Let me start first by saying I know this sounds a little weird I don’t think many people usually eat stewed crab… at least I don’t think so.
Traditionally this dish is made with whole crab and from what I can remember oh, my family has always used blue crabs to make this. My first memory of this dish, which in Spanish is called Salmorejo de Jueyes, is having it at my aunt’s house at about 2 in the morning after landing from our flight. I know a very strange thing to be eating at 2 in the morning but it is not so strange to have a dish like this or a bowl of steaming hot soup (despite it being a balmy 90° outside
and inside). It is literally the way you are greeted when you coming to someone’s house on the island of Puerto Rico.
When I first had this I was fairly young and very skeptical of the dish but thankfully I had always enjoyed seafood at a young age so I gave it a try and to my surprise it was the most delicious thing I had ever eaten. She served this with a side of fried green plantains, white rice and some beans but, I chose to stick with just the plantains. I started my dipping the plantains into sauce at first to taste but I soon learned that I could scoop heaps of this onto the plantain and eat it as if it were chips and dip. I did so carefully so that I wouldn’t Chomp down on the potential show or leg pieces that were inside the stew. You might be wondering why there were big pieces of crab inside the stew but that’s the other part that made it so special. It was an actual treat to be able to pick up any pieces of the crab legs to try and siphon out not only the liquid from the stew but any crab meat that might be left over. Now, if you could only imagine a probably 7 year old enjoying this meal at 2 a.m. and not requesting anything like some chicken nuggets instead, I don’t think many kids would have had the same reaction.
Like I mentioned above oh, it is so this is made with whole crab but it is just as good if you can only find or want to use lump crab meat like the one from Phillips Seafood. Describe me is usually my go-to for a few regions; one is that I really don’t want to deal with whole crabs and two is that this crab meat is not only easier to find but a bit more on the economical side. Another selling point is that you can make this dish within 20 minutes and you’ll have a delicious meal that you can serve with fried plantains or even over some rice. I hope that this is a dish that you will try and more importantly enjoy. BTW, for more information on the Sofrito base that is used in this dish ,click here. Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know how you like it!
Puerto Rican Stewed Crab/ Salmorejo De Jueyes
Ingredients
- 2 8oz Containers of Crab Meat real crab NOT imitation
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Sofrito see notes
- 2 Tbsp Tomato sauce
- 1 Packet Sazon with Achiote
- 1 3/4 C Water
- salt and pepper to taste
- cilantro as a garnish optional
Instructions
- Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat, pour olive oil into heated pan. Once the oil is hot, not smoking, put the sofrito in and the mix for about one 45 seconds.
- Next, pour in tomato sauce, sazon and crab meat in pan. Add about 1 cup of the water, mix and bring to a light boil then lower heat to low. If needed you can add small amounts of the remaining water, you want the mixture to not be the consistency of a soup but more of a Stew. So the water will always vary.
- Simmer on low heat until stew has thickened a bit, mixing occasionally (about 20 to 25 minutes) Salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat when ready to serve. Garnish with cilantro
- Serve with some fried green plantains (tostones) which you can find in the frozen food section of most grocery stores, if you can't find actual green plantains.