Tempura Soft-Shell Crab

~SarahBeth~'s Note:

From Coastal Living. Meant to be served with crab dipping sauce and asian slaw. I do not use whole crabs, I make this in a kind of "crab cake" like patty by just using lump crab meat and battering that and then frying. But if you do this, make sure you fry the meat for less time than the crabs. I also cut this down, the only tricky part is the egg yolk. I just save the white, and then use what I estimate to be 1/4 of the egg yolk, then scramble the remainder to give to my dogs, or course you could throw it away too! :D I also often leave out the asian pear. If you decide to make the trio, make the slaw first since it has to chill 2 hours.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4

Yield: 8.0 crabs

• vegetable oil , enough to fry your amount of crab with
• 1 ½ cups cake flour or 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon sea salt or ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 ¼ cups soda water
• 8 jumbo soft-shell crabs , dressed
• toasted sesame seeds , to garnish

Directions:

1. Pour oil to a depth of 1 inch into a large Dutch oven, and heat to 350°.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt.
3. Stir yolk into soda water in a 2-cup measure until blended; pour over flour mixture, and, using a large fork, gently combine (the batter should remain slightly lumpy and should have the consistency of heavy cream).
4. Dip 2 crabs into batter, letting excess batter drip back into bowl, and carefully slip into the hot oil, top-side down. Fry 1 1/2 minutes per side, until golden brown and crisp. Drain on paper towels, then transfer to a baking sheet, and keep warm in a 200° oven. Repeat with remaining oil and crabs.
5. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve with Asian Slaw and Crab Dipping Sauce.