Oysters on the Beach

A nice little family vacation over to the Olympic peninsula yielded a lot of foraging potential!

But the nice highlight of the trip was a stop by a small park on the way home up the Hood Canal.  Oyster shells covered the beach, individual shells and large clumps where multiple oysters had spurred off of previous shells.  It was a moderately low tide, but you could see out in the water a couple feet lower large piles of oysters ready for harvest!  At the elevation we were at, there were still quite a few good ones on the beach. 

This was definitely an example of bad preparation.  I had lost my knife early in the trip, and did not have any type of container to carry oysters home.  Luckily, Carter found me a sharp rock, which I used to pry open a couple of shells and slurp down right there on the shore.  Perfect!

Crab For New Years

It is great to live in the Northwest!  There is always something to do outside that I can enjoy with my boys.

On New Years Eve, we decided to take advantage of the last day of crabbing season and throw a pot in from one of the local docks.  It was a very nice day, which made this an even better idea!  I walked out on the dock and threw the pot into the water while Tracy and the boys played on the beach.  We had a great time watching a crew take their crabbing boat out of the water for the winter - a six man operation that took them over an hour to accomplish and involved the realization that their truck was too small.

We checked the pot - a couple starfish and a female dungeness that we threw back.  We went to an early lunch at the local pizza joint and checked again - more starfish!  REALLY big sunburst starfish, all purple and yellow and slimy with thousands of tentacles trying to get my chicken out of the pot! Carter and Dylan thought this was the greatest catch in the world, letting the little suction tentacles wrap around their fingers before we threw the starfish back into the water.

One last soak while we went home and worked on the garden for a bit, then Carter and I went back out to pull the crab pot.  At the end of the dock, Carter got into a conversation with an older gentleman who was also pulling his pots, using his loud four-year-old voice, I could distinctly hear his 1/2 of the conversation as I pulled up a pot of starfish with a last female dungeness.
"We probably only have starfish in our pot, did you catch anything?"
"No, we aren't that good at crabbing, but we like catching starfish."
"Well, my brother is at home sleeping, so he will probably be sad to miss the starfish, but I think he will be OK"
After Carter helped me throw back our unfortunate catch, the older guy came over with a bucket and asked if we wanted his red rock crabs - he had caught four plus some dungeness and "thought Carter needed to bring something home to his brother"

Crab identification Link:   Washington Crab Identification

So after a day of poking around with a crab pot, we came home with four red rock crabs, the other other crab of puget sound!

We got home and boiled all four in a nice large pot, then Carter and I sat and ate one together.  Dylan even tried a bite, pretty brave for a two-year-old!

After the kids went to bed, I processed the rest of the crabs getting out all the meat.  The legs don't have much meat on the red rock crabs, but I am stubborn and still got all everything out.  Crab shells and guts went to the compost bin.  More food for the worms?  Will they eat crab shells?  To be determined...

With company coming over the next day, I looked up a crab salad recipe - this definitely worked and was a hit with everybody!
Crab Green Salad with Avacado
Ingredients:

·         2 cups cooked cooled crab meat, flaked

·         1 cup diced celery

·         1/4 cup chopped green or red bell pepper

·         1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

·         1/4 teaspoon pepper

·         1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

·         3 tablespoons mayonnaise

·         mixed salad greens

·         6 avocado wedges, optional

Preparation:

Mix crab meat with diced celery, chopped bell pepper, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and mayonnaise. Serve over mixed greens with a slice of avocado, if desired.

Till next crab season!

Crabbingi Just Love Crabbing Chefs apron (Google Affiliate Ad)

Mussel Soup

After an errand that took me to the north end of Whidbey Island, I could not resist the temptation of stopping at Penn Cove to grab a few mussels for dinner. 

Easy hike across the sand dune from the north access point to the mussel beds:

Grab a dozen or more mussels off of the rocks and on my way!

Always check to ensure you can safely harvest before collecting shellfish:  DOH Website for Penn Cove

I love cioppino but never have time to make this delicacy at home, instead I have developed this quick and easy mussel soup.  Tracy does not eat mussels, and usually the boys have refused Dad's strange foods, but today Carter ate some of the mussels through he would not try the soup.  The soup was excellent - roasted garlic, rosemary, tomato, and mussels make an excellent taste combination that I need to try in other dishes.

Tomato, Garlic, and Rosemary Mussel Soup

Recipe:  Mussel Soup - two servings

1 Tablespoon of Butter
3 Cloves of Baked Garlic - Baked a head of Russian Red Garlic the night before
1 Can Tomato Soup (10.75 oz)
2 Cans Water
2 Sprigs Rosemary
15 Fresh Mussels

In a small pot, melt butter.  Add baked garlic.  Maybe chopped garlic would work?  But baked garlic is soft and melt into the sauce so that it disappears, only to resurface on the taste buds.  Brown garlic and butter.

Add can of tomato soup and two cans full of water, bring to boil.

Add two sprigs of rosemary - fresh or dried both seem to work well. 

Add mussels to boiling soup, cover for 3-5 minutes until all shells are open and cooked.  If any shells do not open, they are bad and should not be eaten.

Fish out rosemary, serve in bowls with a fork and spoon and a secondary location for the shells.

Enjoy!