become tender.

**Adding Flavor to the Sauce**

Now that we have our cooked crab, it's time to add some extra flavor to our sauce. This can be done by adding in aromatics such as garlic, onion, and ginger, or by using a flavorful broth to cook the crab. In this article, we'll be using a simple sauce made with coconut milk, fish sauce, and spices.

**Adding Color and Texture**

To add some color and texture to our dish, we can use ingredients such as squash, melon, and herbs. These ingredients not only add visual appeal but also provide a nice contrast in texture to the soft, tender crab. In this article, we'll be using delicata squash and melon guy leaves to add some crunch and freshness to our dish.

**Serving the Dish**

Finally, it's time to serve our delicious crab dish! To do this, simply scoop out the crab meat from the shell and place it in a serving dish. You can garnish with additional ingredients such as herbs, chilies, or sliced fruit to add some color and freshness to the dish.

**The Final Touches**

To finish off our dish, we'll add a few final touches. These include adding a spoonful of crab fat to the sauce, cooking down the sauce to thicken it, and adjusting the seasoning to taste. With these final touches, our crab dish is complete!

**A Delicious Family-Style Dish**

This crab dish is perfect for families or groups of friends who love seafood. It's easy to prepare, delicious to eat, and can be served in a variety of settings from casual gatherings to special occasions. Whether you're cooking for one or a crowd, this recipe is sure to please.

**Tips and Variations**

For those looking to try something new, here are a few tips and variations to consider:

* Use different types of crab, such as Dungeness or blue crab.

* Add aromatics such as garlic, onion, and ginger to the sauce for extra flavor.

* Use coconut milk or fish sauce to add richness and depth to the sauce.

* Experiment with different spices and herbs to create a unique flavor profile.

