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ByMikedeGive features@santacruzsentinel. com It's not every day that something with 10 legs ends up on your dinner plate, but it's been even rarer this year. The open- ing of crab season — delayed fourmonthsinCaliforniafor healthconcerns—hasfinally clawed its way into being. For those who look for- ward to tiny forks mingling with regular flatware on the table, the sight and smell of fresh Dungeness crab on the wharf, at the harbor and in grocery stores is melting hearts — like butter and gar- lic in a dipping bowl. "They're coming in be- tween a pound-and-a-half to two pounds, sometimes a little bit bigger," said Steve Zizzo, executive chef at Stag- naor Bros. on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. "It's been awhile — the season has been delayed so long — but the crabs are back." What caused the de- lay were elevated levels of domoic acid, a naturally oc- curringtoxinproducedbyal- gae—whichhadagreatyear because of unusually warm temperatures in the Pacific. Shellfish aren't affected by the toxin, but readily accu- mulate it — and that's bad news for humans who like to eat them. Local crabs were declared safe to eat as early as Febru- ary, but state officials kept the season shut down un- til crab north of Point Reyes were declared safe as well. "We're allowed to fish wide open," said Hans Have- man, owner of H&H Fresh Fish at the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor. "They're beau- tiful, healthy, good-eating crabs. They're really heavy, and there's lots of meat in the shell." Haveman, who sells crab to both restaurants and the public at his store beneath Johnny's Harborside res- taurant, says big crab-sell- ing occasions like Thanks- giving, Christmas and Chi- nese New Year were missed this season. But so far, it looks like people are buy- ing at the usual clip. Zizzo reports the same. "We have it fresh, and we're selling a lot of it," Zizzo said. "I thought sales might be a little slow ... but that's not been the case. We're sell- ing as much as we can get, pretty much." Elizabeth Bourget, a per- sonal chef based in Santa Cruz(gourmetbourget.com), has been known to license up, take off on a friend's boat and drop a few crab pots into the bay. It makes for a nice day, she said. Mark the traps with GPS, head back to shore for a bite to eat and then return to see what you've caught. "I love it. It's a real tender, meaty sort of texture, dif- ferent than other shellfish," said Bourget. "You can use it in crab cakes — it has the ability to bind better. It has a different mouth feel than regular white fish, and I like that versatility." There's not much skill in pickingoutfreshcrabtotake home, said Zizzo. "As fresh as can be, that would be the trick," he said. "If you want the flavor, I think sometimes the big- ger the crab, the sweeter the meat." Crab is selling for $6 to $8 a pound. A helpful butcher will crack, clean and section the crab, saving home chefs a lot of the labor. TheBasic Bringwatertoafullboil. Add salt and a squeeze of lemon to the water. Add crabs to the pot for 15- 20, depending on size. Serve with melted butter and garlic. CrabBorderlais INGREDIENTS 1whole cooked crab (sec- tioned and cracked) 1T fresh chopped garlic 2T unsalted butter 2T fresh chopped parsley 1tsp. lemon juice ½ cup clam juice 1cup Bordelaise, or your favorite white wine STEPS In a medium saute pan, add butter and garlic. Cook one minute, then add remaining ingredients. Simmer for about 5minutes. Place crab in a bowl and pour sauce on top. — STEVE ZIZZO, EXECUTIVE CHEF, STAGNARO BROS. Broiled crab INGREDIENTS, PER SERVING 1fresh Dungeness crab Chopped garlic, to taste Pad of butter STEPS Parboil crab for one minute If you haven't bought them cleaned and cracked, now's the time Place crab meat back into empty, upside-down shell Place butter and garlic on top Place in broiler for 10min- utes — STEVE HAVEMAN, H&H FRESH FISH Self-CrustingCrab SpinachQuiche Servings:8 INGREDIENTS 3eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 cup flour, self-rising 11/4 cups milk 1onion, finely chopped 1T olive oil 1cup cheddar cheese, grated 2T parsley, fresh, chopped salt and pepper 1/2 cup(s) corn, fresh 1zucchini, sliced 