Bu Neung (Steamed Crabs)

The food should be steamed in a bamboo steamer to avoid condensation dripping onto the cooking food. Alternatively, if you use a metal steamer cover the food with a paper towel which is not in contact with the food.

Serve steamed cracked crabs with nam prik kiga. A little practice will enable you to remove the meat from the crabs with minimal difficulty. You will need a small, heavy, sharp kitchen knife and a mallet. You'll find the meat in the body sections where the legs attach to the body and in the claws. There is a very good guide to the technique of picking crabs at MarylandInfo.com

3 blue crabs

Put crabs in a large pot with rack and tight fitting lid, or large steamer. Steam covered, until crabs turn bright red color, about 15 to 25 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Bu Ob Woon Sen (Crabs with Glass Noodles in Claypot)

Recipe from: Royal Thai Cuisine
Servings: 4

• 2 whole crabs (about 2 pounds or 1 kg)

• 1 tablespoon oil

• 7 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

• 2 slices lean bacon, cut into 1 inch (2 ½ cm) pieces

• 2 coriander roots, cut in half

• 2 inches (5 cm) ginger, sliced

• 1 teaspoon white peppercorns, crushed

• 8 ounce (250 g) dried glass noodles (bean threads or cellophane noodles) soaked in cold water to soften for 5 minutes and drained

• 1 teaspoon butter

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

• 2 spring onions, cut in 1 ½ inch (4-cm) lenghts

• 1 spring coriander leaves (cilantro)

Stock

• 2 cups (500 ml) Thai Chicken Stock
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons brandy or whisky
• 2 teaspoons sugar

1. Place all the Stock ingredients in pan, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
2. Clean each crab by scrubbing it briskly with a brush. (If still alive, make sure the pincers are tied securedly.) Rinse well with cold water. Using a cleaver or a heavy knife, cut the crab in half, then halve it again. Chop off the pincers, crack them and set aside. Remove the shell, scrape it out and set aside any roe.
3. Heat the ol in a large clay pot or heatproof casserole. Stir-fry the garlic over high heat till lightly brown. Add bacon and stir-fry for one minute. Add crab, coriander roots, ginger and peppercorns. Stir-fry for 3 minuters.
4. Add glass noodles, butter, soy sauce and Stock. Mix will, cover and cook over high heat for 15-20 minutes or until crabs are cooked. Stir in spring onions and rarnish with cilantro. Serve hot.

Bu Pad Pong Karee (Curried Crab Claws)

Recipe from: Colonel Ian F. Khuntilanont-Philpott

This is a mild curried dish, usually served as a counterpoint to a more intense curry or garlic dish. It can be prepared with crab claws, or with a cup of crab meat, or a mixture of crab meat and shrimp. Since it is often eaten with chop sticks, you might consider removing the meat from the claws, as this makes it easier for the spice flavours to penetrate and easier to eat the food. Thai curry powder (phom kari) is unlikely to be available outside Thailand. Use a mild Indian curry powder instead. Prik yuak is a sweet green chili, if not available use green bell peppers or canned jalapeños to taste.

• 2 spring onions (scallions/green onions), sliced thinly

• 1 cup crab meat

• 1 tablespoon garlic, sliced thinly

• 2 tablespoon fish stock

• 1 teaspoon phom kari

• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce

• 2 tablespoon fish sauce

• 2 tablespoon shallots, sliced thinly

• 1 tablespoon julienned prik yuak

• pinch of sugar

Heat some oil in a wok, and stir fry the garlic and onions. Add the fish stock, soy sauce and fish sauce, and stir fry the crab until nearly cooked, then add the remaining ingredients. Line a serving dish with lettuce and pour the crab over it, garnish with coriander leaves, lime leaves, and slices of cucumber. If using crab claws, then steam the crab claws, and combine the remaining ingredients separately, and reduce them to form a dipping sauce.

This dish is of course served with the usual Thai table condiments, and personally I like to add quite a bit of prik dong (red chilis in vinegar) to it. As always with this type of tropical seafood dish, you can serve it hot, at room temperature, or chilled.

Gaeng Gai (Chicken Curry)

Recipe from: Amanda

This recipe is better than most Thai restaurants.

• 4 tablespoon vegetable oil

• 10 dried red chilies, crushed (adjust heat to your taste. this amount makes a fairly hot dish)

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1 teaspoon ground galangal (kha)

• 1 stalk fresh lemon grass, chopped fine

• 4 tablespoon fresh coriander, chopped

• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 6 kaffir lime leaves

• 1 tablespoon ground coriander seed

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 2 tablespoon fish sauce

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned, cut into 1/8 inch slices

• 10 ounce shredded bamboo shoots

• 16 ounce coconut milk (frozen is better, but you can substitute 1-14 ounce can)

• 20 fresh basil leaves (dried basil is not a good substitute)

Heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the chilies, onion, and garlic until light brown. Add galangal, lemon grass, fresh coriander, nutmeg, lime leaves, cumin, ground coriander, sugar, fish sauce, and salt. Cook for about 2 min. over medium heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the bamboo shoots and coconut milk. Bring to boil,reduce heat and simmer about 10-15 minutes until checken is tender. Garnish with fresh basil, serve over rice. This dish is even better if you refrigerate it overnight and reheat it the next day!

