The Butter of Sea Crab Bowl with Terry Phair of Lummi Seafood Market

Recipe from Terry Phair, Owner of Lummi Seafood Market

From an early age, Terry Phair, a Lummi Nation member, learned fishing and crabbing, and gained wisdom from the elders in his community. Now, as a commercial diver, he harvests seafood from the Pacific Northwest, while also owning the Lummi Seafood Market, where he brings Indigenous-caught products to the local community. His goal is to educate and sustainably enjoy local seafood, incorporating his traditions and passing them on to future generations.

For our June KISS Seafood in the City demo presented by BECU at Greenhouse, Terry shared with us how to construct The Butter of the Sea Crab Bowl featuring Dungeness crab butter and uni (sea urchin). Find the full recipe video below.

In 1977, I was born into an Indigenous fishing community, the Lummi Nation, which a federally recognized tribe. My lineage comes both from the Suquamish area to Canada Tlingit, on my dad’s side, and Klamath Tribe, in Oregon. I began fishing and crabbing at a very young age with my uncles and father, starting around 12 years old. Later, I learned techniques, language, and stories from our Indigenous elders, such as: Troy Olsen (Suhunep Husmeen), Richard Solomon, and the late Hereditary Chief of Lummi People Bill (Tsi’li’xw) James, and many others in the community. 

For about 10 years, I have been commercially diving for seafood products within the Pacific Northwest territory, such as: Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumber, & Geoduck. Potentially in the near feature, I am interested in diving for products, such as, scallops, ling cod, and seaweed, and other local products. From time to time, I bring in a small amount of specialty products—sushi grade seafood, morel mushrooms, and other items. Within this next month, we are hoping to get our first shipment of PNW Gooseneck Barnacles when it’s harvest ready. Another project I am working on is processing canned locally smoked fish. It would be amazing to see these products come forward and be shared with our local communities.

Since 2017, I have owned the Lummi Seafood Market, located at the Lummi Te’Ti’Sen Center, which is a small business incubator for Lummi-owned businesses. Right now, my eldest son, Jaden Phair (Lummi Seafood Operations Manager, who speaks the Lummi language), fishes coho and king salmon in a small kayak in front of our home, on Gooseberry Point. Also, he has been a boat hose tender for the past five years. I am also mentoring him to be a part of the next generation of commercial Lummi divers. 

In mid-August 2022, I have been participating with the Bellingham Dockside, located at Squalicum Harbor, every first and third Wednesday of each month. This has provided a way to bring Indigenous-caught product to the wider local community, which helps support my fishing family and tribal fishing communities.

In addition to the Market, I am a fisherman and a fisheries wholesale buyer, since 2017. Tribal fishermen and I, harvest all types of seafood products, some sold locally, however, most of our catch are exported. Our goal is to educate the public about the local seafood and how to eat it, in a sustainable way like our ancestors and elders. Like today’s recipe, The Butter of the Sea Crab Bowl–  Sea Urchin (Uni) Dungeness Crab Butter With Egg & Rice. Eating sea urchin roe and crab head butter is one of our tribal elders’ favorites, which teaches to us younger folks is to take only what you need and limit food waste. It is rich and nutritious. At home, we always ensure my youngest son, Sky (10 years old), is also taught at a young age how to eat these types of foods. As we say to my son, since he was a baby “to try one bite, so you never forget how to eat these foods when you grow older.” It is important that we begin to incorporate our Indigenous food and systems back into the community and our children’s lives, so they “never forget who they are and where they come from”, as our past elders would say. Our elders were taught to eat our natural foods from the water when they were children. It would be nice to feed our people and local community, rather than shipping a majority of the seafood overseas. It is important to keep our food domestic, in case of national food security reasons (i.e., covid or other national threats). Not just for economic growth, but for health and spiritual reasons, as well.

For the past 5 years, pre-pandemic, the seafood industry was suffering due to export tariffs. When Covid first began, we almost closed completely. My immediate family decided to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our late Chief (or Siam, also known as “respected elder”, in Lummi). However, our late Siam advised us to keep the store doors open. He also helped revitalized our Lummi language and was our Ekesale (or means “teacher” in Lummi). He always encouraged us to incorporate the Lummi language the best we could to our ability. A common phrase he always used was, “Es’ti’tem’sen, which means “to do the best you can”. With the impacts of the colonization, the Indigenous people of this were impacted economically, spiritually, physically. One area was loss of language due to the trauma of Indian Boarding Schools, where many of our elders stop speaking the language, such as my Grandma Elsie Phair (maiden name Contraro). She stopped speaking her Native language (Lashootseed dialect) at a young age due to the neglect she received from Catholic missionaries, while at a boarding school in Tulalip Indian School. I have also sat with elders that talked about starvation in these institutions. In honor of those of our elders who lost their ability to speak, we, at Lummi Seafood Market, try our very best to use Lummi language that applies to our Indigenous seafoods. Although we would like to predict the future economically, we also must have determination and faith that we are on the right path to keep our doors open, in terms of working with our local communities to raise awareness and the importance of supporting Indigenous peoples and their food systems, as tribal people are responsible for 50 percent of the seafood sector, in Washington State.

The seafood market is something that our community wanted, since the early 2000’s, as part of the small business incubation center. The Lummi Seafood Market and wholesale fishery buying creates 4 full-time jobs, 2 part-time jobs, and 6 seasonal jobs. In addition to the Lummi Seafood Market, I work with Lummi and other tribal fishermen to offer them a more competitive price. In addition to diving and the store, my son and I harvest and buy everything, such as: dungeness crab, salmon (coho, king, sockeye), halibut, lingcod, spot prawns, coon-stripe shrimp, sea urchins, geoduck, manila clams, razor clams, and traditional smoked salmon. The seafood market provides an opportunity to keep our food local and educate the community. It is an honor to work with both tribal and non-tribal local fishing families to help build our families and communities up. I look forward to what is in store for all of us in the years to come and wanted to thank everyone that has supported the Lummi Seafood Market over the years. 

In the Lummi way, “Our hands are up to you.”  Hy’shqe (Thank You, in Lummi), Lummi Seafood Market

The Butter of the Sea Crab Bowl

Ingredients

• Dungeness crab from Lummi Seafood Market

• Eggs

• Green onions

• Chives

• Uni (sea urchin), fresh or frozen

• Butter

• Lemons, fresh optional

• Hot sauce (Sriracha or favorite choice)

• Salt & pepper, to taste

• Cooked rice or quinoa

Directions:

1. Cook whole Dungeness crab for 17-20 mins.

2. Make Uni Butter: While crab is cooking, use fresh sea urchin or dethawed, frozen urchin (both will work just fine). Add about 4 oz of urchin roe with 4 oz of butter (1:1 ratio) to a sauté pan and allow butter to melt and cook for a few minutes. Add to a blender and blend until creamy. Keep on low heat, until ready to use.

3. Remove crab legs from shell (the head).

4. Shuck Dungeness crab meat or buy already shucked crab meat and set aside.

5. Using the upside down crab shell as a bowl, crack egg into crab shell and steam with some of the crab butter/juice until egg is cooked in shell to your liking. Chef recommendation: only cook egg until over easy/runny.

6. Add cooked rice to crab shell with crab butter and cooked egg inside.

7. Add uni butter over crab and rice for added flavor.

8. Sprinkle toppings including Dungeness crab meat, green onions, chives, bacon bits, etc.

9. Add a squeeze of lemon on top, about 1/2 tsp per crab shell, and sprinkle with salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

10. Enjoy with a fork or chopsticks!