By following these steps and tips, you'll be well on your way to creating a delicious crab dish that's sure to impress. Happy cooking!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlike a boomerang hi i'm melissa miranda and today we're going to be cooking guinetta an ali masak which is a coconut crab dish guineta an ali masag is one of my childhood favorite dishes it's a dish that my dad cooked for me growing up here in the pacific northwest we're really really fortunate to have access to dungeness crab it's way easier to eat and it produces a lot of meat and it's just really sweet and delicious well hey you know the gang back at va was telling me that you are you're digging the crabs you'll be doing a crab dish a video of a crab dish i grew up crabbing um on on the east coast you know loophole crabs um much different i'm assuming you're going to be using dungeness yes the best i'm just kidding no no you don't have to be kidding me it probably is the best crowd maybe i'll make it out there we can go crabbing or something that would be great so when i have the finished product for a minute i'll text you please do yes oh my god torture me with a picture of that because it's gonna be amazing this is the best thing i've ever had so the first thing for this dish is um cutting the delicata squash i like to use delicata squash versus calabasa because it cooks a lot faster and it's a lot easier to work with i'm going to start by cutting the top of the delicata squash on the bottom toss it to the side and then i'm going to cut it in half and then we're going to take out the seeds just use a spoon and just follow the inside delicatas are all seated um super clean beautiful i'm gonna actually cut them into half moons into this size i have the oven preheated at 425 i'm gonna toss it with a little bit of um canola oil just a light little drizzle and then i'm gonna hit it with some seasoning salt johnny seasoning salt if you can get your hands on it is the best it's just the perfect balance it adds a lot of umami to the dish too everything's tossed i have a sheet tray right here put all the squash on the baking sheet all right so the delicata squash is ready to go you can kind of see there's a light oil drizzle the seasoning salt has covered all the squashes i'm gonna pop it in the oven for 15 minutes so while the delicata squash are cooking in the oven um we're just gonna go ahead and cook the crab um it's a pretty easy thing to do so don't be afraid of the crab okay i'm gonna just salt the water so if you give it a little taste you just want to make sure that it's it's pretty salty um this is gonna help season your crab as well we have a live crab as you can see it moving don't be afraid to to touch the crab but there is a specific way to actually hold the crab so you don't get pinched and the way is to grab it from the back and then hold it this way you can see it's kind of still alive yeah we're going to put the crab in the boiling water we're going to cover it and we're going to cook it for 8 to 10 minutes i think this is going to be 10 minutes because it was a pretty big guy um make sure that once you have this crab in you actually have a bowl of ice water because we're going to put it in an ice water bath to kind of slow down cooking afterwards if you didn't know guinetta un is actually um a method in cooking and the filipino cuisine guinetan means to be cooked in coconut milk um gata is coconut in tagalog so you can actually cook it in so many different ways it doesn't just have to be savory or just with crab you can cook it with shrimp you can have it be a vegetarian dish with just like beans and squash for the guinetta and recipe it's super super simple bagaong is a fermented shrimp paste that's anumami like kicked to the face this with all the other things that we're cooking with um just adds that kind of fish flavor that you really want that's gonna help accent the crab so we're gonna start with five cloves of garlic don't be shy with garlic and filipino cuisine we use garlic and everything i like to smash the garlic because it helps release a lot of the flavor while you're cooking and then afterwards we'll give it a nice mince and then i'm gonna take just a medium sized yellow onion and i'm gonna julienne it i'm gonna get my pot going on the stove i'm gonna put it on medium high heat so in filipino cooking um we always add the garlic first which is probably pretty different than what you're used to i like to get it nice and golden but this helps kind of really bring out the flavor and the intensity of the garlic in the dish and then once that's golden brown i'm gonna add the yellow onions to the dish for the ginger um just a really easy hack in helping peel ginger is using this a small spoon and just kind of helps make peeling it a little easier and less messy and i'm going to cut them into slices and then from here i'm going to cut them into matchsticks the onion is starting to starting to ground and then i'm going to season it with johnny it's really really really important to season as you go because you can really build flavors this way as you cook um there's nothing worse than trying to season everything at the very end because everything just becomes salty i'm gonna wait till the onions are translucent and then i'm gonna add the garlic matchsticks and i'm just gonna check on my crab really quick so when we put the crab in you saw that the color was dark now you can see it's this really vibrant orange i'm probably gonna cook it for another two minutes so i think that's what's left on the clock and then we're gonna plunge it into the ice water bath so the 15 minute timer just went off for the squash and i'm just going to check on it really quick one way to test the doneness of the squash is by taking a fork as i pierce the fork you can see that it comes in pretty pretty easily and so those squashes are done i'm gonna set this aside for uh when we plate the dish so the crab is done i'm gonna plunge it in the ice water bath to help slow down the cooking crabs out squashes out um we're just going to be focusing on the sauce now i'm going to add the ginger now i'm going to season it again with a little bit of seasoning salt and then i'm going to let the ginger also get nice and toasted too once everything is a good golden brown that's when i'm going to add some of the bhagavan i would eat this by itself but not many people would once