Saturday, April 11, 2009

Spicy Crab In Coconut Milk

I went to the Asian Mall earlier today. The new Asian Mall is having it's grand opening today. First thing I wanted to check out was durian and vegetables. Then I wanted to buy some crab if they have some. As you can see from the picture above, yes indeed they sell some crabs. I am not sure the exact name for this crab. Some people call it blue crab, some say snow crab. To me, they look delicious and I must have some. I bought 2 lbs of the crab. The cost was $1.50 per lb. Pretty cheap but it has been cleaned. There are also life crab but I was not interested to clean the shell myself.

I also bought few fish heads. It was a mixture of salmon fish and red snapper. I saw people in line waiting for their fish head and everyone that I asked said they make fish soup with the head. I am thinking of good old curry fish head for me.
I served the crab with basmathi rice and few pieces of bitter gourd on my plate. Honey only get crab and rice. No bitter gourd for him.
My recipe for this crab is very simple.
Ingredients:
2 lb crab
1 big yellow onion (dice)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 inches ginger root (halia)
2 tablespoons chopped lemongrass (serai)
2 inches galanghal (Lengkuas)
1 tablespoon powdered turmeric (kunyit)
6 pieces bird eyes chili (cili padi) whole
1 teaspoon salt
1 can coconut milk (Chef's choice brand)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:
In a big pot heat olive oil. Add onion, bird eye chili, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and galanghal. Cook until onion translucent.
Add coconut milk, turmeric powder, water, salt. Let it boil for a minute. Then add crab. Cover.
Stir to make sure the top crab get the coconut milk.
Serve warm with rice.
The picture above is daun kesum. I like this lemony fragrant leaf in my cooking especially in asam laksa. I am going to grow this plant in my garden. So I am soaking them in water to get some root before I transplant them into the garden.
The picture above is jicama or in Malay we call it sengkuang. I like to eat jicama in my salad. This baby is sold by lb. It is quite pricey.
I also bought kohlrabi, one of my favorite vegetables as shown in the above picture. I will also grow this vegetable in my garden. Yesterday, I stopped by my garden and sow the kohlrabi seeds in the ground.
I had just bought ginger root from Price Right last week. But seeing this beautiful ginger root at the Asia Mall, I must get it. I store my ginger root in the freezer. Every time I need to use ginger in my cooking, I either grate the icy ginger root or dump the whole ginger in the cooking. Ginger root is very good for my body. It releases all the toxic gas from the body.
I managed to get some good looking and firm lemongrass. I am going to stick this into the soil. As I have done it last year, all I need is to wait for the weather to get really warm and stick this lemongrass in the soil.
I also bought sugar cane from the asian store. This whole 6 feet sugar cane cost only $1.99.
I cut some of this sugar cane for honey and I to enjoy after we finish eating the crab.
There were food served at the grand opening of the Asian Mall but as you can see all the food are gone. I did not get to taste any of it. There were so many people at the mall and I was a little too late. I was busy shopping for the crab, fish and vegetables that by the time I went to the serving area, all food are gone.
But the roasted pig is still beautifully sitting on the table. I am not sure if they serve this to the people there. The lion dance was really fun to see. They have some fire cracker at the end of the dance. At one point I thought I have turned deaf because of the loud music and noise.
The lion was dancing inside the asian store.

11 comments:

  1. Wah Zue, the crab looks good. I dah lama tak makan crab. I think the last time was kat rumah you. How is the new Asian Place? Banyak tak Malaysia things there? Did you get the Durian?

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  2. Gert, nanti you datang kita masak crab lagi. They don't have durian. I looked again and sure I cannot find many Malaysian product except for lingham chili sauce. Looks like they have more of Indonesian and Thailand product. Happy Easter!

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  3. Zue:
    the new asian mall is really huge!! Now you make me drooling look at crabby!! they are calling my name!! i was at South american supermarket yesterday,they do sell crabs but at one glance nampaknya all jantan and tak moving,mati kot? I don't mind cleaning as long as ada telor,juicy and lemak!!

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  4. Beachlover, this crab are all female. All got eggs. I do too like the eggs. Yea, if it's not moving, they are dead.

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  5. Hi Zue,
    Hani baru je masak lemak ketam... kita ni macam berjanji gitu hehehe. BTW... your Spicy Crab looks so sedaap. :)

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  6. Hani, thanks. This lemak ketam was really good that I keep the gravy. I dip my sandwich bread in the gravy and then add slices of mozrella cheese and toast it. It was delicious! I wish I have bagel and crab meat because it will taste so much better.:-)
    Seriously, I don't waste any drip at all.

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  7. mak aihhh..k.zue..ur crab nih kemain lagi gemuk..geram tul nengok!!

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  8. salam k.zue..nnti mai umah kita amik award ye!!

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  9. inahar ali, gemok macam tukang masak dia jugak. hehehe.

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  10. Farina, your post tu you hantar kat sini --> http://www.zumurphy.com/2009/04/fried-shrimp-and-cod.html

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