中文菜谱：秋风起，吃螃蟹：清蒸蓝蟹

We love blue crabs too, as much as people in Louisiana and Maryland if no more. The most popular way to cook blue crabs in United States is to boil them with spices, potatoes, and other seafood. When done, buckets of crabs and seafood are unloaded onto a table in front of customers. All you have to do is to crack them open and eat!

But the way we eat them is slightly different from American people. We value and enjoy the crab roe more than crab meat itself. Most of time, only female crabs are among best sellers when it comes to seafood.

I bring back 4 to 5 pounds of female blue crabs from Asian grocery store. The female ones are not as easy to find as the male ones. I always stick to female ones because of their better taste and flavors, especially the ones with crab roe inside.

Use a small brush to thoroughly clean the crabs under running water.

Set aside the cleaned crabs.

Fill a large pot with water. Heat over high heat until water boils. Add a steamer basket. And then add crabs to the pot, belly side up.

Remember to pick energetic crabs like these. They have the best taste.

Cover with lid and continue to cook over high heat for 10 minutes.

Now it is done!

Crack one open. You can see the beautifully golden crab roe.

The crab roe has a mild and delicate taste. It is sweet and slightly savory, fatty and flavorful. The texture is mildly grainy and tastes a lot like across caviar and hardboiled egg yolk.

The most traditional dipping sauce for crabs in China is made with rice vinegar and finely shredded ginger roots.