Tag Archives: longgrain

Last night we made Stir-fried Crabs with Chilli Jam, from the Longrain book Modern Thai Food.

Preparation for this dish was made simple considering we had already made Chilli Jam for Longrain’s Tom Kha (this was over four months ago!). The book recommends that the Chilli Jam is kept for up to 2 months, but I think it can be kept for about 6 months no problems. They are probably just covering themselves against a lawsuit I guess!

We bought four Blue Swimmer crabs from Prahran Market – which ended up costing us $18 – less than the cost of an entree in most restaurants. Once we had the crabs, we went to The Essential Ingredient to pick up some seafood crackers and crab / lobster forks so that we could make the most of the feast we were about to indulge in.

First, we steamed the crabs for 7 minutes. Once they had cooled, they were ready to be cleaned up. This involves ripping the top part of the shell and the “tail” off, cleaning, and cutting them in half.

The dish is surprisingly straight forward. Fry off the garlic, chilli, and kaffir lime leaves, add the chilli jam & stir fry sauce, add the crabs, cook for a few minutes, then toss through the spring onions and some thai basil.