Curried Crab
by Pim under Uncategorized with 6 Comments
Wednesday, March 5, 2003
Curried Crab façon Pim
(Pu Pad Pong Kari)
serves 6 hungry crab eaters
I made this last weekend for the first time. Linda, who was there to eat it, asked me to write up a recipe, so here it is. It was reminiscent of a dish from my childhood. I practically lived on it every summer in Hua Hin, a beach town in the South of Thailand. I’ve never seen how it was actually made while there, but this was as close as I could get to it from my own taste memory. Dave, Benjamin and Chris said it was the best crab dish they’ve ever tasted, so I think I did alright.
In Thailand this dish is always made from live crabs, but it’s not always easy to find those critters alive around here so I came up with a way to use cooked dungeness crabs in this recipe.
Ingredients
4 large dungeness crabs, use only fresh ones, if you couldn’t find fresh crab, just forget about making this dish
2 tbsp Madras curry powder
1 large onion
1 small bunch of green onions
2-3 stalks of garlic greens + 3 cloves of garlic, or just 6 cloves of garlic if you don’t have green garlic
1/2 – 1 cup chicken stock or water
fish sauce
pepper
First you prep the ingredients
crab: rinse and separate the shells from the bodies, reserve all the juicy stuff inside the shells. Clean up the body by pulling out the stuff that looks like insulation, or crab’s weather stripping in Linda’s words. You know, those white spongy stuff clinging to the crab’s body. You get the picture, yes? Then, break of large legs and claws, and crack them slightly. Cut each body first in half, then each half into 2-3 pieces depending on how large your crabs are.
onion: slice thinly
garlic: mince
green onions and garlic greens : cut into 1 inch pieces, if the stalks are thick, smash them up a bit to flatten them.
Now you cook
Heat a large pan with some oil, use light tasting and high heat oil, like Safflower. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent.
Add the curry powder and minced garlic, let cook for a few minutes with the onion, don’t burn it, add a bit of water if it gets too dry.
Add the juicy stuff reserved from the shells, add fish sauce to taste. Let it cook and bubble away for two minutes.
Now add the crab. Depending on how much liquid you get from the shells, add 1/2 to 1 cup stock or just plain water. You want enough liquid to cover all the crab pieces. Stir it all up, make sure all the crab pieces are well coated with the curry liquid.
Bring to a boil and let the whole thing brew for five minutes, stirring a few times, until the liquid reduces by about half, or until the crabs are heated through and pick up the flavor from the yummy curry sauce. A minute or two before it’s done, throw in the green onions and garlic, give it a good stir.
Taste, add more fish sauce if needed.
Serve with jasmine rice of course.
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