Padstow Seafood School - The crab hangover cure

So, if you read my previous post about our arrival in Padstow, you will also think that after copious amounts of alcohol the night before we were probably not feeling our best the next morning.

You would be correct. So the thought of filleting fish, deveining prawns and getting the beards off mussels was one of the last things we wanted to do when we woke on the morning of cookery school day.

But off we trotted to the famous cookery school to do just that...

There were 13 of us taking part in the seafood course, all ages, genders, backgrounds, home countries. There was a mixed bunch; some with a lot of experience in the kitchen and some with little. We had a chat with the others, enjoying a very welcome tea and coffee while taking in the breathtaking views of the estuary while the tide was out. Obviously I'm not making up these people, I took this picture after everyone had left the area to learn how to kill a crab.... oh dear.

So first things first, how to kill a live crab. Those that know me, know that I am absolutely petrified of crabs. From the diddly ones that scurry away when you go anywhere near them to the Japanese Spider variety, not sure where this irrational fear comes from - I used to go crab fishing when I was a youngster and pick them up.

The way to conquer a fear and cure a hangover all in one swoop... pick up a live one - That is one nervous smile:

Ok, now is the time to tell you that this little crab was half asleep by the time I got my mitts on it, it had been chilling in the fridge which makes it less snippy.

However after the time it took me to pick it up and then take pictures, our little crabby was coming back to life! Kate had to pull back the little flap on the underneath of the crab and the stick the screwdriver type instrument in to stun the poor little bugger but he wasn't going to take it so easily, grabbing on to the tool with its pincers.

'No, don't - I've got a wife and kids' Sorry Mr Crab.

He then goes in to a very salty pot of hot water. When the water boils, you count down for ten minutes and the crab is ready. Put him in a handstand position to cool down before you start the nitty gritty part.

So it's quite hard to explain how to dismantle a crab and get out all the delicious meat but basically you pull all the legs off and get all the lovely white meat from them and you force the 'pouch' from the shell to reveal a lot of brown meat but there's also pockets of white meat that you can force out in there too. It certainly takes a while to do, but with two of us it was a lot quicker.

Oh yes, you must wear glove to do this so that the little spines from the legs don't irritate your skin and also for hygiene purposes with the unpasteurised meat.

Look what a happy team we are, picking away at all the nooks and crevices of the crab.

To go with the crab we made a light lemongrass dressing, mixing together a stalk of lemongrass (outer leaves removed) and the core finely chopped, zest and juice of a lime, two tablespoons fish sauce, 150ml water, one green chilli (seeded and finely chopped) 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar and a tablespoon chopped coriander.

Et voila, served with a crisp French Sauvignon...

Up next from the school of fish dreams, Japanese crab... not really! Japanese fishcakes, made with mackerel, ginger and spring onion.