Salt-baked mud crab
Prep 10 mins
Cook 40 mins
Serves 2-4 as a shared dish
Difficulty 2.5
This recipe is inspired by chef Jordan Toft’s salt-baked mud crab at Mimi’s in Sydney. Serving crab like this for Christmas is such a clever yet simple thing to do. The key is to make sure the crab is covered well with the kombu (or dampened baking paper), so the salt doesn’t come into contact with the shell. If it does, all is not lost – you can use a wet pastry brush to clean it off before serving. The only accompaniments needed here are flavoured melted butter for dunking, fresh sourdough and lots of lemon wedges.
1.2 kg mud crab, killed humanely (see note)
4 pieces of kombu, or enough to cover crab, soaked in cold water overnight to rehydrate
Sourdough and lemon wedges to serve
SALT CRUST
1kg fine salt
600g coarse salt
4 eggwhites
FLAVOURED BUTTER
100g butter, melted
½ garlic clove, finely grated on a mandolin
1. Preheat oven to 200C. For salt crust, combine ingredients in a bowl. Place crab on a baking paper lined oven tray. Cover the crab with sheets of kombu, then press the salt mixture all over so crab is completely covered. Bake crab until just cooked (35 minutes), then set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
2. For flavoured butter, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir through garlic and heat until garlic is cooked (20 seconds).
3. To serve crab, break the salt crust around the top and break off in large pieces. Remove crab, then brush away and excess salt and remove kombu. Serve with flvaoured butter, bread and lemons for squeezing.
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
N O T E
To kill a crab humanely, follow the guidelines given by the RSPCA.
Recipe by Eatable and image by Mark Roper.
