Sand crabs are lovely if you don't mind eating with your fingers, as you pull the crabs apart. This is a really simple easy recipe & full of flavour.
Collect the ingredients, 2 or 3 big cloves of garlic (crushed) , tablespoon of chopped ginger, 1 lemon grass stalk, bunch fresh of coriander, 2 green chillis and small red chillis (to taste), salt 1 tablespoon, good twist of cracked pepper, 1 or 2 lemons, table spoon of brown sugar, splash of oil, onion, bunch fresh of basil, 2 cans of coconut milk, 1 cup of white wine, splash of sesame oil, big splash of fish sauce, bok choy & rice.
- Most of the ingredients
- chopped up
- raw crabs
- clean crabs cut in half
Chop up what needs to be chopped up, then in a big saucepan, add a good dash of oil and the chopped onion. Fry for a little while then add sesame oil, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, coriander stalks chopped up fine - (save the leaf for dressing), chopped basil, salt, pepper, sugar & chilli's. Fry for a couple of minutes over mid heat and then add the wine. Turn the heat up a bit and let it start to bubble, then add the coconut milk and heat until it bubbles. Tip the prepared crabs in and stir a bit. Cover and let bubble away. Taste the sauce as it is cooking and adjust the flavour to suit with either more sugar or salt or lemon juice. It is a bit hard to stir, so scoop up the sauce and pour over the top of the crabs that are not immersed. Stir them if you can. With about 2 -3 minutes to go, drop the chopped up bok choy into the saucepan. It will be ok if it just sits on top of the crabs. As long as there is a lid on top, the crabs will steam through. Give them about 10 minutes in total and they should be ready.
- cooking in the big saucepan.
While all this is happening, cook some rice. Serve the rice in a bowl, drop some crab halves in and then scoop some sauce over the top and finish with fresh coriander.
- Served with fresh coriander. Messy to eat but magnificent.
