The joys of Galveston--Stone Crab

During my first trip to Katie's fish market on Thursday,  I watched a local fisherman deliver an overflowing cooler of fresh stone crab claws to the market. The crabs were weighed out on the spot and a man handed the fisherman a stack of twenty dollar bills. After witnessing the delivery of fresh crab from the Gulf of Mexico, I knew I had to come back the next day to buy those crab claws and other ingredients to make a seafood paella.  When I went to the fish market on Friday, I bought 12 stone crab claws and two pounds of shrimp intending to make a seafood paella. But family plans changed and I used the shrimp for ceviche, and was too busy to return to the fish market for more ingredients. Luckily, my mother, the master paella cook, is here in Galveston and used the stone crab to make a paella with lump crab meat.

We followed this recipe of Paella rice with spider crab and peas, using instead the meat from the stone crab claws.  The stone crab claws where extremely hard to open--I think the crabs were named for having bodies as hard as stones. It took a series of serious whacks with a hammer to break the shell, but the reward was large chunks of a very sweet crab meat.  I wanted to share a few pictures of the preparation of this fabulous paella before I transition to vegetarian meals from my new favorite book. 

 

Note to readers: I just bought How to cook everything vegetarian by Mark Bittman so the next few posts will be sourced from that book.