this goes into the pot it just fills up the room so i'm gonna add about two tablespoons and i'm actually gonna saute this in two with everything else so that it can really really coat the ginger the garlic and the onions everything is looking nice and golden brown i'm gonna add some coconut milk to this i'm gonna add two cans and i'm gonna bring it up to a boil and then i'm gonna let it simmer add some more seasoning i'm gonna give it a little taste just to see how it's where it's at right now it's delicious okay the sauce is bubbling i'm gonna turn it down a little bit and this is gonna be the perfect time to add the chilies i'm taking the tops off the chilies and i'm going to cut them into rounds i'm going to take probably like three quarters of these i'm going to save a little bit for garnishing and pop them in um while that's cooking i'm actually going to pick some malungai leaves it's a superfood it has a little bit of a spicy texture similar to horseradish this is a leaf that you traditionally find in the philippines we have filipino farmers here in central washington that have been be like they've been able to produce a lot of filipino vegetables that you can't find normally but you kind of just want to start from the base of the leaf and then pull down and then you'll just be able to take all the leaves so we're almost there you guys can check out the sauce it's a beautiful color so cracking crab isn't as scary as it looks as it looks this is something that i definitely grew up learning and each time i eat crab i learn a different technique to get faster but essentially we're going to take the body and we're going to separate it from the head in this shell area is crab fat which is liquid gold and if you're not eating it you should start eating it because it is probably one of the best things you'll ever have in your life um we're actually going to take the crab fat from here and actually add it to the sauce to add more flavor to it but a really good trick for separating the body from the shell of the crab you can see this part right here in the crab it's kind of like the breast plate if you put your finger underneath it comes off pull this part up and you actually just pop it off and then you can take these two pieces off too so now you have a place to place your finger and you can just you can see how easy it is to separate the crab from the shell and now this is the part that i'm talking about that is the best part of the crab i'm just going to reserve that here for a second this part right here of the crab actually isn't edible this part here is that's still part of the the crab fat that you want to save so you can take out this side these gills as well you can take off kind of save this part here that you're seeing that's like the crab fat i'm going to put that in the shell these two pieces you can go ahead and pull those off too and then now you're just left with the body of the crab and the legs and then this way you flip it back over and just crack it in half and now you have the two bodies so the final part of the sauce is actually taking this crab fat and putting it in here i'm just gonna take a spoon and i'm just gonna spoon this all in it's all the way to the corner you can tell that the crab is actually cooked really well when the inside is like a pale yellow and yellow color if the crab wasn't cooked well or for long enough it's more like this color and like but darker blue if that's the color then you don't want to add that crab fat to the sauce because it's very bitter so now that we've got all of the elements of our dish together we've got our roasted squash our sauce that's ready to go and our cooked crab we're actually ready to plate the dish so i have a big bowl this obviously is a family style dish i probably could eat this by myself but it's probably better to share with some people i'm going to put a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the dish like i said earlier this dish is best eaten with your hands and so i don't like to pre-crack the crab for people i like people to kind of just really get in i'm just gonna layer this dish i'm gonna also add some of the squash in here just to add some color add more sauce and then i'm gonna add the melon guy leaves you're probably gonna have people asking you for more sauce so you should put a sauce bowl of this on the side it's just super simple it's great for the family it's a perfect dish for the holidays and that's what my childhood tastes like in a bowl i'm gonna add some chilies on top too and then that is it i'm going to take half of the crab and put some of the squash on don't be afraid to get messy and use your hands oh my gosh that's like the sign of like a real a real og crab eater if you crack it with your teeth it just works so well just a little quick quick and then you can kind of open it so right here the crab is cooked perfectly because it pops right out the crab is super sweet um it's taken on this sauce that we've cooked with it too there's hints of spice from the thai chilies and then the delicata squash is just super tender and sweet i mean it plays really nicely with the savoriness of the sauce that we've made you can just see the juice of the crab like coming out and just like adding more flavor to the sauce like it's cooked so well the beauty of not actually cooking the melon guy leaves in the sauce is it's got that freshness and the raw factor to it that adds a spice kind of a horseradish um flavor to it and it cuts this like super rich and fatty sauce that we've made the chilies add a nice spice and the fact that they weren't cooked for very long adds a brightness to it as well and same with the delos like the delicata squash they're not overcooked there's still texture there's still flavor and bite to it and it is such a perfect kind of like sponge vessel for the sauce as well it's just so delicious and this is perfect like once you finish the crab and you still have this sauce left and you have like a bowl of like seaming white rice just scoop that on there and you can eat that by itself hey brad it's your new best friend mal from the west coast oh my god amazing i hope that you guys get to cook this with your friends and family it's the perfect dish to share with your friends at a table bon appetit nailed it i mean he swears a lot and i swear a lot too but i'm being really mindful and so i was like i'm glad this call wasn't