Have you ever picked a crab? If so, you know the
challenge of separating tasty morsels of meat from the rest—gills, shell, and so
forth. When friends gather around a newspaper-covered
picnic table strewn with steamed crabs and grilled corn on the cob (with plenty
of paper towels on hand, and perhaps some ice-cold beer for good measure), crab
picking can be a leisurely and companionable activity. But if you want to serve
crab as a main dish to share with others, procuring enough meat is daunting if
you have to do it yourself.
Enter the crab pickers. For me, they are among the
unsung heroes of my local farmers’ market. I don’t know any of them even by
sight, much less by name, but each time I buy a quart of fresh crab meat—which
is nearly every week in the summer—I bless them. Each time I make crab cakes or
crab salad, I give thanks for the work of their hands.
I suspect that most of the crab pickers do that hard
work because they need a job to put food on their own tables, and to that end,
I hope they are paid a fair wage. I doubt the crab pickers would say they feel
particularly called to that work or
think of it as “ministry.” And yet….
I am thinking especially of the crab pickers today because
friends are coming tomorrow for lunch. We’ll have crab cakes. Because I have
picked enough crabs in my own lifetime to know what is involved in producing
the crab meat we will eat, I feel enormous gratitude for the crab pickers who
make fresh, local crab meat readily available for purchase. I am also grateful
to them because they remind me that there others (at least dozens, probably hundreds
or more) “behind-the-scenes” people—people who are not my friends, my family,
my neighborhood neighbors, or my colleagues—who, simply by showing up to do the
work they do, contribute to my life every day. Theirs is a kind of faithfulness
that often goes unrecognized and uncelebrated.
And so today, when I count my blessing and say my
prayers, I will remember the crab pickers. And today may I too be faithful in
showing up to do my work.
*Angier gives us a recipe for Crab Cakes. She says, “We typically just wing it,
so measurements are a best guess!”
Basic Ritzy Crab Cakes
1 pound fresh crab meat (if
available, the jumbo lump is the best)
1/2 c. mayonnaise (the regular kind
or the kind that is part olive oil)
1/2 c. crushed "Hint of
Salt" Ritz crackers
1 Tbs. spicy mustard
Safflower or extra virgin olive oil
for frying
Mix the first four ingredients
really well until the lumps of crab are shredded and everything sticks
together. (Retaining lumps of crab meat will make the patties fall apart during
cooking). Shape into patties. Heat 3-4 Tbs. oil in skillet medium high (on a
scale of 1-10, try 8). Fry crab cakes to a deep golden brown on each side.
Drain on paper towels. Replenish oil as need during the cooking process--some
will be absorbed.
Makes 5-6 meal-sized crab cakes
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