Wednesday, June 27, 2012

On Vacation, still cooking

I'm currently in Florida with the SO, its been one week already, i'm still here for another 2, whoop!!!!!
Its been amazing so far, i even went to Chicago for a bit to attend a friends wedding, which was a blast by the way, im back im FL now. Cooking with the boyfriend has to be the best part of this trip,
we both love food ( cooking it i mean) err maybe eating also, but who is judging, he cooks, i cook, we cook.
Its actually refreshing cooking for someone i love, i can do this forever, i look forward to him eating and criticizing or praising, the fact that i know he'd say the truth about whatever i cook makes it better, i am trying to perfect this innate gift after all.
he lives in a small town which is perfect cos we get to spend tons of times with each other without the chaos of a big city and places like Orlando and Miami are just short drives away when im craving the hustle.
When i got to his place, he had gotten me this Thai cookbook, AMAZEBALLSSSSS, i love it, the recipes are easy to follow and just straight up divine.
I'm thinking id do a giveaway for the book soon, get another copy and give my readers soon.

Anyway last week i made my first dish from the cookbook, it was a seafood dish, well being in florida when i realized i could get fresh seafood i went bananas, he took me to a seafood market and we got LIVE crabsssss, i never cooked with fresh seafood before, best believe id be doing a lot of that while i'm here, i got to kill my first crab...
hehehehehe, ok id behave....
The dish was
STIR-FRIED CRABS IN CHILI JAM

Ingredients
4 medium size crabs
3 tbsp of Olive oil
2 thai chilies, sliced finely
2 garlic cloves. crushed
3 kaffir lime leaves ( i didn't have this so i used the rinds and juice of 1 lime)
1/3 cup of chili jam (recipe to follow)
1/3 cup of homemade chicken stock
3 tbsp of oyster sauce
3 tbsp of fish sauce
1/3 cup of superfine sugar
2 scallions (green onions)
1 cup of thai basil leaves


ingredients for chili jam
1and a half cup of oil
1/2 cup of finely sliced red onion
1/4 cup of sliced garlic
6 red thai chilies
1/4 cup of dried shrimp, pre-soaked in warm water to soften then drained ( you can omit this, i did)
1in galangal root, peeled, sliced and dry roasted, ( if you cant find this, i couldn't also, you can substitute some dried oven roasted ginger and lemon juice)
1/8 cup of palm sugar, or more if you want it sweeter
1 tbsp of fish sauce
2 tbsp of dried tamarind pulp mixed with 1/8 cup of hot water, mashed and strained to obtain the juice, ( i used fresh tamarind because that was what i had, just take out the seeds and mash in a small mortar, until smooth, add a little more water if its too thick.

to make the chili jam,
heat oil  in a wok until just smoking and fry onions until they turn golden brown, take them out and leave to drain in a sieve, next, fry garlic also till golden brown using the same oil, also take out to drain then fry deseeded chilies, then stir the dry shrimp in the oil for a minute and take them out to drain.

Add the galangal to the fried ingredients and blend them all in a blender into a paste, next put blended mixture in a pot strain some of the reserved oil over it and stir to combine, heat till its almost boiling then add palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind juice , stir and remove from heat.

to make the stir fry crab

if you are using fresh crabs, insert a knife through the point where the back flap meet for 2-3 mins

set a steamer set over boiling water and steam crab for 7 minutes


remove crab from the steamer lift up the frontal flap and remove the spongy gills inside, like how it was done here, just follow that link, if you haven't done this before, you will thank me.
Cut the crabs into 2 pieces each.

Heat the oil in a wok until just smoking, add the chilies , garlic, and lime rind and juice,  stir fry for 30 seconds and then add chili jam, stock, oyster and fish sauce and sugar and reduce the heat.

Toss in the crab, stir to completely coat with sauce

then add in the green onions

then the basil

if the crab is not fully cooked, cover the wok for about 2 minutes.
Serve with jasmine rice
:D

8 comments:

Sabirah said...

That looks so yummy! I haven't had crab in forever! I remember when i was younger my mum and I used to go buy live crab at some fish market in VI on saturdays and she's cook them alive. LMAO used to terrify and excite me at the same time!

Yaay giveaway! I must win oh! One more month or less till I start eating normally again, so much new food to try!!

P.S. That is a LONG Vacation! 3 weeks? Enjoy your time together!!

Myne said...

Enjoy your vacation, sounds like fun. That live crab gives me the beejies, I'd rather go for already prepared ones :)

Molara Brown said...

Shey I should bring my plate, I no dey shame oh, this looks really yummy.

Enjoy the vacation.

AliceDCL said...

it was yummy, i looove seafood, so this was def a pleaser, my first time with lie seafood also, loved it

AliceDCL said...

looool, its an interesting concept, killing your food then cooking it. its how things are supposed to be no?

AliceDCL said...

lmaooo, if you can get your plate here then id gladly oblige oh :) thanks love

dosh said...

Errrr... no way! You lost me half way through the recipe, lol! Looks really, really yummy though and you guys sound amazing together. Have loads of fun and stay blessed

AliceDCL said...

i lost you?? :(, where? pls tell me so i can write better ones, was it too hard? there is no use writing recipes if people cannot follow
it was a fairly easy process

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