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Recipe: Sapateira Recheada, Portuguese Stuffed Crab

Name: Sapateira recheada, Portuguese-style stuffed crab
Cuisine: Lisbon
Ingredients: 1 whole, live brown crab or one frozen, pre-boiled crab (approximately 1 kg total)1 hard-boiled egg, shelled and chopped finely; 4 tablespoons chopped mixed pickles; 2 tablespoons mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon gin (optional); 2 teaspoons yellow mustard; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 or 2 grinds of black pepper; 1 teaspoon chopped chives (optional); 1 teaspoon salmon eggs (optional); Thinly-sliced, toasted bread

By Austin Bush

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Recipe: Sapateira Recheada, Portuguese Stuffed Crab

Recipe Information

This recipe represents Portuguese chef Vítor Sobral’s take on an otherwise traditional dish via additions of gin and two non-standard, and optional, garnishes.

Portuguese pickles, which provide the dish with a subtle hit of acidity and a pleasant crunch, generally include a mix of cauliflower, carrot and cucumber.

At Lota da Esquina, sapateira recheada is made with house-made mayonnaise that includes a bit of mustard; here we suggest using store-bought mayonnaise and supplementing it with classic yellow mustard.

The chef serves the dish in a small bowl, but traditionally it’s served in a crab shell.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 whole, live brown crab or one frozen, pre-boiled crab (approximately 1 kg total)

1 hard-boiled egg, shelled and chopped finely
4 tablespoons chopped mixed pickles
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon gin (optional)
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
1 or 2 grinds of black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped chives (optional)
1 teaspoon salmon eggs (optional)
Thinly-sliced, toasted bread

Preparation

Step One

If using live crab, kill the crab humanely. Bring several liters of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the crab, boil for 15 minutes. Remove from water. When cool enough to handle, crack the legs and claws and remove the meat. Open the body and remove the interior. Remove and discard the lungs. Remove and reserve the meat surrounding the inner cartilage.

Step Two

Scrape the fatty bits from the body and shell, chop and retain. A 1kg brown crab should yield around 400g of crab meat and fatty bits. Clean and retain the body shell. Add the crab flesh, fatty bits, egg and pickles to a medium mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Add mayonnaise, gin (if using), mustard, salt and black pepper. Stir to combine.

Step Three

Taste, adjusting seasonings if necessary; the dish should taste rich from the mayonnaise but with the flavor of crab still present, and should taste slightly salty with an occasional and pleasant crunch from the pickles.

Step Four

Scoop the mixture back into the reserved shell (or to a bowl), garnish with the chives and salmon eggs (if using). Serve at room temperature or chilled with toasted bread.

This article was originally published on June 28, 2023

Written & photos by Austin Bush

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