Shell suits

From a garlicky, citrussy number the whole family will love, to a decadent crab butter that will transform everything from pasta to omelettes – let the taste of the seaside pervade your home this summer

Sail through the summer months with a trio of delicious crab creations

There’s something delightfully nostalgic about crab. Like shell-suited phantoms from the rock pools of your childhood, they are as versatile as they are tasty. A quick meal, however, they are not. From catching them to prying out their succulent meat, a crab feast is a primal act with no shortcuts – making it one of life’s great slow experiences. Methods haven’t modernised much. Fishermen bait their pots, leave them overnight and return the next day to pack their catch and sell them to fishmongers. If you’re lucky, you may be able to buy them, still dripping, on the harbour front. Wherever you source yours, to devour crabmeat laced with lemon is to taste sunlight, summer and the sea – whether you have sand between your toes or city pavements beneath your shoes.

HOW TO CRACK CRAB

Hand-picking cooked crab isn't easy and, if it's not done well, can result in lots of the meat being wasted. It takes time, practice and skill, but this step-by-step guide will ensure that you're getting crabmeat with the best flavour and its integrity intact

• Hold the crab's legs in your dominant hand with the body hanging vertically over a table covered with newspaper

• With your other hand, wrap your fingers around the tip of the shell to create a hinge and then prise it away from the legs

• Flip the crab over and remove the back flap (also called the 'apron') • Apply pressure to the centre of the crab's body with your thumbs, so that it cracks in half

• Remove the white, feathery lungs, the gooey liver and any fat (which can be reserved for crab butter) • Carefully wiggle the back swimming legs away from the body using a half-circle motion.

This should reveal the large 'lump' part of the crab

• Remove the rest of the legs and the claws

• Use a knife or your fingers to delicately remove the meat that's tucked between the pieces of cartilage in the crab's body

• Take a nutcracker and crack the legs, pulling out any meat with, ideally, a lobster pick

• Use the nutcracker to crack the claw at the knuckle, near the pincer. Remove the shell and carefully slide the meat out – any peelings and shell will freeze well and can be used to make stock or crab butter