Harina de Maiz Con Patas de Cangrejo (Cuban Polenta with Crab Legs)

It doesn't get more messy and home-style than this. These are crab legs and claws cooked in a flavorful cornmeal pudding with a strong cuban sofrito and spices. This dish is VERY MESSY! The crab legs and claws are smothered in polenta, you got to use your hands and teeth and dig in that's how you eat this, and a spoon to eat the polenta, but for the most part you'll be using your hand and mouth to break the crab leg pieces and suck the polenta stuck to them, the delicious polenta even get's inside the crab legs so good. I suggest you eat this with family and close friends because it is not a dish to be practicing one's "manners"

Cubans refer to cornmeal used to make "polenta" type dishes as "Harina de Maiz" which means "Flour of Corn" if translated directly. We use regular fine yellow corn meal for this stuff.

Cuban cornmeal based dishes are almost non-existent in Cuban restaurants from what I have seen and I really don't know why they aren't in Cuban restaurant menu's. I'm sure many would love them.

In Cuban cooking cornmeal was used to make cormeal porridges similar to polenta that are flavored with typical Cuban seasonings, and then meat or seafood is added, such as pork, shrimp, or crab that's how it is in my household. Also cornmeal can be boiled with water or milk and sweetened with sugar to have it as a breakfast, or simply just boiled with water and salt to use in place of rice in Cuban cooking. We also have a dessert called "Majarete" (Sweet Cuban Corn pudding) which can be made with a really fine ground cormeal. Eventually in my blog I will have all the cornmeal dishes that I enjoy in my house posted to share with all of you.

Anyways in Oriente provinces (Eastern Cuba) my grandma told me that plain boiled salted cornmeal was usually associated with "poor people food" as it was cheap and filling, and during the depression it was popular. OF COURSE she says that many people consumed it simply because they enjoyed it (such as her and her family which where never poor in Cuba and fortunate enough to leave before that revolution and Castro's conquest of Cuba)

Just so you guys know when I speak of Cuban cooking I speak of pre-castro, as in 1950's and way more back as in the food my grandmother and grandfathers family cooked a long time ago and passed on through generations which eventually ended up with me still preserving their cooking and eating habits.

Ingredients:
-2 lbs. crab legs and claws (washed well, and torn into segments like seperate them at each joint into sections)
-2 cups yellow cornmeal
-10 cups water
-1 medium onion minced
-1 medium or small green bell pepper minced
-1/2 a head of garlic peeled mashed to a paste (garlic press or mortar)
-extra-virgin olive oil
-salt to taste (about 2 tsp. or more)
-1/2- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1 teaspoon "Bijol" (annato seed/ achiote powder)

Directions:
(1)Have everything chopped and ready. In a large pot, bring 10 cups water to a boil WITH NO SALT.


(2)Meanwhile heat generous amounts of olive oil in a pan, sautee onions and bell pepper until translucent (5-7 minutes) add garlic and sautee until fragrant. You may add a few pinches of salt in there. Stir and set aside in pan leave it alone. Turn off heat.

(3)Get cornmeal and put it in a bowl, wash it in cold water twice. Yes you heard wash it to remove excess starch. You do this by putting it in a big bowl, adding water and swooshing your hands, then letting it sit less than a minute so the cornmeal sinks back down just a bit and pouring water out. Do this twice.

(4)Add this to the boiling water and stir constantly (this is the toughest part if you don't stir constantly it will lump on you) stir well on high heat until it comes to a bubbling boil (you do not want this hot bubbling cornmeal to jump at you it hurts). When it's boiling lower to low heat, cook it for a total of 15 minutes.

(5)When cooking for 15 minutes, lower heat to very low, add cumin, bijol, salt to taste, and "sofrito" (onion, garlic, bell pepper sautee in olive oil), stir well, add crab legs and claws and brin to medium heat stir gently for about 5 more minutes until flavors come through, taste if it needs more salt.


(6)It's DONE! You do not want to serve this piping hot it WILL BURN YOU! Let it sit a bit, then serve it.

You serve this as a stand alone dish if you wish a light salad or some vegetable dish in a separate plate may be served.

PLEASE NOTE:

My grandmother does this "a lo Gallego" very rustic and carefree, the crab shells really add much flavor to the dish, IT IS MESSY AND FUN! I suggest you try it :)