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As we grapple with red signal crayfish and grey squirrels from the USA….it’s funny to read that the Eastern seaboard of America is facing an invasion of green shore crabs. It seems boats and their ballast tanks are responsible…and now our little shore crabs are upsetting their shellfish industry.! One approach to tackle it is trying to encourage people in the US to eat them! Trouble is it would take all day to extract a thimble of crabmeat! …but it is nice! The other approach is to make a’broth’ as they call it. I prefer ..bisque. This I can recommend…. go crabbing and don’t put them back….boil for a few mins in seawater…they go bright red. Crunch them up / blitz….and cook for a while with onion, carrot, celery, wine and a tin of tomato. a bit more blitzing and pass through a sieve reduce a bit…a splash of cream and serve with crusty bread. Yum!

This was an old Rick Stein recipe. Many years ago I had a house on the river at Christchurch. One summer day I sent my bored young teenage sons off in the dinghy to get me ten shore crabs to make a crab bisque, incentivised by a 10p per crab reward (pre three decades of inflation) they were gone much longer than expected…….and I was beginning to get anxious……when they both returned safely with 440 shore crabs! but the soup was rich and plentiful, if a bit more expensive than expected.

Thank you Martin & Tony for a great day out. Not many fish and only a strap conger for me but a great day afloat in glorious sunshine. Had to nip in for a quick beer at the club house after the wash down. I'll try to knock a short video together for the youtube channel over the next few days. And I'll get the beers next time. 👍