Thai Yellow Crab Curry

February 23, 2019 4 Comments

Serving presentation. Crab in Thai yellow curry paste paste

As a city dweller, cooking with crab is not something that springs instantly to mind. However, I have had quite a few requests for a crab curry recipe, one person even going to far as to say they have “crabs coming out of their ears” where they live. Once upon a time such a comment would have alarmed me, not any more. I remember being more than alarmed when somebody came into a restaurant and exclaimed that it was raining "cats and dogs" outside, I even went to the window to check and was actually quite relieved to discover that this was just a more colourful use of the English language!

This is actually a Thai dish that doesn’t scream I'm Thai! It uses evaporated milk in place of coconut milk and traditionally this is cooked with curry powder, a rarity in Thai cooking. Here we are using Thai yellow curry paste so maybe not so traditional but it makes the cooking easier and the outcome more certain as curry powders can vary tremendously. There is absolutely no reason why you can't use coconut milk in place of evaporated milk but this is the way you would eat this dish in Thailand.

This is actually a pretty quick dish to prepare and cook so don’t be put off by the amount of pictures below, that is just me covering it in detail.

Ingredients
1 large cooked crab or 2 smaller crabs
1 packet of Thai Yellow Curry paste
1 can of evaporated milk
2 eggs
2 garlic cloves
20 grams Oyster Sauce
10 grams Sugar
1 medium onion
A few spring onions, mild red chillies and some celery stalk and leaves.

Thai Crab Curry Ingredients
Usually your crab seller will be happy to clean and crack the crab for you but is not difficult to do anyway. Pry the shell off, pulling from the back of the crab. Remove the abdomen, that is the small flap of shell on the underside of the crab. Pull out the spongy grey gills and remove the guts, these are the greenish brown substances found inside the crab. Hold the crab under running water to remove traces of the guts. You can discard the top shell, the carapace, cleaning out any meat left inside. In the photos I have left it on simply for illustration purposes, once you have removed the top shell most crabs can be broken in half or quarters by hand or use a large knife to cut tougher crabs. Crack the crab claws so that you and your guests can pick out the crab meat. Of course its possible to completely remove the shells and cook this with just the crab meat. However, eating this Thai style and getting messy is a lot more fun!

cracked crab pieces
Prepare your vegetables as below
chopped onions garlic celery
In a mixing bowl or large jug mix one packet of Thai yellow curry paste, 2 eggs, 20 g of oyster sauce and 10 g of sugar. Whisk together until well mixed slowly adding 400 g of evaporated milk and place to one side.
2 eggs in mixing jug
Eggs with curry paste in jug
Heat up a wok with a spoonful of oil, add the chopped garlic stirring until slightly brown, add the onions and chopped chillies.
stir fry onions and garlic
Add chillies to stir fry
Add the cracked crab, spring onions and celery and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
Add cracked crab to stir fry
add chopped celery to stir fry
Add the sauce and keep stir frying until sauce bubbles.add sauce mixture to stir fry
continue stirring
Serve and enjoy!
Thai Yellow Crab Curry Serving Presentation

Enjoy!

If you like this recipe please click the star rating or add a comment below!  Kop Khun Kha, Nitsa.x

 

star



4 Responses

Lorraine Todaro
Lorraine Todaro

April 26, 2024

Can’t wait to try this dish tonight. Looks so yummy

Mark Samuels
Mark Samuels

February 28, 2023

Stunning. I’ve cooked this dish several times but previously used curry powder, and I know that’s the way it’s supposed to be cooked. However, the paste used here is far superior to a curry powder mix and the end result floored me. 10/10.

Jo
Jo

November 28, 2022

Looks fabulous and I will try it when I can get my hands on some crab… only swimmer crab here though. But my question is does the egg addition to the sauce not cause it to curdle?

maurine
maurine

February 18, 2020

had this for lunch today thought I had died and gone to fo0d heaven. yum yum yum

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.


Also in Recipe Blog

Serving Suggestion
Beef Short Ribs in Panang Curry Sauce

October 01, 2024 2 Comments

Have you ever tasted something so delicious that it feels like a culinary revelation? That's exactly how it feels to bite into a perfectly cooked beef short rib. I’m deeply in love with them, the rich slow cooked meat practically falls off the bone, leaving you craving for more. No wonder I’ve fallen head over heels for this underrated cut of meat. Gone are the days when you had to visit a specialty butcher to get your hands on beef short ribs as well, thanks to supermarkets like Sainsbury's ...

Continue Reading

Thai Curry Pie
Thai Curry Pie

July 26, 2024

My first confession is that that I never thought I would be sitting here writing a recipe for a Thai Curry pie, but times change and we change with them or stagnate. My interest was sparked on my first trip back to Bangkok after the pandemic, chicken curry puffs have long been a popular Thai snack but savoury pies, usually steak and kidney, were very much something that was restricted to the Bangkok expat pub scene. All that had changed, bake shops were springing up outside the traditional to...

Continue Reading

Prik Naam Pla, Thai dipping sauce.
Prik Naam Pla, Thai dipping sauce.

July 01, 2023 2 Comments

This is the essential Thai dipping sauce you see all over Thailand. An absolute must for the Pad Kaprow recipe but also used to spice up almost any dish, particularly grilled meats or similar. And for many Thais they can't think of eating a fried egg without some Prik Naam Pla to top it. More than anything, it sums up the Thai food tastes of sour sweet and salty. Spicy? Of course that also depends on what chillies you use for this, and if you're prepared to do the extra work of separating out...

Continue Reading

3309
Verified Reviews