just like f-bombs back and forth i feel like in real life that's probably what would happenlike a boomerang hi i'm melissa miranda and today we're going to be cooking guinetta an ali masak which is a coconut crab dish guineta an ali masag is one of my childhood favorite dishes it's a dish that my dad cooked for me growing up here in the pacific northwest we're really really fortunate to have access to dungeness crab it's way easier to eat and it produces a lot of meat and it's just really sweet and delicious well hey you know the gang back at va was telling me that you are you're digging the crabs you'll be doing a crab dish a video of a crab dish i grew up crabbing um on on the east coast you know loophole crabs um much different i'm assuming you're going to be using dungeness yes the best i'm just kidding no no you don't have to be kidding me it probably is the best crowd maybe i'll make it out there we can go crabbing or something that would be great so when i have the finished product for a minute i'll text you please do yes oh my god torture me with a picture of that because it's gonna be amazing this is the best thing i've ever had so the first thing for this dish is um cutting the delicata squash i like to use delicata squash versus calabasa because it cooks a lot faster and it's a lot easier to work with i'm going to start by cutting the top of the delicata squash on the bottom toss it to the side and then i'm going to cut it in half and then we're going to take out the seeds just use a spoon and just follow the inside delicatas are all seated um super clean beautiful i'm gonna actually cut them into half moons into this size i have the oven preheated at 425 i'm gonna toss it with a little bit of um canola oil just a light little drizzle and then i'm gonna hit it with some seasoning salt johnny seasoning salt if you can get your hands on it is the best it's just the perfect balance it adds a lot of umami to the dish too everything's tossed i have a sheet tray right here put all the squash on the baking sheet all right so the delicata squash is ready to go you can kind of see there's a light oil drizzle the seasoning salt has covered all the squashes i'm gonna pop it in the oven for 15 minutes so while the delicata squash are cooking in the oven um we're just gonna go ahead and cook the crab um it's a pretty easy thing to do so don't be afraid of the crab okay i'm gonna just salt the water so if you give it a little taste you just want to make sure that it's it's pretty salty um this is gonna help season your crab as well we have a live crab as you can see it moving don't be afraid to to touch the crab but there is a specific way to actually hold the crab so you don't get pinched and the way is to grab it from the back and then hold it this way you can see it's kind of still alive yeah we're going to put the crab in the boiling water we're going to cover it and we're going to cook it for 8 to 10 minutes i think this is going to be 10 minutes because it was a pretty big guy um make sure that once you have this crab in you actually have a bowl of ice water because we're going to put it in an ice water bath to kind of slow down cooking afterwards if you didn't know guinetta un is actually um a method in cooking and the filipino cuisine guinetan means to be cooked in coconut milk um gata is coconut in tagalog so you can actually cook it in so many different ways it doesn't just have to be savory or just with crab you can cook it with shrimp you can have it be a vegetarian dish with just like beans and squash for the guinetta and recipe it's super super simple bagaong is a fermented shrimp paste that's anumami like kicked to the face this with all the other things that we're cooking with um just adds that kind of fish flavor that you really want that's gonna help accent the crab so we're gonna start with five cloves of garlic don't be shy with garlic and filipino cuisine we use garlic and everything i like to smash the garlic because it helps release a lot of the flavor while you're cooking and then afterwards we'll give it a nice mince and then i'm gonna take just a medium sized yellow onion and i'm gonna julienne it i'm gonna get my pot going on the stove i'm gonna put it on medium high heat so in filipino cooking um we always add the garlic first which is probably pretty different than what you're used to i like to get it nice and golden but this helps kind of really bring out the flavor and the intensity of the garlic in the dish and then once that's golden brown i'm gonna add the yellow onions to the dish for the ginger um just a really easy hack in helping peel ginger is using this a small spoon and just kind of helps make peeling it a little easier and less messy and i'm going to cut them into slices and then from here i'm going to cut them into matchsticks the onion is starting to starting to ground and then i'm going to season it with johnny it's really really really important to season as you go because you can really build flavors this way as you cook um there's nothing worse than trying to season everything at the very end because everything just becomes salty i'm gonna wait till the onions are translucent and then i'm gonna add the garlic matchsticks and i'm just gonna check on my crab really quick so when we put the crab in you saw that the color was dark now you can see it's this really vibrant orange i'm probably gonna cook it for another two minutes so i think that's what's left on the clock and then we're gonna plunge it into the ice water bath so the 15 minute timer just went off for the squash and i'm just going to check on it really quick one way to test the doneness of the squash is by taking a fork as i pierce the fork you can see that it comes in pretty pretty easily and so those squashes are done i'm gonna set this aside for uh when we plate the dish so the crab is done i'm gonna plunge it in the ice water bath to help slow down the cooking crabs out squashes out um we're just going to be focusing on the sauce now i'm going to add the ginger now i'm going to season it again with a little bit of seasoning salt and then i'm going to let the ginger also get nice and toasted too once everything is a good golden brown that's when i'm going to add some of the bhagavan i would eat this by itself but not many people would once this goes into the pot it just fills up the room so i'm gonna add about two tablespoons and