Maryland Crab Soup

It was shitty out today -- cold & rainy -- a perfect day for some soup. In maryland, we like crabs. If you've ever had fresh steamed crabs spiced with Old Bay, you understand why we're nuts about em.

I went down to the wharf, haggled with the vietnamese dude i always buy crabs from and got me about half a dozen. I paid my ten dolla, went home and got to cookin. MD crab soup is really easy & really good. The key is making your own stock. To sum it up:


Stock: Pick the crabs, saving both the meat & the shells. Put the meat in the fridge for later. Discard the mustard, lungs, etc. Combine all the picked shells, 3 cups of dry white wine, a sliced lemon, 6 cloves of garlic, 2 chopped medium onions, 4 chopped celery stalks, 10 peppercorns, some bay leaves, some dried thyme & about a gallon of water. Boil-to-a-simmer routine....simmer for about 90 minutes or so, or until it reduces by half. Make sure and skim the scum also.


Soup: Saute 1 medium onion, 1 green bell pepper, 3 celery stalks, 1 large russet potato (all diced) . After about 10 minutes, throw in a can of diced tomatoes, some cooked white beans, & a cup of corn. Then laddle in about 5 cups of stock, add your crab meat, about two tbsp of old bay and then simmer for 1o minutes. Done.