Depression recipes: Bahamian Land Crab Soup with Beer Bread

Our new category, "depression recipes" is along the same lines as our photo contest, "Krome Gold" in which readers were encouraged to email photos from the housing crash, in recognition of the Krome Gold partners, pushing for zoning changes outside the Urban Development Boundary for more rock mines and more platted subdivisions in far west Dade. So we move on to the kitchen in respect to humor; the best tonic to confront the draining of personal treasuries and the wealth of a nation.

Land crabs are, like iguanas, a cheap source of protein. Experts caution, don't eat the gall of the crab. It has a bitter taste, like the sensation of Wall Street purloining your liquid assets. Here's a recipe from the Bahamas; cash poor and land crab rich. You can find land crabs anywhere along the mangrove shoreline, or what's left of it, in Miami. Down at Matheson Park for instance. I recommend setting a flashlight at night near their holes. Wear socks on your hands when they come out and grab them from behind. Put them in a bucket where they will clack and foam until you throw them in a pot of boiling water. As to the bread, instead of crying your blues into a beer, think of eating your beer with land crab soup. Click on "read more".

Bahamian Crab Soup

6 white land crabs, washed
1/4 pound salt pork or 2 tsp. bacon fat or oil
1 large sliced onion
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 Tbsp. flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. thyme
3 Tbsp. rice, uncooked
Vegetables as desired
Remove back (top) shell from body of crab. Remove fat from back shell, being careful not to break the bitter gall. Discard gall and back shells. Remove fat from body shell, if any. Save fat & body shells and set aside. In coup pot fry out salt pork or heat bacon fat or oil; add onion, tomato paste, flour & seasonings. Cook, stirring constantly, until onions are golden brown. Crack body shells and add with claws and crab fat to cooking pot; cook and stir 1 minute. Add 2 quarts boiling water and rice; simmer 2 hours. Vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and whatever you have may be added. Serve hot.

BEER BREAD

3 cups Self Rising Flour

1 to 2 Tbsp Sugar

1 bottle Beer

Grease a loaf pan and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Mix ingredients and place in pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is firm when tapped. Remove from pan and cool on a rack.