i'm actually gonna saute this in two with everything else so that it can really really coat the ginger the garlic and the onions everything is looking nice and golden brown i'm gonna add some coconut milk to this i'm gonna add two cans and i'm gonna bring it up to a boil and then i'm gonna let it simmer add some more seasoning i'm gonna give it a little taste just to see how it's where it's at right now it's delicious okay the sauce is bubbling i'm gonna turn it down a little bit and this is gonna be the perfect time to add the chilies i'm taking the tops off the chilies and i'm going to cut them into rounds i'm going to take probably like three quarters of these i'm going to save a little bit for garnishing and pop them in um while that's cooking i'm actually going to pick some malungai leaves it's a superfood it has a little bit of a spicy texture similar to horseradish this is a leaf that you traditionally find in the philippines we have filipino farmers here in central washington that have been be like they've been able to produce a lot of filipino vegetables that you can't find normally but you kind of just want to start from the base of the leaf and then pull down and then you'll just be able to take all the leaves so we're almost there you guys can check out the sauce it's a beautiful color so cracking crab isn't as scary as it looks as it looks this is something that i definitely grew up learning and each time i eat crab i learn a different technique to get faster but essentially we're going to take the body and we're going to separate it from the head in this shell area is crab fat which is liquid gold and if you're not eating it you should start eating it because it is probably one of the best things you'll ever have in your life um we're actually going to take the crab fat from here and actually add it to the sauce to add more flavor to it but a really good trick for separating the body from the shell of the crab you can see this part right here in the crab it's kind of like the breast plate if you put your finger underneath it comes off pull this part up and you actually just pop it off and then you can take these two pieces off too so now you have a place to place your finger and you can just you can see how easy it is to separate the crab from the shell and now this is the part that i'm talking about that is the best part of the crab i'm just going to reserve that here for a second this part right here of the crab actually isn't edible this part here is that's still part of the the crab fat that you want to save so you can take out this side these gills as well you can take off kind of save this part here that you're seeing that's like the crab fat i'm going to put that in the shell these two pieces you can go ahead and pull those off too and then now you're just left with the body of the crab and the legs and then this way you flip it back over and just crack it in half and now you have the two bodies so the final part of the sauce is actually taking this crab fat and putting it in here i'm just gonna take a spoon and i'm just gonna spoon this all in it's all the way to the corner you can tell that the crab is actually cooked really well when the inside is like a pale yellow and yellow color if the crab wasn't cooked well or for long enough it's more like this color and like but darker blue if that's the color then you don't want to add that crab fat to the sauce because it's very bitter so now that we've got all of the elements of our dish together we've got our roasted squash our sauce that's ready to go and our cooked crab we're actually ready to plate the dish so i have a big bowl this obviously is a family style dish i probably could eat this by myself but it's probably better to share with some people i'm going to put a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the dish like i said earlier this dish is best eaten with your hands and so i don't like to pre-crack the crab for people i like people to kind of just really get in i'm just gonna layer this dish i'm gonna also add some of the squash in here just to add some color add more sauce and then i'm gonna add the melon guy leaves you're probably gonna have people asking you for more sauce so you should put a sauce bowl of this on the side it's just super simple it's great for the family it's a perfect dish for the holidays and that's what my childhood tastes like in a bowl i'm gonna add some chilies on top too and then that is it i'm going to take half of the crab and put some of the squash on don't be afraid to get messy and use your hands oh my gosh that's like the sign of like a real a real og crab eater if you crack it with your teeth it just works so well just a little quick quick and then you can kind of open it so right here the crab is cooked perfectly because it pops right out the crab is super sweet um it's taken on this sauce that we've cooked with it too there's hints of spice from the thai chilies and then the delicata squash is just super tender and sweet i mean it plays really nicely with the savoriness of the sauce that we've made you can just see the juice of the crab like coming out and just like adding more flavor to the sauce like it's cooked so well the beauty of not actually cooking the melon guy leaves in the sauce is it's got that freshness and the raw factor to it that adds a spice kind of a horseradish um flavor to it and it cuts this like super rich and fatty sauce that we've made the chilies add a nice spice and the fact that they weren't cooked for very long adds a brightness to it as well and same with the delos like the delicata squash they're not overcooked there's still texture there's still flavor and bite to it and it is such a perfect kind of like sponge vessel for the sauce as well it's just so delicious and this is perfect like once you finish the crab and you still have this sauce left and you have like a bowl of like seaming white rice just scoop that on there and you can eat that by itself hey brad it's your new best friend mal from the west coast oh my god amazing i hope that you guys get to cook this with your friends and family it's the perfect dish to share with your friends at a table bon appetit nailed it i mean he swears a lot and i swear a lot too but i'm being really mindful and so i was like i'm glad this call wasn't just like f-bombs back and forth i feel like in real life that's probably what would happen\n"