“‘I’d work in your castle, milord. I can clean fish and bake bread, and churn butter. Father says my peppercrab stew is the best he’s ever tasted. You could find me a place in your kitchens and I could make you peppercrab stew.'” (A Clash of Kings)
Peppercrab Stew
Our Thoughts:
We bought these crab at the local market, using feminine wiles to coax a few more crab legs out of the fishmonger’s stall into our bag, free of charge. Imitation crab meat can be used for the faint of heart, or if fresh or frozen crabs are not available- although demolishing the crabs by hand and harvesting the succulent meat is half the fun! Our recipe makes a hearty, fiery crab stew, suitable to warm you from the inside out on even the coldest of days on the Iron Isles.
Peppercrab Stew Recipe
Ingredients:
- 4 cups fish stock (vegetable stock works, too)
- 1/4 cup dried and chopped wakame seaweed
- 1 tablespoon of a pepper varieties tied in cheesecloth (long, aleppo, black, red, cayenne etc.)
- 3 medium crabs worth of meat
- 1 small onion, chopped
what kind of crabs would you recommend? as a Baltimoron, my default is the blue crab, but it appears they might be too small for this.
Nah, a comment below says that their crabs were about 3 ounces, which is the average size of a healthy Maryland Blue. So you should be good :) And that said, looking at this recipe? I’d use Old Bay for the pepper!
Dang, this makes me nostalgic for home (I’m from MoCo)… when’s crab season start this year? ;)
I’m interested in your serving vessel.
It is, indeed, a crab shell :) Not the most efficient for holding the broth, but beautiful with the heartier ingredients.
The crab meat is cooked ahead on time?
Yes, the crabs are boiled ahead of time, cooled, and the meat is harvested from the shells. Crabs should be put in the pot once the water reaches a rolling boil, and cooked for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serving vessel looks to be a crab shell, that or a well disguised bread bowl
Gorgeous soup and I love your presentation in the the crab shell. :)
how many cups or ounces is 3 medium crabs worth of meat??
A medium sized crab usually yields about 3-4 ounces of meat. So between 9 and 12 ounces of meat for the recipe. This can, of course, be adjusted based on your preference.
Gorgeous presentation :) and I bet it tastes delicious.
Which local market did you guys get these from? I’ve been trying to find a place local to Boston that has good crab, and keep coming up short… but then again, that may be because I’m from Maryland, so there is only one, true crab…
When I saw the word peppercrab, I immediately thought of Singaporean Black Pepper Crab. Not a stew but you should definitely check it out.
I made this for dinner tonight! I made a few changes due to laziness mostly but it turned out great! Fishy and spicy, just how I like it!
Psh, you should see how we cook sometimes. ;) Glad you liked it!!
I had a question regarding the spices in the cheese cloth. Is it 1 tablespoon of the pepper of yoru choice or is it a blend of pepper varieties that add up to 1 tablespoon altogether? Also, thank you for posting this. I’ve wanted to try this dish since I first read the series.
I believe it was whichever peppers you like, or have on hand. In the book, this is made by Ironborn, so it would have been whichever spices had been stolen off ships by reavers!
Well you obviously wouldn’t want the taint of gold price purchased spices mucking up your stew. Thanks for the help. I honestly couldn’t tell from the recipe whether I wanted 1 tablespoon total or a tablespoon of each. I’m going to try it this weekend!