Return of the Soft Shell

A weathered man appeared in the backdoor to Eve’s kitchen. Everyone on the line looked up at the purveyor and the cooks, who have worked at Eve for all four seasons, turned a slight smile.

“Ya intrasted in soft shells?” the crab man hollered to Chef. “I’ve got the first of the season, extra large.” Chef immediately gave a nod and thumbs up to Chef Jeremy, the chef de cuisine.

“Yes, sir,” Chef Jeremy responded, “we’ll take everything you’ve got.”

And so begins soft shell crab du jour.

In our region, soft shell crabs are blue crabs in process of molting their shells. They must molt their shell since they’ve grown over the winter season and require a larger size, usually about 30% larger. Perfectly timing a molting crab’s adventure from fisherman to feast is paramount as it only takes hours before a crab begins to develop a “paper shell,” which will affect its taste and texture.

In the Chesapeake, molting occurs from now through September. Procuring soft shells is hard work. Generally, fishermen catch “peeler” crabs, which are crabs on the brink of molting. A “peeler” can be distinguished from a non-peeler by the color of the crab’s swimming fin; a pale pink or red color indicates molting is eminent. The peelers are then held in molting tanks and carefully watched. Once a crab molts, it is swiftly plucked from the tank and sent out to local kitchens that day.

When it comes to soft shells we are traditionalists at Eve and deep fry our softies in tempura batter. They are served with ramp aïoli, marinated red onions and violas – yum.

She's off! Mother Nature Running Rampant

A sure sign of spring in our kitchen is the arrival of ramps. This garlicky, spring oniony, leeky member of the onion family arrives freshly picked from the Appalachian trail. Chef took the ramps, blanched and blended them into a fresh, grassy green puree. I watched him eagerly sample his creation. Immediately he smiled and hollered out a jolly, “WhoooHoo!” in response to the mouthful of spicy hot ramp blend lingering in his mouth. After a slight adjustment, we’ve been serving the puree alongside loin of Broken Arrow Ranch Venison with gnocchi and morels in the tasting room.

Ramps are most well known and highly celebrated in West Virginia, the state of the union where ramps grow, well, rampant.

Locals love their ramps and hold festivals in adulation of the veggie every spring. A notable festival is held in Richwood, West Virginia and is sponsored by the National Ramp Association. Yes, there is more than one NRA! In Richwood, ramp aficionados from across the country gather to sample and evaluate the season’s first bounty. The Cosby Ramp Festival began in 1954 and once hosted over 30,000 people. In Cosby, they crown a young woman the “Maid of Ramps” each year. I’d most like to attend the fete titled, “Stinkfest” in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Ramps notoriously carry a pungent odor which inspired Bradford’s citizens to hold Stinkfest Outhouse Races, where teams rig outhouses with wheels, decorate and propel them down roads at high speeds in the name of an onion. Food festivals like these, although quirky, serve as a fantastic way to explore local, fresh and seasonal foods; ramp festivals will be occurring through mid-May.

Anyone doubting the wonder of the ramp should know ramps are currently the subject of cancer prevention and treatment studies because of their high selenium and sulfur content.

Although chef’s puree is consuming most of our ramps, we’ve found a home for some stragglers in the tasting room on Berkswell cheese with roasted garlic puree and garlic chives and also in the bistro alongside raw Hamachi, Candied Ginger and Carrot Puree.