Sapateira Recheada

Crab

• 2 cooked brown crabs (sapateira), ~800 g–1 kg each

Dressing

• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 eggs, hard-boiled; one grated into the mix, one chopped to finish
• 2 gherkins, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp pickled onion, finely chopped
• 20 ml port (or whisky)
• 0 a few drops piri-piri
• 50 g fine breadcrumbs, only to tighten, if needed(optional)
• 0.5 lemon, juice
• 0 to taste salt and white pepper

To serve

• 0 to serve torradas (toast), hot
• 0 to serve lemon wedges

Cook and pick the crab

1. 1

   Start from 2 cooked brown crabs (~800 g–1 kg each). If cooking them yourself, drop them into heavily salted water (35 g salt per litre — sea strength) and simmer ~15 min per kg, then cool completely. Twist off the legs and claws, crack them, and pick every scrap of white meat into one bowl, keeping it in recognisable flakes.

   20m

   Dressing Brown Crab (Sapateira Recheada)
2. 2

   Open the body. Lift out and discard the feathery gills ("dead man's fingers") and the small stomach sac behind the eyes. Scrape all the soft brown meat into a second bowl.

   8m

   Leave either the gills or the stomach sac in and you get an off, bitter note no seasoning fixes.

Dress and fill

1. 3

   Mash the brown meat with 1 tbsp Dijon, 2 tbsp mayonnaise, 1 finely grated hard-boiled egg, the 2 chopped gherkins, 1 tbsp pickled onion and a 20 ml splash of port. Add a few drops of piri-piri. Only if it's genuinely sloppy, tighten with up to 50 g fine breadcrumbs.

   6m

   Tip: The heat and acid are what stop the richness from cloying; don't over-do the breadcrumbs or you mute the crab into paste.

2. 4

   Fold in most of the picked white meat, keeping a little back. Sharpen with the juice of ½ lemon and season with salt and white pepper — push the lemon and salt until the crab flavour snaps into focus.

   3m
3. 5

   Spoon the mixture back into the cleaned, scrubbed top shells, crown with the reserved white flakes and the second egg, chopped, and chill at least 30 min so the flavours set. Serve cold with hot torradas and lemon.

   30m