4asparagus spears, trimmed 1small spinach bunch, washed and dried 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced lengthways 1/3 lb. crabmeat, lump STEPS Preheat oven to 350degrees. Line 9-inch baking dish with parchment paper or butter and flour. Place the eggs, flour, milk, onion, oil, cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and crab into a large bowl and mix to combine. Pour mixture into the pan. Add the corn, zucchini, bell pepper, asparagus and spin- ach and press them down with a fork. The bright colors of these vegetables will give the quiche an attractive ap- pearance. Place the quiche in the hot oven and cook until the filling sets and the crust is golden brown, about 50minutes. — ELIZABETH BOURGET, GOURMET TO GO DELAYED SEASON Dungenessisbacka erlongwait DAN COYRO — SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL Terra Dodd shows off one of the live crabs at H&H Fresh Fish at the Santa Cruz Harbor. For a brewer, what fra- grant, aromatic ingredient could be better than the hop? Hop ex- tract, of course. Many brew- ers rely on this con- densed, am- ber, ex- tremely bit- ter paste to add flavor to their beer without the bulky mess involved in using whole flower hops or hop pellets. It sounds like a shortcut, and short- cuts in our slow food-lov- ing culture have a repu- tation for being inferior. But whole hops, which may seem like the purest farm-to-bottle form of the beer industry's favorite flower, can clog machin- ery and equipment. They also soak up liquids like a sponge, reducing the amount of beer that winds up in the bottle. They can even bring off-flavors to the beer. In fact, canned hop ex- tract can actually help brewers make better beer. Lagunitas Brewing Co. supplements its recipes with hop extract. So does Russian River, famed for its IPAs like Pliny the El- der and Pliny the Younger. Track 7 Brewing Co. in Sacramento, Stone in San Diego and Sierra Nevada in Chico also use some amount of extract. The goopy hop extract most commonly used in brewing is made with the help of carbon diox- ide. The gas is injected in its extremely cold liquid form into a steel chamber filled with hop pellets. The chamber is warmed, and as the CO2 shifts from liq- uid to gas — boils, that is — it draws the resins, ac- ids and oils from the plant material. All this good stuff drips to the bottom of the chamber as a pasty goo that looks — but definitely doesn't taste — like honey. It is put into cans and will keep on the shelf for years. Tony Magee, founder of Lagunitas, says fresh whole flower hops "are the purest expression of the plant." However, a prob- lem with whole flower hops is their surface area, he explains. Unless stored in a tank of inert gas, a great deal of the flower, which looks like a tiny green pinecone, is in con- stant contact with the air. "It's vegetable matter, and like a head of lettuce, if you expose it to the air, it oxidizes," Magee tells me. That produces off-fla- vors. The beer industry's so- lution is to press whole hop flowers into dried pel- lets. This vastly reduces the surface area of the hop material, increases storage life, and preserves freshness. "From the brewer's standpoint, the hop pellet is an improvement," Ma- gee says. But even pellets aren't perfect. Use too many and you can begin to get funky smells in the beer. That's because sulfur, Ma- gee explains, is found at low levels in hops. Thus, if you want to make a bit- ter IPA and you use only hop pellets or whole cone hops, the sulfur presence can begin to magnify. Ma- gee says this essence hits the nose of experienced beer drinkers as a sub- tle "earthy" scent. It's a faint essence. Still, a hop- head might find the dis- tant aroma of Yellowstone National Park in a favorite IPA a little bit annoying. Again, the industry has a solution: By reducing dried hop pellets into ex- tract and eliminating the vegetable matter, that sul- furic element is also left behind. Magee says he first dab- bled with CO2 hop extract in 2003, when he added some of the paste to a batch of Maximus dou- ble IPA. "I loved the improve- ment right away," Magee says. Vinnie Cilurzo, owner of Russian River Brewing Co., calls himself "a big proponent" of CO2 hop ex- tract, mainly as a