Name: Crab Casserole in Coconut Milk
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Thailand
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons sugar; 4 tablespoons finely sliced shallots; 2 tablespoons fish sauce or light soy sauce; 2 tablespoons lime juice; 2 teaspoons fresh lime zest; 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns; 400 ml (14 fl oz) tinned coconut milk; 2 small fresh red or green Thai chillies, seeded and chopped; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander; 1.4–1.7 kg (3–3½ lb) live or freshly cooked crab in the shell; 3 stalks fresh lemongrass

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Ken Hom Cooks Thai

By Ken Hom

Published 2001

About

Thailand with all her plentiful rivers and lakes, enjoys a bountiful supply of crab and other seafood. Bountiful implies relatively inexpensive and therefore popular, and such is the case. Imaginative Thai cooks have learned many ways to bring out the best of the crab’s succulent and delicate sweet meat, paying special attention to the rich orange roe. The coconut milk is but one of the bracing seasonings in this recipe that so enhance the virtues of the crab. This is a splendid main dish.<