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Slow Cooker Crab Aglio E Olio
Ingredients
Method
- Combine crabs, olive oil, garlic, red chili flakes, and bay leaf in slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 5-6 hours.
- Take cooked crabs out of the pot and toss in pasta.
- Serve crab pieces over pasta.
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To be honest, while many do love crabs, I personally don't crave for it that much. Aside from being much more of a meat fan, I just don't find its flavor too rewarding for all the hassle I have to go through trying to get to its meat. Again, personal preference.
What if I can extract that flavor and get it to something I can readily put in my mouth. . . pasta, let' say. Well, that would be ideal. Actually, that is what happens whenever I prepare this dish for family and friends. They have all the crab to themselves while I enjoy my crab-infused aglio e olio.
Let's start with the best crabs in the market. One easy way to make sure they're good – get them live.
Once you get them home, it would be best to cook them right away. Though you can store them covered with a damp piece of cloth in your refrigerator, crab in captivity tends to starve itself to death, losing all that rich crab fat in the process.
So you're cooking your crabs now? Don't get them straight into a pot of boiling water yet. Aside from not being a humane way of working with them, getting live crabs into heat while they're perfectly active would get them into a sort of ‘suicidal' state – they'll try to shed all of their legs off, and that won't look pretty at all on a plate.
There are several ways of humanely getting them ready for cooking. Here are a few:
For one, you can put them in the freezer for 20-30 minutes to get them into a somewhat state of trance before dropping them in a pot of boiling water.
Or you can let them drown in a bowl of fresh water.
For me, here's the best approach:
Start by getting the crab upside down onto a cutting board. Pull that apron by its rear off. Stab a knife into the gap in between its top shell and its body all the way to the front end. That should instantly get the job done. On top of being the most merciful way of killing the crab, this method means I don't have to wait an additional 20-30 minutes.
Then, peel the top shell off and remove the crab's gills.
Finally, cut the body into halves or quarters and slightly crack the claws with a meat mallet. Doing so will expose more of the crab's meat to the flavors we'll be putting into the cooking sauce. 
Now they're ready to cook. Get the olive oil, garlic, red chili flakes, bay leaves and chopped crabs into the slow cooker, toss them together nicely, and leave them there for 5-6 hours on low. That would just be enough time to get the crabs perfectly done with all those flavors infused through.
You'll end up with a crab-infused aglio e olio sauce in your pot. Take the crabs out and toss some pre-cooked pasta in. I find thinner-stranded pasta such as Angel Hair perfect here as it absorbs much more of that sauce.
Slow Cooker Crab Aglio E Olio
Ingredients
Method
- Combine crabs, olive oil, garlic, red chili flakes, and bay leaf in slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 5-6 hours.
- Take cooked crabs out of the pot and toss in pasta.
- Serve crab pieces over pasta.
Slow Cooker Split Pea and Smoked Sausage Soup
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