bitter- ing component but also for adding some flavor. He says he first began using extract in the late 1990s. "Early on I didn't know what the consumer would think so I didn't talk about it," Cilurzo recalls via an email exchange. Eventually, though, he went public. "The advantages [of ex- tract] are that you add a lot less hop matter to the kettle for bitterness and thus you get better yields," Cilurzo writes. Cilurzo also seconds what Magee says, that us- ing hop extract can pro- duce "a cleaner overall flavor" by cutting back on green matter. Beer, as Magee tells me, is a means of concentrating flavors, and if preserved hop extract is one way to purify that concentration, then bring on the can opener. Alastair Bland's Through the Hopvine runs every week in Zest. Contact him at allybland79@gmail. THROUGH THE HOPVINE When the whole hop isn't the whole deal By Brigitte Moran and Shannon Lovelace-White Agricultural Institute of Marin If you have ever picked up a baby artichoke at the farmers market and tried to envision yourself scraping the little leaves against your teeth or re- moving the fuzzy hairs from the button-sized heart with the tiniest of spoons, fear not! Baby ar- tichokes don't require such tender handling. In fact, they are entirely ed- ible once you remove the outermost leaves. Given how antioxidant- rich artichokes are, the ease of preparation may just inspire you to eat more of them. As cited in a 2006 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article, artichokes have a higher antioxidant rating than blueberries, chocolate, cabbage, wine or coffee. Artichokes are also packed with fiber, vitamins and folic acid. Looking for inspira- tion for how to prepare these little gems? Fortu- nately, artichokes are both delicious and easy to en- joy any number of ways: sautéed, grilled, stuffed or roasted. For more inspira- tion, take a trip to Glen El- len Star in Sonoma County this weekend and or- der the special, red wine- braised veal osso bucco, with cauliflower-white bean puree, peas, bacon, rhubarb and fried arti- chokes. Though 80 percent of Glen Ellen Star's menu is cooked in its wood oven, head chef and owner Ari Weiswasser prefers to fry the baby artichokes. Fry- ing achieves just the right mix of texture (crispy) and flavor (the natural sweet- ness of the artichoke). As a side or an appe- tizer, Weiswasser suggests serving fried artichokes with a simple home- made aioli. Weiswasser, who shops Marin's Thurs- day and Sunday markets weekly, buys his baby ar- tichokes from Fully Belly Farms, and recommends the smaller, apricot-sized artichokes for the best fla- vor. The Farmers Market Beet is provided by the Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM) and runs every Wednesday in the Zest section. Each week features a seasonal ingredient and recipe from a local chef/ restaurant. Contact AIM at 415-472-6100. FARMERS MARKET BEET Baby artichokes don't need tender handling Fried baby artichokes Baby artichokes Canola or vegetable oil Sea salt Wash artichokes and pat dry. Remove outer leaves until pale green leaves are exposed. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the stem. Trim ¼ inch from bottom of stem and tips of remaining leaves. Slice artichokes in half. Dunk the halves in a bowl of water and lemon juice to prevent oxidization. Remove halves and let dry on paper towels. Once dry, heat 2inches of oil in a medium saucepan to 350degrees (medium to medium-high de- pending on the stove). The oil will be ready when droplets of water "dance" on the surface. When oil is ready, drop in the artichokes and fry for approximately 2minutes or until a golden brown color is achieved. Using a slotted or mesh spoon, remove the arti- chokes and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt (if using). Serve warm. RECIPE Alastair Bland 734MainStreet 530-690-2477 11am-9pm Mon.-Thur. 11am - 10pm Fri. & Sat. 11am-8pm Sun. 9 CRAFT BEERS ON TAP Pizza Restaurant 365-7194 or 365-4322 OPEN 7 DAYS 6am-10pm 8080 AIRPORT ROAD Your full service: Meat Department, Deli & Groceries www.kentsmeats.com On-site HARVESTING CUTTING & CRYOVACING FOOD » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, April 20, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B4