A popular Thai dish in Australia, fried rice with crab can be found on many a Thai restaurant's menu.
Thai fried rice goes particularly well with seafood. In this recipe, it's cooked with freshly steamed succulent crab meat.
The trick to successful fried rice is to use steamed rice that's been cooled in the refrigerator for at least four hours or even overnight. This helps to harden the rice which allows it to keep from breaking when fried.
For best-tasting results try to use fresh crab meat or shrimps also work well.
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
- 4 large garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 extra large egg
- 2 1/2 cups of jasmine rice, cooked and cooled in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours
- 1 x 1 1/2 pound of crab
- 1 small brown onion, thinly sliced
- 1 can of water chestnuts, drained and sliced
- 2 Tbsp of finely sliced ginger
- 1 Tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp of Thai fish sauce
- 1 tsp of white sugar
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced for garnishing
- A couple of stems of cilantro for garnish
- 1 lime quartered
Preparation:
- Cook the rice using a rice cooker or if you're cooking it on the stove, place the rice in a saucepan with scant 5 cups of water. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat to low and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes or until rice is fluffy and all the water has evaporated.
- Place rice in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or even overnight. This step must be done otherwise the rice will break or be soggy.
- If you're using a whole crab, steam it until the flesh is just cooked but don't over steam it. I steamed a 1 1/2 pond crab for 12 minutes. Remove crab from steamer and cool. Once cooled, remove the flesh from shell and set aside in a bowl. Discard the shells.
- Heat the oil in a wok over a medium heat. Add the garlic and stir-fry until light brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove the garlic and place it on a plate.
- Add the egg to the wok and scramble for 1 minute. Add the onion and cooked rice. Stir for 1 or 2 minutes.
- Next add the water chestnuts, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar to the rice. Stir-fry for another minute. Add a little more fish sauce if necessary.
- Next add the crab and stir again until crab is mixed through.
- Spoon rice onto a serving plate and garnish with spring onions and cilantro. Serve lime on plates for squeezing.