To my right Khun Cha, to my left Alis
Here we are still in Klong Muang, southern Thailand, and we are meeting up again with Khun Cha as she has promised to cook her specialty for us: Crab Curry, or Gaeng Poo in the Thai language. Of course, there are several Thai dishes that use crab as the main ingredient, but locals will tell you that no-one should neglect to include crab on the list of must-eat food in southern Thailand.
Our morning boat trip with the crab-catching family is finally paying off as it is the time for us to watch as Khun Cha, assisted by Alis, cooks the freshly-caught crabs collected.
CRAB CURRY RECIPE
Preparation time: 10 minutes – Cooking time: 10 minutes
INGREDIENTS
The main ingredients are coconut milk, sugar cane, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves and curry paste
Serves 4 people
- 300g vermicelli rice noodles (khanom jeen)
- 300ml/2 cups of coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons of yellow curry paste
- shrimp paste to taste
- 1kg fresh crabs
- 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 cubes of palm sugar
- few leaves of Kaffir Lime
METHOD
Time to add the coconut milk
Step 1 – Place a pot of water to boil and then cook the noodles (khanom jeen) until pliable and soft – around 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.
Step 2 – In the same pot, add the coconut milk and lower the heat until it boils and reduces to half. Add the curry paste and shrimp paste into the coconut milk and stir and press down until all the shrimp paste has dissolved. Season with fish sauce and sugar to taste (it depends on how salty or sweet you want it) and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the crab meat and a few leaves of Kaffir lime, and lower the heat. Once the crab is done, transfer the curry to a serving bowl and serve it with the noodles (or with rice).
It only needs to be stirred once
Bear in mind this is a dish quite uncommon on many Thai restaurant menus. A Crab Curry, or Gaeng Poo, is basically mostly a yellow curry – the colour originating from turmeric – made with crab meat. It is typically served with fine rice noodles (khanom jeen) and vegetables, though you can use rice instead.
The final moment is here, and the curry is delicious!!
You can easily buy pre-cooked crab meat, in which case the preparation is next to nothing and the whole dish can be cooked in 20 minutes. If you, like us, use whole crabs then the time taken is a bit longer, but the pleasure of eating it will be more intense.
Crab Curry, or Gaeng Poo, is indeed one of those amazing Thai curries that you need to have on hand. Thanks again Khun Cha for this fantastic treat.
Thanks again to all our sponsors and in particular to tour agent Fantasia Asia – The team support was amazing as usual.
