Crab recipes to switch up weekday meals

As I wrote in my latest column, for me, the feeling of spring (and now early summer) is brought about by eating crab more than any baby green vegetable. At restaurants in L.A., crab exists, of course, but you don’t see it proliferating on menus like it used to when old-school French spots ruled and loved to dress the seafood in mayonnaise and serve it as a mound or in a flat disk.

Crab has an old-school charm about it, even if it isn’t the chic ingredient of the moment, as it was decades ago. Nowadays, eating crab in seafood boils or picked from claws at seafood bars is the norm, while crab salads are rarely seen — part of this is also because crab is expensive to pick and prepare, and most people would rather bet on less fickle seafood or meat. When I’m looking for inspiration, though, I often return to the familiar tastes of years ago to see what worked about a particular dish or ingredient and revive those good points about it.

For crab, its richness was often piled on with more rich sauces, or it was forgotten in the wake of more fashionable crudos and ceviches that used scallops, tuna or kampachi. So, for my latest recipe, I dressed up crab in a tart vinaigrette to lift its heavy reputation and give it lots of crunch and freshness on a sandwich with lettuce, sugar snap peas and shallots. It’s a great way to indulge during lunchtime on a Wednesday.

Crab also makes a fantastic fried cake, of course, and these Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes are a delicious iteration. Bound with egg and a little mayonnaise, they’re spiced with a Louisiana-style blackening mix of paprika, oregano and cayenne and served hot with a Creole mustard sauce.

My Sesame Cold Noodles With Crab And Crunchy Vegetables is another one of my favorite recipes for showcasing crab. Its richness and freshness is complemented by the toasted sesame-paste sauce and lots of bright crunchy veggies like shredded napa cabbage, cucumbers and scallions.

And for a simpler dish, I love this Crab Salad With Cucumber, the lean juiciness of the cucumber balancing perfectly the robust crab meat dressed in a tart lemon vinaigrette. I love to pile it high in a bowl and scoop into it with little gem lettuce leaves, thinly sliced carrots or even tortilla chips.

Spring Crab Sandwich

A lemon-and-garlic vinaigrette binds together fresh crab meat served as a cool filling between two warm, buttered brioche buns. Sugar snap peas, gherkins and Castelvetrano olives add plenty of crunch and spring vibrancy to the rich filling too.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 20 minutes.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes

Generous in size and with only a thin coating of crisp breadcrumbs, there’s one quarter-pound of lump crab meat in each cake. They’re perfect for a dinner party, and the cakes and sauce can be made ahead of time, then finished shortly before serving.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 1/2 hours.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Sesame Cold Noodles With Crab And Crunchy Vegetables

Chinese sesame paste, made with roasted and ground sesame seeds, is essential for this bright and crunchy noodle salad. You can also use udon, soba or any other dried noodle you prefer here too.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 45 minutes.

(Leslie Grow / For The Times)

Crab Salad With Cucumber

The light sweetness of cucumbers plays well with lightly sweet crab in this salad, tossed with herbs and shallots and a little lemon juice. The thin slices of cucumber contrast nicely with the lumps of crab, but you can also cut the cucumbers into a small dice to make a crunchier version of the salad.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour.

(Eric Boyd / Los Angeles Times)