In Half Moon Bay, crab season is a big deal. It’s tough work navigating the ocean, crabbing restrictions, weird knots, tough captains and the crabs themselves. But, as chef Scott Clark writes in his new cookbook, “You don’t often feel so alive.”
His Dungeness Crab Rice dish is featured in his new cookbook, “Coastal,” due out from Chronicle Books on March 4.
“This is not fried rice; it’s delicate, fragrant, and light. Asian pear elevates the crab’s sweetness. Chrysanthemum greens, available at Asian markets, accentuate the depth of flavor of a beast from the ocean floor. If you don’t want to kill a crab, or if Dungeness isn’t available, lump crabmeat is all good,” he says.
Dungeness Crab Rice
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon sesame oil
5 shallots, cut into paper-thin slices on a mandoline
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1/2 cup peeled, diced Asian pear
4 cups cooked short-grain white rice
2 tablespoons white soy sauce
1 pound fresh Dungeness or lump crabmeat
6 green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup roughly chopped chrysanthemum greens, baby spinach, tatsoi, or bok choy
Hot sauce, for serving
Chile Jam (below), for serving
Sweet Soy Glaze (below), for serving
DIRECTIONS
In a medium Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the sesame oil. Reserve a handful of shallots for garnish and add the rest, along with the garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon and adding a few drops of water to release any stuck bits that might burn, until the veg are deeply caramelized, 6 to 8 minutes.
Add the Asian pear and cook, stirring, until it has some color, 2 to 3 minutes more. Add the rice and white soy sauce and stir to incorporate everything. Kill the heat, then gently fold in the crab.
Garnish the rice with the reserved shallot, the green onions and the greens. Drop the pot on the table with the condiments on the side.
Sweet Soy Glaze
Makes about 1 cup
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup tamari
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup bonito flakes
1- by 1-inch piece kombu
DIRECTIONS: In a small saucepan, bring the tamari, honey, and ½ cup water to a boil. Pour the mixture into a heatproof container. Stir in the bonito flakes and kombu, then cover and let it marinate in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a fresh container. It keeps, in the fridge, for up to 1 month.
Chile Jam
Makes 2 cups
INGREDIENTS
2 red bell peppers
6 jalapeños
Oven-Dried Tomatoes (see below) with their oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1½ cups packed dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons champagne vinegar
Juice of 2 lemons, preferably Meyer
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
DIRECTIONS
In a cast-iron pan over high heat, or directly on the burners of a gas stove set to high, char the bell peppers and jalapeños, rotating them, until you burn the living daylights out of them on all sides, about 10 minutes. Drop the peppers and jalapeños into a paper bag, close it up tight and let them cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes. Peel the peppers and jalapeños by rubbing them with a paper towel to remove the charred skins. Discard the stems. Halve 3 of the jalapeños lengthwise and remove their seeds.
Transfer the peppers and jalapeños to a food processor, then add the oven-dried tomatoes and their oil, garlic and ginger and pulse until chunky. Pour the mixture into a Dutch oven. Stir in the brown sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, fish sauce and salt and bring the mixture to a ripping boil. Knock the heat down to a simmer, stirring every couple of minutes, until almost all of the liquid is gone and a wooden spoon can part the mixture like Moses, about 1 hour. Let the jam cool to room temperature, then stow it in the fridge. It keeps, in the fridge in an airtight container, for up to 3 weeks.
Oven-dried Tomatoes
Makes about 3 cups
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds Early Girl or other medium tomatoes (about 8 tomatoes)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 to 8 cranks black pepper
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
12 fresh thyme sprigs
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided use
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Line a sheet pan with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Core and halve the tomatoes crosswise. Lay them cut-side up on the prepared pan and sprinkle them with the salt and pepper. Scatter the garlic and thyme over the tomatoes, then drizzle everything with 1/4 cup olive oil. Bake until the tomatoes are curling at the edges and half-jammy, half-juicy, about 5 hours. Let the tomatoes cool until you can touch them, then peel and discard their skins and the thyme. Put the tomatoes and garlic in a jar and pour the remaining ¼ cup olive oil on top. They’ll keep, in the fridge, for up to 2 weeks.
Excerpted from Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip by Scott Clark with Betsy Andrews, © 2025. Published by Chronicle Books. Photographs © Cheyenne Ellis
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