Serves 4
4 medium hen crabs
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Plus lemon wedges
To serve
Mayonnaise
4 hard-boiled eggs
4 teaspoons chopped parsley
- Bring a pan of heavily salted water to the boil — about 200g sea salt to each litre of water.
- Weigh the crabs and boil for 1 minute per 100g.
- Have a bowl of iced water ready, and when you take the pan off the heat, drop the crabs into the iced water to prevent them cooking any more.
- Crack and pick the fresh crab meat from the shell, making sure there are no little pieces of shell amongst the meat.
- Mix the lemon juice and a tablespoon of mayonnaise into the strained brown meat. Scrub the crab shells and dry thoroughly.
- Separate the egg yolks from the whites and grate or chop them finely. Season each with salt and pepper.
- Fill the sides of the crab shells with the white meat, leaving a space in the middle for the brown. Where the two meet, sprinkle a line of egg yolk, on one side, and egg white, on the other. Arrange a line of chopped parsley on top of the brown meat in the centre of the crab.
- Serve with more fresh mayonnaise and lemon wedges on the side.