Get your hands messy with Dungeness crab and crispy fries

Teamed with a punchy tartar, it’s a meal that’s both special and approachable

There are all kinds of Dungeness crab eaters.

Some purists will revel in blanching their own until fiery red and then strewing those limbs with boiled potatoes across a paper bag or newspaperlined table with lemon wedges and warm melted butter. There are those who couldn’t imagine cooking anything live that’s larger than a clam and are absolutely fine buying pre-cooked to pluck into a pasta sauce or salad. Then there are some who’ve only ever tasted a meaty crab cake or perhaps seen the ivory flakes in a bowl of pasta. None of these folks are wrong in the way they enjoy this cultural icon. I see a little bit of myself in all of them.

If you’re in that first category, you enjoy eating with your hands. I do find a certain satisfaction in cracking open a crab claw and plucking the sweet meat out before dunking it in butter over and over again.

That butter is powerful; it soothes the crab like it’s had a bad day (which, OK, it actually did). But, sauces in general can make a dish. So, with my boiled crab, I make two sauces.

To make the butterdunking more efficient, I’ve gently cracked the crab pieces partially open and tossed them in a buttery garlic-and-herb sauce with little bursts of pickled pepper. The butter sauce becomes a marinade so you don’t have to dunk each piece. I quickly roast the crab in the marinade to allow the flavors to infuse the meat.

The other sauce is a pickled pepper tartar. Like the butter sauce, it’s rich, but tangier and herbaceous with a little heat from the peppers. It’s also a sauce for the other hand-food here, frites, or french fries.

Frites are as delicious with crab as they are with seared steak, roast chicken or even a bowl of steamed mussels. With crab, though, the combination is also practical. My hands are already in the mix, prying open buttery soaked shells, so why not grab a fry at the same time?

Do I make my own fries? Sometimes. But, here when I’m already cooking live crab, cutting, soaking and frying potatoes seems a little laborious. Quality frozen, organic fries are widely available, and there are many ways to enjoy fries, another cultural icon.

Christian Reynoso/Special to The Chronicle Take advantage of the season with Dungeness Crab Frites with Pickled Pepper Tartar. Make your own fries or use the frozen kind.