Mini Alaskan Crab Tacos

 

A more correct title for this post might be Vietnamese crab salad mini tacos, for that is essentially what these are.  The filling is slightly adapted from goi buoi--Vietnamese pomelo and crab salad--with some avocado crema, red cabbage and sliced red onions.  The shells are fried sui gow skins, an idea I got from Andrea Nguyen, who writes that she borrowed it from Trader Vic's.  Check out her recipe for duck tacos, which includes a helpful video on frying the shells.  This is the sort of appetizer that looks elegant and tastes delicious, but can be prepared ahead of time and assembled at the last minute.  An even simpler presentation would be not to fold the skins and serve these as mini crab tostadas. However, since I'm submitting this in conjunction with a promotion of Alaskan fish tacos, I went with the taco version.

While I tend to focus more on Southeast Asian food, when the folks behind the Alaska fish taco promotion asked if I would be interested in doing some related posts, I agreed.  I don't know why they contacted me.  Perhaps it's because I submitted a pepes ikan taco recipe for the contest they had last year.  Maybe they've done their research and know there's a photo of me holding a 12 pound Coho salmon that I caught on the Tsiu River in Alaska in the original Rumah Makan Murni in Cepu, Central Java.  In any case, I like fish tacos and would love to go back to Alaska to do some fishing, so I agreed.  I should point out that the folks behind the promotion also gave me some gift cards to buy some Alaskan fish and fish tacos in exchange for me doing some posts.

 

 Mini Crab Tacos with Avocado Crema

 printable recipe

Crab Pomelo Salad

1 cup cooked Alaskan crab meat

1 carrot, grated

1 pomelo, peeled, segmented, and crumbled (I wouldn't recommend substituting grapefruit. Although pomelo and grapefruit are similar, the taste is different enough that I don't think this would work with grapefruit.)

2 TBS minced rau ram (daun laksa) or mint (optional)

2 TBS minced cilantro

thinly sliced red onion

thinly sliced red cabbage

Nuoc Cham

juice of 1 lime

2 TBS water

2 TBS fish sauce

2 TBS sugar

1 to 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 red chili, seeded and finely minced (or a splash of sriracha)

Avocado Crema

1 ripe avocado

juice from half a lime

2 TBS Mexican crema (can substitute sour cream)

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced

2 TBS cilantro, minced

salt, to taste

Pot sticker or sui gow skins

oil for frying

In a large bowl, combine the  crab, carrot, pomelo, rau ram, and cilantro.  Make the nuoc cham by mixing together the ingredients in a jar and shaking well to dissolve the sugar.  Dress the salad lightly with several tablespoons of the nuoc cham.

Remove the flesh from the avocado.  Mash it up with the lime juice, crema, garlic, and cilantro.  Add salt to taste.

Fry the sui gow skins in hot oil about 1/3 inch deep.  Use tongs to hold the shells open while frying.  You need to keep them open enough so you can put the filling in.  The shells will remain crisp for at least one day if kept in an air tight container.  Andrea Nguyen has a helpful video showing how to fry the skins

When you have fried all the shells, you can assemble the tacos.  Rinse the sliced red onion in cold water.  Place some cabbage (if using) in each shell.  Then spoon in some of the crab salad.  Add a little avocado crema and top with several slices of the red onion. 

Soft-Shell Crab--Cua Lot Chien Bot

As a child, I had heard of soft-shell crabs from my parents, who were both originally from the East Coast.  Although I don't remember being fond of any kind of seafood before our family lived in Malaysia for a year in 1966, the concept of a soft-shell crab always fascinated me.  It seemed so brutal and perverse to wait until the animal was at its most vulnerable stage to harvest and devour it.  That there was this small window of time when the crab's exoskeleton was defenseless against a predator's appetite always held some allure for me.  This was not an everyday dish.  This was special.

Still, for all their appeal, I didn't get the chance to try soft-shell crab until 1994 while living in Saigon.  By the time the Gastronomer discovered the crab shack in 2008, prices had risen considerably from what they were in 1994, but the food there is still worth every dong.  I believe the cha gio were 5,000 dong (about 35 cents) when we first ate there and the soft-shell crabs were similarly priced.  I know the beer bill was always higher than the food bill when it came time to pay. And beer was cheap.

