How To Make Thai Coconut Curry Crab
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Mr. Cook loves Dungeness Crab so when it’s crab season in Humboldt County he’s looking for ways to consume this delicacy. Here we combine a custard with Thai curry flavors, coconut milk and picked Dungeness crab meat.
This recipe can be made with crab still in the shell. You can just split a cooked crab in half and put the whole thing in the pan and serve it that way. It makes for a stunning presentation! It’s a bit messy to eat so we prefer to pick the crab first. That makes for a lackluster presentation when plated so be sure to use bright colored garnishes to spruce up the plate.
This Recipe is naturally gluten free.
Watch a Video
Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Thai Coconut Curry Crab.
The Ingredients
This recipe doesn’t require too many ingredients and some of them appear in a lot of Thai recipes so you might have them on hand. We have recipes for the Red Curry Paste and Chile Oil and the Fish Sauce and Oyster Sauce are staples we always have on hand.
Dungeness Crab
We like to go to the docks to get fresh live Dungeness crab and bring it home to steam it. It just can’t get any fresher than that. You can use any crab meat for this recipe. A whole Dungeness crab yields about 8 ounces of picked meat, give or take a couple ounces. they really do vary in size although the last couple years they have been more uniform. You don’t need to worry about that for this recipe, just use one whole crab and it will be fine.
Making the Custard
In this recipe, the crab is suspended in a custard, so we’ll start by mixing the custard batter. We’re going to start with 1 Tablespoon of the curry paste in a good sized mixing bowl. You’ll want to have plenty of room in the bowl to wisk the eggs later.
Chile Oil and Coconut Milk
Next we will add 1 tablespoon of chile oil and 1/4 cup of coconut milk. Our 1/4 cup of milk is all the coconut in this dish even though it is prominent in the name.
3 Eggs
We are going to wisk this together well to make sure the curry paste is well incorporated without any lumps. Then we will add the three whole eggs.
Fish Sauce, Oyster Sauce and Black Pepper
We want to wisk this pretty thoroughly to get it all mixed and then we’ll add the fish sauce, oyster sauce and black pepper. A little more wisking and the custard will be ready to cook
Cook Garlic and Onion
Now it’s time to cook our curry! If you have a wok that would be the traditional vessel for this job but a skillet works just fine. We want to heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan over medium heat. You can use more chile oil if you want but this had enough heat for our purposes. Once the oil is hot we will add the onions and garlic and let them cook for a minute or so. We want the onions to be slightly translucent but still have a bit of a crunchy texture.
Red Curry Paste
Next we will add in the rest of our red curry paste and stir that in well so it’s all incorporated.
Add the Crab
Now we are ready to add the crab. We will want to mix this in with the onion and curry and let it get warm. If the crab has been in the refrigerator this will take a bit longer but take the time to let warm up because the rest of this goes really fast.
Add Custard Mix
Lastly we will add in our custard mix and stir it quickly and steadily until it is cooked. We don’t want to overcook this but rather leave it just a bit wet for a nice creamy texture rather than an omelet.
Plate Immediately
Then we remove it from the heat and plate it right away. This looks like somewhat of a brown goo so we need to dress it up with colorful garnishes. Celery leaves will keep a nice color as will slivered green onions. A lime wedge is always good with a curry even though this one isn’t desperate for acid like some. We like cherry tomatoes to get some red color. Crab season in California is in winter so there aren’t many flowers available but if you have some edible flowers they would be a nice touch as well.
You might also like our Crab Stuffed Mushrooms With Yellow Curry Sauce recipe.
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Thai Coconut Curry Crab
- Prep Time: 30 minutes Includes picking crab
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Curry
- Cuisine: Thai
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
When it’s Dungeness crab season we’re always looking for ways to consume this delicacy. Here we combine a custard with Thai curry flavors, coconut milk and picked Dungeness crab meat.
Ingredients
- Meat of a whole crab. (approximately 8 oz picked meat)
- 3 Tbls Red Curry Past, divided
- 1/4 cup Coconut Milk
- 1 Tbls Chile Oil
- 3 Eggs
- 1 Tbls Fish Sauce
- 1 Tbls Oyster Sauce
- 1/8 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Tbls Olive Oil
- 1/4 Onion, diced
- 6 Cloves Garlic, chopped
Garnish
- Cherry Tomato Halves
- Celery Leaves
- Lime Wedges
- Sliced Green Onions
- Edible Flowers
Instructions
- Put 1 Tablespoon red curry paste in a mixing bowl along with the coconut and chile oil. Wisk until it is smooth.
- Add the eggs, fish sauce, oyster sauce and black pepper. Wisk until it is all evenly mixed.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for about a minute.
- Add the crab to the skillet, stir it in gently so you don’t break up the larger pieces too much and cook until the crab warms through.
- Add the egg custard mix and stir quickly with a rubber spatula to incorporate it well as it cooks. This will only need about a minute to cook. It should be a little wet when done.
- Plate immediately and add some colorful garnish.
Notes
This dish can be made with crab in the shell. Separate the two halves and coat them well in the curry before adding the custard mix.
