CORNMEAL AND CRAB MEAT

This particular recipe came into being back in 1875 in the region of Hato Ceja de Pablo, allegedly authored by a slave who belonged to Don Francisco Elguea, who eventually used stone crab for this preparation. However, as the recipe caught on in the 1930s thanks to a fisherman from Corralillo named Juan Guerra, red crabs were used instead in an effort to make it taste even better.

Ingredients: Spiced crab meat: 150 g Dry cornmeal: 330 g Salt

Tomato paste: 100 g Vegetal oil: 60 mL Garlic: 6 or 8 big cloves Big onion: 1

Cumin

Chili pepper: 4 or 5 White pepper

Bay leaf: 1

Oregano

Preparation: Parboil two big red crabs. Remove the legs and the claws, and get the lean meat out. Sauté them in vegetable oil or lard, together with the onion, the garlic and the pepper that had all been previously sliced. Add the tomato paste, the cumin, the oregano, the bay leaf and the white pepper. In the process, you can add part of the crab’s fat to pop up the flavor a little bit more. Cook it all until you get an enchilada. Rinse the cornmeal and cook it in a different pot for approximately one hour until it begins to bubble. Stir every so often to prevent the mix from getting gluey and sticky. Add the enchilada once it well cooked, firstly to prevent it from getting undone and secondly to avoid the scents and tastes from volatizing. Add a pinch of salt and finish cooking the entire mix. Serve hot in a deep dish and garnish with paprika. It provides a couple of midsize helpings.