When I was picking up some ahi from Sunh Fish on Broadway, I noticed they had some boxes of soft-shelled crabs in their freezer.  The crabs come five to the box,  have already been cleaned,  and are ready to cook once they thaw.  Although they couldn't really compare to the ones in Saigon, at a little under $2 a piece they were worth a try.

I was tempted to make a sort of soft-shell crab po' boy sandwich, or with a tamarind sauce, but in the end decided to go with a crispy fried version served on top of a meatless yum woon sen containing several types of mushrooms.   Although I was pleased with how the crabs tasted, I think fried food never tastes as good when you are the one doing the frying.  More importantly, they were a hit with Tjing, who has a particularly unpleasant memory associated with Quan 94 in Saigon.

 

The recipe is adapted from Authentic Recipes from Vietnam.  The use of soy sauce results in a dark batter; replacing the soy sauce with a tablespoon of fish sauce would probably produce a lighter, more attractive batter.

Crispy Soft-shell Crab

1 tsp sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp grated ginger

2 tsp gound white pepper

1 tsp salt

1 cup all-purpose wheat flour

1 cup rice flour

1 cup water

1 TBS rice vinegar

2 TBS soy sauce (see note above)

1 tsp oil

1 tsp sugar

soft-shell crabs

flour for dusting the crabs

oil for frying

Mix the first five ingredients together and marinate the crabs in this mixture for 30--45 minutes.

Mix the ingredients for the batter, aiming for a thin, pancake-like batter.  

Dust the marinated crabs in flour, then dip in batter before frying in oil at 360º--375º.  The crabs will have a lot of moisture and may spatter while frying, so be careful.  I found I could comfortably fry two crabs at a time in a wok.  

Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce, nuoc cham, or tamarind-ginger dipping sauce.

Crab Fried Rice

Fried rice is one of those dishes that I generally avoid at restaurants.  It's a great way to get rid of leftovers, but that's not why I go to restaurants.  Moreover, it is often greasy, fried in too much oil.  At home, fried rice is a treat.  It's quick, easy, and not greasy at all.

 Crab fried rice is not a dish of leftovers.  Although I originally had this version at a restaurant near the school where I taught in Jakarta, this is not an Indonesian style of nasi goreng.  Indonesian nasi goreng features kecap manis and is a dish that I associate more with breakfast.  This crab fried rice is more subtly spiced and allows the crab to stand out.  The addition of corn adds a little sweetness and texture to the rice.

It's important to use good quality crab meat when making this dish.  You could add other ingredients if you like, but I prefer to let the crab be the star of the show here.  That's the same reason I would feature this as the main dish of the meal, not peripheral to any other dish.

Crab Fried Rice

(printable version)

4 cups cold, cooked rice
1 cup good quality crab meat
2 shallots, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1--2 red chilies, finely diced
kernels from 1 ear of corn, about 1/2 cup
2 large eggs
3 green onions, thinly sliced
2 TBS fish sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
3 TBS Thai basil, finely chopped
2--3 TBS vegetable oil

Beat the eggs with 1 tsp of the fish sauce.  Heat a wok or frying pan over medium high heat.  Add a little oil to cover the bottom.  Fry half the egg mixture to make a thin omelet.  Remove and repeat with the remaining egg.  Let the omelets cool, then roll and slice into thin strips.

Heat the remaining oil in the wok.  First, fry the corn for about a minute.  Then, add shallots and garlic and briefly fry.  Next, add chilies and fry another 30 seconds or so.  After this, add green onions and then stir in rice, breaking up any clumps.  Then, add crab meat, fish sauce and soy sauce.  Stir well to distribute the ingredients evenly.  (If necessary, add a little water to help break up any rice clumps.) Finally, stir in the Thai basil just before removing from heat.  Decorate the plated rice with the omelet strips before serving.

Roasted Eggplant and Crab Meat Salad on Won Ton Triangles

 

Our niece, the princess, recently returned to Indonesia after living with us for several years while she went to college here.  Although we would have liked it if she had stayed longer, we certainly understood her  desire to return home to her mother, grandmother, and miserable dogs.  At the same time, her departure has expanded the foods we're able to enjoy.  

