King Crab Legs

Ahhh...Alaskan King Crab Legs.  If I had to pick a meal that I feel is truly extravagant in both taste and wallet, but completely worth every penny, it would be this.  I would eat it everyday if I could.  The taste is unlike any other seafood I have ever tasted.  It is remarkable sweet and tender, and because of the size of these suckers, the pieces of meat you get are insanely large.

I'm sure most of you have heard of or seen Deadliest Catch. Yup, that little guy above was caught using Deadliest Catch methods.  Insane, right? But there's a reason people are out there doing some majorly badass things on a small(ish) boat in the middle of the Bering Sea, in the middle of winter (as if it would be any better in the summer...pfft), cause it's so freaking amazing tasting.

So where do you get these amazing legs from the sea? A store of course.  Unless you live in Western Alaska and know someone who can get you some themselves.  I guess you can order them online also, but I can't even imagine what kind of price you'd pay then.  Growing up, my parents would splurge on special occasions and pick up a few pounds from Costco.  Yup. Costco.  Every month or so they would have a special display of King Crab Legs, lobster, and some other shellfish.

Like with most seafood, unless you are buying LIVE, the crab legs have been frozen previously.  They have also very likely been previously cooked, which is totally fine.  I've actually only bought mine in bulk, where you pick out your individual legs.  I would LOVE to get a live one at some point, but that's committing to a lot of crab there, probably at least 10 lbs of crabbyness.  I've also never bought a package of crab legs, so I can attest those taste exactly the same. I'd imagine pretty close, I mean, it's all cooked and frozen anyway.  I still like picking out exactly which ones I'm going to buy.

Imagine my surprise when I found these while browsing through the commissary a few weeks ago.  Not your typical commissary find that's for sure.  And only $12.99 a pound!!!  Yeah, I know that doesn't sound cheap, but this isn't something you're eating every week though, although I wish I could. I'd love to make some King Crab Benedict for breakfast one day  ....mmmm... dreamy! Anyway, commissary, $12.99, King Crab Legs, awesome! There was a huge bin filled with ice and legs, and you just grabbed whichever ones you wanted, and threw them in a bag.  They also had fresh shrimp for sale in another bin next to it for $4.20/lb (heads still on).  I grabbed a bunch of those too.  Hell, it's not very often I find food like this at the commissary, and for these prices, I'm taking full advantage.

While I was scooping the rest of our food budget for the month crab into 2 small plastic bags, two women walked up behind me and started making all these gagging sounds saying how disgusting it was pointing at crab legs and shrimp heads.  What? You're grossed out because it's not processed and shrink wrapped with microwave instructions on it?  First, that's pretty fucking disgusting in itself that I'm buying food and you're standing behind me pretending to vomit.  Second, you are totally missing out one of the tastiest foods you will ever eat in your life, and for one of the cheapest prices you'll ever get it at.  Jesus, I don't go over to your shopping cart and gag at your lean cuisine.  Maybe I should though.  I was waaay to busy oogling over my King Crab Legs for that nonsense and carried on my merry little way through the store.

These are seriously one of the easiest things to ever cook. I steamed 3 legs for about 6 minutes, and they were perfect.  I find it's much easier to eat if you whack each leg with a heavy knife/mallet to start the cracking process.  And what do you serve with them? Anything or nothing.  I made some pearl couscous, but a hunk of bread and a light salad would be perfect as well.  And please don't even bother with melted butter...it really doesn't need it. Trust me.

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