Monday, January 20, 2014

An experiment based on a Monday night dinner


On Monday we caught up with some friends for dinner. One of them is Thai, and she and her partner chose the restaurant. A Thai one in Melbourne. The food was wonderful and an added bonus was the Thai grocer next door. I most certainly wanted to go there after dinner, and our friend generously took charge. She helped me fill my basket. Leon was very patient. I guess he knew there would be food for him from the process!
One of the dishes we had was soft shelled crab in a curry sauce. Apparently it is a very commonly cooked dish, but usually made with fresh, large crabs. Look Moo (our friend) knew how it was made and shared the recipe with me. From the grocer, she ensured I had the correct ingredients. All I had to get later was the crab.
The meal was very experimental as I had little idea of quantity and was a bit sketchy on sequence, but hey....
I have to say that my dish tasted great and quite similar to the restaurant one. I did remember though why I seldom buy crab. It is sooooo messy to eat! Needed a shower by the time we finished and all the slurping! You could never eat it when you were out!
I am definitely going to make it again. But next time will have a try with squid and maybe prawns. 

Garlic and chili, carefully chopped by Leon
This is the special curry powder. Now you know as much as me!
Evaporated milk, oyster sauce and sugar, an egg and that powder. Apparently it is also possible to use fresh milk.
Blue swimmer crabs all cleaned and sectioned
This is the rice cooked. Red cargo rice. It's nutty and delicious.

Crabs and spices

Also it has celery and spring onion
The finished dish
Totally enjoyable - Leon

8 comments:

  1. It looks like you got that recipe just right. I love thai food.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds fantastic. I also very seldom buy crab because I hate trying to get all the meat out of it! Have a good week you two. D & N This flippin code will not work - try number three now!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, that was very adventurous of you, and it looks like the results were worth the work. You certainly have some interesting things in Australia. I've never heard of red rice in Canada.
    You're right about eating crab. SO messy. Seafood restaurants in my home province, British Columbia, often provide great big napkins or even bibs to save the diners' clothing.
    When I was a teenager in BC, my father had a friend who was a crab fisherman. He used to sell us crab meat, already cooked and extracted from the shell, for $1 a pound. Dad would buy two pounds, sometimes more. No fuss, no muss, just deliciousness.
    K

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks great Sue - put it on the list of 'things to cook' when you visit us!!!!! We've missed your recipes, lets have some more soon.
    Love Carol & Michael

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Nadege. I love Thai food too. We're lucky we have some good places in Melbourne and also access to the ingredients.
    Suu

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Diane. I buy crab every time I forget what a nuisance it is! About every two years :-) Sue

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow Kay, if I could buy crab like that I would certainly have it more often. Our adventurous son, Mitchy has taken off again. This time he's riding his bike to a music festival...1000km away, in another state. Should tie that boy down! Sue

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh Carol, that's funny! I can just imagine trying to buy the ingredients at Amboise market! Remember the coriander?
    Happy to cook anything else though. Looking forward to seeing you. We're at least in the right year now! Sue

    ReplyDelete

Love to get feedback so no reason to be shy - have your say.