Recipes

Folly Pier Stone Crab with Butterbeans and Beurre Blanc

Folly Pier Stone Crab with Butterbeans and Beurre Blanc
Photo by Cameron Colcolough

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yields

4 Servings

    Ingredients
  • 1 large shallot, sliced
  • 1 cup white wine
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • ¼ cup whipping cream
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, diced
  • 2 tablespoons Kosher salt, as needed
  • 1 pound butterbeans
  • 1 bunch parsley, stemmed and chopped
  • 2 dozen stone crab claws (or as many as you can find)
  • 5 bay leaves (preferably fresh)
steps
  1. Simmer shallot in white wine and lemon until it reduces to a glaze. Do not let it burn.
  2. Pour in cream and reduce by half. (This will require constant attention for a few minutes; overcooking at this stage will ruin the sauce.)
  3. When reduction is ready, swirl in the diced butter little by little, off the heat if possible.  Season to taste with salt. To strain or not is your choice. Keep the sauce warm and be sure to serve within 20 minutes.
  4. For the butterbeans, bring a gallon of water to a hard boil with 2 tablespoons salt.
  5. Add butterbeans and cook until tender. (This could take 3 minutes, could take 8—depends on the beans. They are done when they taste good to you.) Drain beans, toss with remaining 2 tablespoons butter, and salt to taste.
  6. At the last second, throw in the chopped parsley leaves. It may seem like a lot of parsley, but sometimes too much parsley is just enough.
  7. For the stone crab claws, bring a gallon of water to a boil with a ½ cup salt.
  8. Place claws in a heat-proof pan and pour boiling water over the claws. It will be enough unless you have more than 2 dozen claws.
  9. When the water cools enough to handle the hot claws, they are done.
  10. To serve: Here you have a choice. You can either crack the claws from the meat and serve a little pile of picked crab meat on top of a little pile of beans with the butter spooned around or you can serve the beans on the side and serve the claws whole with little crocks of the sauce to dip.

*Stone crab claws can be found during the summer months under the Folly Beach Pier for the low price of a $5 day pass, a $7 crab basket, and a little patience.

  • from Chef Jesse Sutton, Social Wine Bar, Charleston, SC

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