This is just about the best crab soup I have ever tasted, and it’s also the easiest. (One of the messiest, too; you must eat the crab with your hands.) At its base is miso, combined with go chu jang, a red pepper paste mixed with beans, kind of a spicy version of hoisin sauce. If you live anywhere near a Korean market, you’ll find it; if not, use hoisin mixed with Tabasco. Buy the crabs live and have them cleaned and chopped up by the fishmonger. Or follow the directions for cleaning them in step 1.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

　　6 blue or rock crabs

　　2 tablespoons dark miso

　　2 tablespoons light miso

　　2 tablespoons minced garlic

　　1 tablespoon go chu jang or 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce mixed with 1 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce

　　About 4 cups cooked short-grain white rice (page 507)

　　

Step 1

If you must clean the crabs yourself, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Plunge the crabs in and cook for just a minute. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water. Working over a bowl (and saving any liquids or soft parts of the crab that come out during cleaning), break off the “apron,” the triangle of shell on the crab’s bottom, then remove the upper shell entirely (save any innards attached to it). On each side of the crab you will find the gills—spongy and off-white—remove and discard. Now cut the crab into quarters. To make eating easier, use the back of your knife to crack the claws.

　　

Step 2

In a saucepan, whisk the next 4 ingredients with 1 quart water; bring to a boil, stirring. Add the crabs, cover, and cook at a steady boil for about 20 minutes; during the last 5 minutes of cooking, add any parts of the crab you reserved during cleaning.

　　

Step 3

Serve the broth with a few pieces of crab in it; when people have eaten the crabs, clean up the shells and add the rice to the broth. Eat the rice.

　　The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved.MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.