Grilled crab with lemon

Pick crabs heavy for their size with intact claws. Live ones move legs when prodded; fresh chilled ones smell like clean sea breeze, never ammonia. Quality starts here.

Brush the shells under cold water to remove sand. Lay each crab on its back, split through the centre with a heavy knife, remove the gills. Crack the claws with the back of the knife to allow heat to penetrate.

Whisk olive oil, cumin, black pepper, salt and the juice of half a pickled lemon into an emulsion. The cumin gives the smoky undertone, the lemon brightens the saline crab flesh.

Light a charcoal grill or heat a heavy cast-iron skillet ten minutes until smoking. Crab cooks in flashes; a cool grate steams it grey instead of charring red.

Brush each split crab generously with the spice oil. Place flesh-side down on the hot grate, grill four minutes until the meat seals. Flip and grill nine minutes shell-side down basting twice.

Stack the crabs on a warm platter, drizzle remaining spice oil. Serve the rest of pickled lemon in wedges. Eat with fingers and a small fork to extract the meat from the legs.