Holy Crab Rice!
In Charleston and Savannah, chefs are showcasing their takes on one of the region’s most prized dishes.
Throughout Charleston, Savannah, and the surrounding Lowcountry, rice reigns supreme. The culinary identity of the region leans heavily on the grain, and some of the area’s most iconic, familiar, and comforting dishes are, unsurprisingly, rice dishes. While tradition most certainly has its place at the table, chefs in Charleston and Savannah are drawing on global flavors in their efforts to pay homage to those quintessential recipes. Crab rice, in particular, has been an exciting vehicle for local chefs to flex their creative muscles and offer something new to guests.
Carolina Gold Rice, Blue Crabs, Kimchi Purée, Spring Greens, Calamansi-Crab Foam at Tippling House
Jumbo Lump Crab, Carolina Gold Rice, Squid Ink, Calabrian Chile Sofrito, Mussel Broth, Green Oil, Chives, Sweet Paprika at Malagon
Crab rice is “synonymous with Charleston,” says Chef Zach Kimmel. “It’s two things that represent the Lowcountry: Carolina Gold rice and blue crabs.” While working at The Tippling House in Charleston, Kimmel knew he wanted to pay tribute to both the city and the region by adding his own take on the dish to the menu. When he moved down to Charleston in 2016 to work at McCrady’s, Kimmel fell in love with the crab rice at Nana’s Seafood & Soul, a “traditional Gullah Geechee soul food house,” says Kimmel. “If I got some extra money, I was going to Nana’s to get the crab rice.” The influential dish stuck with him, particularly the garlicky, buttery, fried rice, but for Kimmel, representing Charleston “from [his] point of view” also meant drawing on some of the “Asian influences” he took away from his time at both McCrady’s and Wild Common.
Kimmel’s Carolina Gold fried rice is served over a kimchi purée, which is rounded out with honey, lime juice, and mirin and acts as a “nice silky sauce” for the dish. Meanwhile, blue crabs are boiled and picked, and the shells are reserved to make a stock reminiscent of a sauce Americaine without the lobster, and with the substitution of vermouth for the traditional brandy. The stock is cooked down into a crab paste and mounted with butter, “to make it foamy,” and finished with a splash of calamansi vinegar. It “looks like the bubbly seafoamy marsh where crabs come from. I used to go crabbing as a kid,” he says, “so, that is nostalgic for me.” Fried kale adds texture and color while a last minute sprinkle of house togarashi supplies the dish with a little more heat and umami. “At the end of the day, it represents the Lowcountry, which I love very dearly. It’s something maybe my grandparents might not recognize, but when you peel it back, I think it is very much what Charleston is.”
Chef Juan Cassalett of Malagón also knows that Charlestonians eat a lot of crab rice. “It’s something their mom or grandma cooks,” says Cassalett, so “when you get a compliment that something reminds them of their grandma’s cooking, it makes you feel good.” His Spanish take on the Lowcountry classic was initially inspired by a trip to Barcelona, where he “had a rice dish with a bunch of seafood in it [and] a green sauce,” says Cassalett. “I loved the combination of squid ink with monkfish, but thought it would work very well with crab.” For his arroz con cangrejo, Cassalett par cooks rice with butter, olive oil, garlic, and salt before adding shellfish stock, squid ink, and a spicy sofrito made with Calabrian chile. Some fresh lemon juice and pieces of lump crab are folded in once the rice is nearly done cooking. The crab rice is garnished with chives, sweet paprika, and an earthy, vibrant green herb oil to “offset the spice and squid ink,” says Cassalett. It “fits with Charleston, but is still Spanish without being in your face.”
Broken Rice, Collard Greens, Yams, Lump Crab, Shito Sauce, Crispy Soft Shell Crab at Bintu Atelier
Rollens Rice Grits, Snow Crab, Leeks, Mango, Pickled Jicama, Red Pepper Coulis, Ginger Vinaigrette, Bene Seed-Coconut Crumble at Dottie’s Market
Tying the culinary traditions of the Lowcountry to more personal flavors comes naturally for Chef Bintou N’Daw. Crab is “so typical for South Carolina, but in Senegal we eat crab also. So it's those little things that remind me of both Senegal and Charleston.” Crab rice became an exciting way for her to share the flavors of her upbringing, and of Africa more broadly, with the local community.
At her restaurant, Bintü Atelier, N’Daw serves a fried rice made with local middlins, but the star of the dish is her house-made shito paste. The Ghanaian condiment—made with scallions, onions, and tomatoes that are fried in palm and peanut oil along with smoked fish, smoked shrimp, smoked ancho chile, and dawadawa seed—supplies the dish with spice, smoke, and sweetness and “fits with the delicate seafood,” says N’Daw. The intensity of the paste is cooled down by collard greens and sweet potatoes that are steamed and then pan fried until caramelized. N’Daw folds in lump crab and tops her spicy shito crab rice with a fried soft shell crab. It’s “a lavish thing,” she says, but “it was something I started when it was in season, and it was just so good.” Incorporating as many local ingredients as she can, N’Daw draws a connection between her own cultural roots and the Southern traditions she has come to embrace.
Down in Savannah, Chef Chris Meenan’s cold crab rice dish came together “very organically,” he says, when Rollen Chalmers of Rollen’s Raw Grains dropped off a ten-pound bag of Carolina Gold rice middlins at his restaurant. Already looking to add a crab rice dish to the menu at Dottie’s Market, the middlins provided an exciting canvas for Meenan to work with and gave him a way to pay respect to Chalmer’s story, who cultivates Carolina rice on the land his ancestors were formerly enslaved on.
“It started with the intention of being a hot dish,” says Meenan. “I happened to have the middlins,” which had been cooked with a combination of coconut water and coconut cream, “in the walk-in and tried it cold and just loved it.” Meenan incorporated blue crab, which soon transitioned into snow crab, and started to build the flavors from there. Inspired by his time at Blue Water Grill in New York, pieces of snow crab wrapped in melted leek, fresh mango, and a red pepper coulis are added to the mixture of chilled rice and picked crab meat. To complete the dish, Meenan turned to a favorite ingredient from his last menu, a crumble made with toasted benne seeds, toasted coconut flake, and fried rice vermicelli noodles. The crunchy topping adds texture to the cold, creamy rice which has “that congee feel to it.”
“It's such a non-traditional version of crab rice,” says Meenan, but “it's delicious enough to transcend any minor differences about what it should be. You can overcome those traditional versus non-traditional arguments.”