Despite coming from an archipelago blessed with some tremendous seafood, the princess is allergic to all that the ocean produces.  She also claims to be allergic to eggplant.  She doesn't claim to be allergic to carrots, but has an aversion to them that borders on the phobic.  Since her return to Indonesia, I've reintroduced these items to our table.  

Eggplant is a vegetable that people generally love or hate.  Mishandled, it can be god-awful--greasy, salty, or bitter.  That is especially true for the larger, globe eggplant.  Asian eggplant tend not to be as bitter.  Roasted, they have a subtle sweetness and a silken texture.  Ca tim nuong, Vietnamese grilled eggplant, combines the eggplant with scallion oil and a salty-sweet dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, chilies and sugar.  Mix in some crab meat and serve on top of fried won ton triangles and you've got a wonderful appetizer, perfect for autumn when eggplants are at their best.

As much as I enjoyed it, this is not something I would have cooked for the princess's birthday this week had she still been here.  Still, I hope she had a wonderful time with family and friends in Surabaya.

Roasted Eggplant and Crab Meat Salad on Won Ton Triangles

(printable recipe)

Two slender, Japanese or Chinese, eggplant

1/2 cup crab meat (preferably fresh)

3 TBS mint, finely julienned

3 TBS Thai basil, finely julienned

2 scallions (green onions), green parts only, finely sliced into thin rounds

2 TBS vegetable oil

Juice of 1 lime

1 clove of garlic

2 TBS fish sauce

2--3 TBS sugar

1 red chili, seeded and minced (I didn't have any on hand, so I left it out)

1 TBS Thai sweet chili sauce

Prick the eggplants with a fork in 6 to 8 places.  Roast over a hot grill until softened.  When cool, peel, cut into 2 inch lengths and pull the pieces into shreds.  Heat the oil to smoking, then pour over the scallions.  Pour over the shredded eggplant. 

Mix the eggplant and scallions with the crab meat and herbs.  Lightly drizzle with the dressing.  Serve on top of won ton triangles for an appetizer.  This can also be served as an accompaniment to other dishes with rice.

Belgian Endive Crab Bites

Tis the season for cocktail parties. Which means it's also the season for overindulgence in rich, buttery, cheesy, creamy appetizers and dips, along with an array of buttery cookies and baked goods. And what's wrong with that? Nothing, really, 'cept sometimes you want something a little lighter.

But by lighter, I don't mean broccoli spears and carrot sticks in an insipid fat-free mayo dip. I mean something naturally light and refreshing and tasty. Because if I have to choose between something tasty that will cause my doctor to cry and something healthy that has no taste, doc, the kleenex are next to the puff pastry. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be an either or dilemma. You can graze the hors d'oeuvre table and eat light, satisfying bites that aren't loaded with butter or cream.

Belgian endive are the perfect vegetable for delivering refreshing bites. They can be filled with any number of toppings and assembled ahead of time. When your guests come, the leaves are still crisp, an advantage over crostini. Also, people feel good about themselves when they eat something in a leaf. Serve chocolate truffles topped with caramel in an endive leaf and people would gobble them up while feeling so good about themselves for getting a vegetable.

The dressing for the salad utilizes kaffir lime pepper jelly, but you could use Thai sweet chili sauce instead. However, I strongly recommend the use of fresh kaffir lime leaves in the salad. They add a very refreshing accent. If you can't find those, you might try finely grated lime zest.



Belgian Endive Crab Bites

Belgian endive (Trader Joe's sells them in packs of three--two green, one red)

crab meat, preferably fresh, picked over to remove any cartilage or shell
red pepper, finely diced
Fuji apple, finely diced (fresh waterchestnuts or jicama could be substituted)
kaffir lime leaves, center vein removed, finely minced

1 TBS kaffir lime pepper jelly (or Thai sweet chili sauce)
1 TBS fish sauce
2 TBS water
lime juice, to taste

Mix crab, red pepper, apple and lime leaves together. Squeeze some lime over salad to keep apple from browning.

Heat jelly (if using) in microwave to liquify. Stir in fish sauce, water and lime juice. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary to have a tart, slightly sweet dressing. Lightly dress the crab salad.

Spoon salad into washed, dried endive leaves. Plate and serve.

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