I like to eat with my fingers. I know, I know…I am a chef and I shouldn’t do such things…but I do. Maybe that is why I love Thai food so much, and the foods of South East Asia for that matter. It is as rustic as it gets, and if you want to find that inner child within you then go ahead and make this recipe. You are going to get dirty…yup that’s right, dirty!
Thai Curry Crab (or Boo Paht Pong Karee also known as Pu Pad Pong Garee) is one of my favorite dishes to make when I want to eat with my hands. The crab, a nice big mound of sticky rice and a cold drink and I am good to go. But be forewarned, this is not your typical curry, in the Thai sense of the word…
…and that is what makes this dish so special to me and tasty all at the same time. This is a slightly different kind of curry that the usual Green, Massaman, Red or Yellow curries that one seems adorning the menus of countless Thai restaurants worldwide. This dish uses curry powder…yup the yellow powdery stuff. Easily available at most, if not all markets it makes a trip to the local 99 Ranch market unnecessary, that is if you have the rest of the ingredients. Easy and quick to make, this Thai Crab Curry is a great dish if you are in a hurry or need a quick Thai fix.
| Thai Curry Crab Recipe | |
- 3 – crabs, clean and fricasse
- 1c – celery (thai), 1 ½ in cut or use the tender stalks of domestic celery
- 1c – spring onion, 1 ½ in cut
- c – canola oil
- 1T – garlic, chopped
- 1 – onion, ¼ in wedge
- t – white pepper,
- 1T – oyster sauce
- 1T – golden mountain sauce
- 1t – fish sauce
- 1t – sugar
- 1T – curry powder
- T – turmeric powder
- 1 – chicken egg
- 1 ½ c – fish stock
- T – corn starch
- c – coconut milk
- c – cilantro leaves (optional)
- 1 ea – red chile, sliced (optional)
- Fry the garlic in the oil and add the crab and the onion, saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the stock, BTAB and cover to steam for an additional 4 minutes or until the crabs stop moving (yes they are alive).
- Add the curry powder, tumeric, white pepper and sugar and mix well.
- Add the Oyster sauce, Golden Mountain sauce and the fish sauce toss and add the coconut milk and BTAS.
- Remove the crabs and place into a platter.
- Add the celery
- Take the egg and whip with a fork.
- Add the egg slowly nto the simmering broth and coook for 1 minute to set the egg.
- Adjust the conststancy of the sauce with some cornstarch and water (slurry).
- You are looking for a slightly thick sauce that has a salty and sweet flavor profile. If the sauce is too sweet, add a bit more fish sauce.
- Now either pour the sauce onto a separate bowl, spooning a bit over the plattered crabs or pour the sauce in to bottom of a bowl and place the crabs on top….you choose.
- Garnish with the spring onions, the (optional) cilantro and (optional) red chile.
- Grab your bib, your crab crackers and a cold drink and have at it!
Oh and here are some old images I found of Thailand in ’99.
The Food Images – The image was shot back in 1999 on a Sony Mavica Digital camera. For those who remember back that far or who were shooting digital way back in the day, this Sony camera had a (whopping) .3 megapixel sensor and it recorded the images on a floppy drive. That’s right, a point 3 megapixel sensor and a 1.44 mb floppy drive, oh how far we have come.
The Other Images – These were taken on a Pemtax ME Super (if memroy serves me right) and the printed images scanned on a Canon flatbed scanner with colors adjusted slightly in Photoshop.
I rediscovered these and bunch of other images of the food we made in Thailand back in ’99 and thought it would be fun to post something from the last century. Hope you enjoy it….
chefRob
Thanks for this recipe looks great am going to try it this weekend!