dungeness crabs are in season in california

The official kickoff of Dungeness crab season for the San Francisco Bay Area is around the second weekend of November. My dearest friend, Connie, invited me to her mother's for a traditional Taiwanese crab dinner which was nothing short of fabulous. Several weekends later, I decided to buy a few pounds myself and made Thai Crab Country Curry for two. The curry sauce tasted wonderful, especially with the ginger, shallots, and coconut milk (recipe below).

Thai Crab Country Curry

Ryan decided to do battle and made Roasted Garlic Crab with Garlic Noodles, inspired by his previous visits at Crustacean, a famous Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. He found a very good recipe by Rasa Malaysia.

Roasted Garlic Crab with Garlic Noodles

We also plan to make Chili Crabs for another weekend using another one of Rasa Malaysia's recipes. 

THAI CRAB COUNTRY CURRY

Ingredients:

• 1 lb crab meat
• 2-8 chopped hot chiles, such as serrano or Thai
• A 2-inch piece of galangal or ginger, grated
• 6 cloves chopped garlic
• 5 chopped shallots
• 1 T ground coriander
• Zest from a lime
• White parts from 1 stalk lemongrass, chopped fine
• 1 t shrimp paste (optional)
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 T fish sauce (optional)
• 1 t. sugar
• 3-4 lemon or lime leaves (optional)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 2 T chopped cilantro

Preparation:

Add the chiles, galangal or ginger, garlic, shallots, ground coriander, lime zest, lemon grass, salt and shrimp paste and pound it into a paste with a mortar and pestle.

In a large pot or wok, simmer the coconut milk for 5-6 minutes. Add the mixture from the mortar and stir it into the coconut milk, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. 

Add the crab, fish sauce, sugar and lime leaves and let cook for about 5 minutes, until the leaves begin to give off their aroma and the crab is warmed through.

Serve over white rice and top with black pepper and the cilantro leaves.