This was the high wind day. the wind direction was east, 20’s gusting to 30’s. The wind pushed us closer to the dock so there were bumper adjustments. This is the time when you wish you had more bumpers. Most of the time they are bulky and in the way. Maybe some deflated extras stashed away for these special occasions would be good.
Yesterday, when David was doing the fuel refills, a man came down the dock wanting to know if we wanted any lobster. We had had the big lunch so we declined the lobster. Then he offered stone crabs for tomorrow. That was irresistible . The man’s name was Hollywood. He would be at the dock at 930 to deliver them.
Jeff, Deb and I walked in to town after waiting for Hollywood until 1030. David stayed behind to watch the boat and would be there if he arrived. We had learned that when the crab are caught, the claws are cooked and frozen right away. Jeff was a little concerned about paying top dollar for frozen crab but everyone we spoke with told us this was the usual process to insure freshness.
It is an interesting fishery. The crabs are caught and 1 claw taken. The crab is then released back. Claws have to measure 4 inches. The crabs have a defense mechanism whereby they will drop a claw when attacked like a lizard losing its tail. Instead of cutting the claw, piercing it with something sharp elicits this response. The crab is much more likely to survive when the claw is taken in this manner. They will grow a new claw if they survive.
While we were in town, I ducked into a seafood store and asked advice about preparing stone crabs. She asked if our crabs were cooked and frozen and was relieved when I said yes. She suggested we thaw them, and then put them in boiling water for 1 minute to heat them up. Lemon butter, or lemon garlic butter was her dip of choice.
Shortly thereafter, we got a text from David. There had been a visit from Hollywood and there were 5 pounds of stone crabs in our refrigerator. We decided on a remoulade sauce. We looked at recipes. Annie used to make this but I did not have her recipe with me. We bought some cocktail sauce ( I know Annie’s recipe for this but we could not find horseradish which is an essential ingredient.) We made a sort of remoulade from half of the cocktail sauce. We had lemon butter, vinegar (David’s go to), the cocktail sauce and the remoulade. I made Bahamian peas and rice to go with the crabs.
The crab claws were beautiful. While they thawed, I went swimming in the pool. The air was cold but the water was fine. I dried quickly in the wind and sun.
Jeff and Deb brought salad and rum cake. We did not have crab tool so we covered our hammer in a clean towel and Jeff and David took turns cracking shells on a cutting board. Really fun evening. I was glad I had not mopped the floors earlier in the day.
Tomorrow we plan to take the ferry to Hope Town.
