“Do they have soft-shell crabs?”

This is the question that obsessive-compulsive Melvin Udall (played by Jack Nicholson) keeps asking everyone on the way to the restaurant with Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) in the romantic comedy As Good As it Gets. Has anyone seen this movie? I recommend it. Mainly about relationships and how falling in love can change a person (for the better), the film is funny and has it’s touching moments. Rent the video if you haven’t seen it yet.

The answer to Melvin’s question is, “Yes.” The restaurant does serve soft-shell crabs (and he’s very happy about it).

Like Melvin, I decide that I want soft-shell crabs and wake up in the morning with the idea of making them, for the first time, for dinner.

I’ve been frequenting the new Citarella food market in my neighborhood. They have a very nice fresh seafood selection. Each time I go there to buy fish, I notice that the person next to me orders the soft-shell crab. On different occasions, I ask two of them how they plan to make it. Both of them say they will sauté it.

They describe the cooking process in a way that makes my mouth water. It also sounds easy to prepare. By now, you can see that I like EASY recipes.

I remember watching Tyler Florence do a food show called Crazy for Soft Shell Crab, where he teaches a woman, who loves eating soft shell crabs, how to make them at home.

Tyler has three different recipes and I decide to choose the one with the least amount of ingredients and work involved – Sautéed Soft-Shell Crabs with Caper Brown Butter. Here is the recipe.

I buy my soft-shell crabs from Citarella and hurry home! Yay! Today is Soft-Shell Crab Day!

In the kitchen, I prepare the ingredients beforehand, so that the only thing I have to worry about is sautéing the crabs. I juice the lemon, pull out the capers, chop the parsley, and put the ingredients aside.

Next, I flour the crabs and put them in the pan of oil to sauté. The whole process is easy. I fry the crabs on both sides for three minutes each. Then I make the Caper Brown Butter sauce to pour over the crabs. In no time, the crabs are ready to be served.

Not bad at all. The sauce tastes a little bit tangy. I’m not sure if it’s because of the capers or the lemon juice or both, but overall, the crabs taste good. I may have sautéed the crabs a bit longer than I should (they are very brown) but no major harm is done.

In the future, I think I’d like to try Tyler’s Soft-Shell Crab Salad with Green Goddess Dressing and then his Soft-Shell Crab B.L.T. with Lemon-Pepper Mayonnaise recipes.

Yes, I have soft-shell crabs and now I know how make them!

Paz