Stuffed Crab in the Style of San Sebastian Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 brown crabs
• ¾ oz (20 g) of salt per litre of water used (will vary)
• 2 spring onions
• 1 carrot
• 3½ fl oz (100 ml) olive oil
• 1 knob of butter
• 2 fl oz (50 ml) brandy (preferably Armagnac)

• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 leek
• 3 tbsp olive oil, for frying
• 2 tomatoes, quartered
• 10½ oz (300 g) heads of crawfish, prawns or similar shellfish
• 2 fl oz (50 ml) brandy (preferably Armagnac)
• 10½ fl oz (300 ml) fish stock or fumet
• 1 oz (30 g) rice

• 3½ oz (100 g) white rice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• crab coral from the 2 brown crabs
• 10½ fl oz (300 ml) water
• 7 oz (200 ml) sunflower oil for deep frying

1. Heat enough water to immerse the crabs, adding 20 g (¾oz) of salt per litre of water. When the water begins to boil, add the crabs and cook for 12 minutes. Remove the crabs and plunge into iced water for 8 minutes to stop them from cooking further.
2. Chop the spring onions and carrot, and sauté in a pan with olive oil and butter.
3. Peel the crabs, removing the coral to use in the wafers.
4. Add the crab meat to the sautéed vegetables, flambé the brandy in a ladle by carefully setting fire to it with a match or a lighter, add to the crab mixture, and set aside.
5. For the sauce américaine, roughly chop the carrot, onion and leek, and sauté in olive oil. Add the quartered tomatoes, the tinned tomatoes and the shellfish shells.
6. Flambé the mixture with brandy (as per step 4), and add the fish stock and then the rice. Bring to the boil and continue to cook until the rice is tender. Blend the mixture to make a creamy sauce, and season to taste.
7. Mix the sauce with the crab meat and vegetables, then stuff the crab shells.
8. To make the wafers, stir the white rice grains in the olive oil, then add the coral and water, and cook until the rice is well done. Put in a blender, and then strain into a bowl. The cream produced should be spread very thinly on baking paper and left to dry in a warm dry place for two days. Break into uneven pieces, and fry in sunflower oil. The wafers are ready when they float to the top of the oil.
9. Put the stuffed crab into a pre-heated oven at 200°C (390˚F) to brown. Decorate with pieces of the wafer, and serve.