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Coconut Curry Soup with Crab and Prawns
Well the other night I made steak oscar for Valentine's day and had about half a pound of fresh crab meat left over. My wife was sick so I figured I would make a soup! For some reason a curry soup just seemed right for the crab and I happened to have some tiger prawns on hand as well. So here is what I did and what you will need:
1/2 lb crab
1/2 lb tiger prawns
2 sticks lemongrass (cut thin)
3 cloves garlic (diced)
ginger (2 2inch slivers)
1 bunch basil (finely chopped)
about 1/4 cup fish sauce
1 serrano chile pepper sliced (can go with Thai chiles or lantern chiles if you can find them and can handle the heat)
Red Thai curry paste/sauce to taste (at least 2 tbsp)
lime juice (1 tbsp)
2 cans coconut milk,
~32oz chicken broth
chives (garnish)
For shrimp: You can go the easy route and buy some sort of asian glaze from the store or just mix some hoison, honey, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and Sriracha to taste. You just need enough to lightly glaze the shrimp.
I cooked the shrimp and the soup simultaneously to keep everything fresh so I will go off memory based on the assumption you will do the same. Coat 2 pans with penut oil (maybe 2-3 teaspoons each) and heat both to med-high. While the pans are heating up dice up your ingredients as indicated above,
Peel and de-vein your shrimp then brush them with a little penut oil and shake just a bit of salt and pepper on each side. Put them in the pan and barely coat with your glaze (or you can honestly just let them cook in the oil with maybe a little soy sauce). I give them about 3-4 minutes per side but YMMV based on your stove so just cook them until appropriately pink. Set aside when done.
At the same time as the shrimp are cooking you can let the base flavors of the soup start evolving. Toss the basil, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, pepper and curry powder/sauce (use what is available to you)
Create a spicy tso glaze for the prawns and saute until barely cooked through, set aside.
Dice the garlic and basil. Slice lemongrass (pondering methods for managing this). Slice ginger and saute all with curry paste to simmer for ~7-8 min over medium -high heat. Saute for about 7-8 minutes then turn the heat to medium.
Add chicken broth and prawns and simmer for 8 minutes just below a boil. If you do this right it won't be so hot as to fubar your prawns but it will get all the flavors working together quite nicely. Add in 2/3 of crab and coconut milk and stir to mix. Let simmer until hot and serve immediately. Top with remaining crab in the bowls and chives on top. Serve with a side of sticky rice and spring rolls.
*Note: One thing I would change is I would keep the lemongrass stalks at either full length so they can be easily removed or diced up very thin so they aren't obtrusive. You want all the flavor but not the irritation of eating a fuggin stick.
Well the other night I made steak oscar for Valentine's day and had about half a pound of fresh crab meat left over. My wife was sick so I figured I would make a soup! For some reason a curry soup just seemed right for the crab and I happened to have some tiger prawns on hand as well. So here is what I did and what you will need:
1/2 lb crab
1/2 lb tiger prawns
2 sticks lemongrass (cut thin)
3 cloves garlic (diced)
ginger (2 2inch slivers)
1 bunch basil (finely chopped)
about 1/4 cup fish sauce
1 serrano chile pepper sliced (can go with Thai chiles or lantern chiles if you can find them and can handle the heat)
Red Thai curry paste/sauce to taste (at least 2 tbsp)
lime juice (1 tbsp)
2 cans coconut milk,
~32oz chicken broth
chives (garnish)
For shrimp: You can go the easy route and buy some sort of asian glaze from the store or just mix some hoison, honey, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and Sriracha to taste. You just need enough to lightly glaze the shrimp.
I cooked the shrimp and the soup simultaneously to keep everything fresh so I will go off memory based on the assumption you will do the same. Coat 2 pans with penut oil (maybe 2-3 teaspoons each) and heat both to med-high. While the pans are heating up dice up your ingredients as indicated above,
Peel and de-vein your shrimp then brush them with a little penut oil and shake just a bit of salt and pepper on each side. Put them in the pan and barely coat with your glaze (or you can honestly just let them cook in the oil with maybe a little soy sauce). I give them about 3-4 minutes per side but YMMV based on your stove so just cook them until appropriately pink. Set aside when done.
At the same time as the shrimp are cooking you can let the base flavors of the soup start evolving. Toss the basil, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, pepper and curry powder/sauce (use what is available to you)
Create a spicy tso glaze for the prawns and saute until barely cooked through, set aside.
Dice the garlic and basil. Slice lemongrass (pondering methods for managing this). Slice ginger and saute all with curry paste to simmer for ~7-8 min over medium -high heat. Saute for about 7-8 minutes then turn the heat to medium.
Add chicken broth and prawns and simmer for 8 minutes just below a boil. If you do this right it won't be so hot as to fubar your prawns but it will get all the flavors working together quite nicely. Add in 2/3 of crab and coconut milk and stir to mix. Let simmer until hot and serve immediately. Top with remaining crab in the bowls and chives on top. Serve with a side of sticky rice and spring rolls.
*Note: One thing I would change is I would keep the lemongrass stalks at either full length so they can be easily removed or diced up very thin so they aren't obtrusive. You want all the flavor but not the irritation of eating a fuggin stick.