Choo-Chee Goong (Red Curry Shrimp with Kaffir Lime Leaves and Basil)

Recipe from: Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood by Kasma Loha-unchit
Servings: 4 to 5

My mother has a soft spot in her heart for choo chee curries - those red hot curries with a rich, thick sauce cooked in a pan so hot that it pops and sizzles, making a swishy sound, like choo chee. Just enough of the concentrated sauce coats the pieces of seafood cooked with it, or is spooned over seafood cooked separately. Although excellent with shrimp and prawns, America's favorite seafood, Mother is first and foremost a fish lover and, now that she is advanced in years and no longer cooks, she, without fail, orders choo chee fish whenever we take her out to dine at her favorite restaurants.

So, after you've tried this recipe and enjoyed enough choo chee with shrimp, make the spicy and aromatic sauce to spoon over crispy fried fish. Mother's favorite fish for choo chee is a small, flat fish called bplah neua awn ("soft-flesh fish"), which fries to a delightfully crunchy crispiness and can be eaten almost entirely, bones and all. When it comes to eating crispy fish fins, heads, and bones, Mom beats us all. People from her generation know no waste and, from her, I've learned that food is sacred, and a life that has been sacrificed to keep us nourished should not be dishonored by throwing out any of its parts. Watching her enjoy every small bit of her crispy fish, even at a ripe old age, is a heartwarming sight.

• 1 pound medium shrimp

• 3 orange or red serrano, jalapeño, or fresno peppers

• 1 cup rich unsweetened coconut cream (preferably Mae Ploy or Chao Koh brand-spoon the thickest cream off the top of an unshaken can of coconut milk)

• 2 to 3 tablespoons red curry paste

• nam plah, as needed (some packaged curry pastes are already heavily salted)

• 2 teaspoons palm sugar, or to taste

• 8 kaffir lime leaves, very finely slivered

• ½ to 1 cup Thai basil leaves (bai horapa)

• 1 to 2 short sprigs of Thai basil (bai horapa) with purple flower buds, for garnish

Shell, devein, and butterfly the shrimp; give them a saltwater bath to freshen. Rinse and drain well, and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before cooking.

Cut two of the three red peppers into thin rounds, including seeds, and pound with a mortar and pestle to a coarse paste. Cut other pepper with seeds into fine inch-long slivers.

Heat 2/3 cup coconut cream in a wok or skillet over high heat. When it has warmed to a smooth consistency, spoon out 1 tablespoon and reserve. Reduce remaining cream for a few minutes until it is thick and bubbly and the oil begins to separate from the cream. Add curry paste, mushing it into the cream and fry, with stirring, over medium-high heat for a few minutes, until it is aromatic and darker in color; and the mixture is very thick.

Increase heat to high and add the remaining 1/3 cup coconut cream, stirring to make a thick, well-blended sauce. Season to taste with fish sauce and palm sugar: Stir well to melt sugar and blend seasonings. Toss in shrimp and cook in the sauce, stirring frequently. When most of them have lost their raw pink color on the outside, stir in the crushed chillies and kaffir lime leaves. Stir-fry 10 to 15 seconds before adding basil and slivered chilli. Stir well to wilt basil and, when shrimp are just cooked through, turn off heat.

Transfer to a serving dish and dribble reserved tablespoon of coconut cream over shrimp. Garnish with a sprig or two of basil.

Notes:
To make the sauce, follow the instructions to the end, simply skipping the shrimp. Try the sauce over crispy fried, whole small or flat fish, such as pompano, butterfish, sole, white perch, smelts, and anchovies. The sauce is also good over pan-fried or grilled mackerel. Or, if you prefer, smother over grilled halibut, salmon, albacore, tuna, mahi mahi, jumbo prawns, lobster, or whatever else you like to toss on your charcoal grill. Top with the coconut cream and garnish with basil sprigs. For strong-tasting fish, about 2 tablespoons of fine inch-long slivers of fresh rhizome (qkrachal) can be added to the sauce at the same time as the basil and cooked until both are wilted.

Besides cooking with shrimp, as in this recipe, substitute squid, scallops, shelled clams, and mussels, or a combination of shellfish and mollusks.

Choo-Chee Pa (Curried Spicy Mackerel)

Recipe from: Appon's Thai Food

Mackerel is an oily fish and a good source of essential fish oils. This dish is how we serve it in Thailand, with a spicy green pepper and curry sauce together with strips of lime leaves.

• 1 to 2 Mackerel Fish

• 250 ml Coconut Milk

• 1 Tablespoon Red Curry Paste

• ½ Teaspoon Salt

• 1 Teaspoon Sugar

• 2 Kaffir Leaves

• 2 Red Chiles

Clean the mackerel and cut in half, gut it and steam for 10 minutes.

Put the coconut milk in the frying pan and warm it on the heat. When the coconut milk starts to steam, add the red curry paste and oil and stir until mixed for 30 seconds. Add the salt and sugar until it's all mixed together then turn off the heat.

Place the mackerel on a plate, spoon over the red curry paste and finely slice the kaffir leaves and chiles and garnish the fish dish with it.

Dtap Waan (Sweet Liver)

• 1 pound beef liver, thinly sliced

• ¼ cup nam pla

• ¼ cup lime juice

• ½ teaspoon ground chili (prik khee noo pon)

• 1 tablespoon ground roasted sticky rice

• 4 shallots, thinly sliced

• ¼ cup lemon grass (ta-krai), lower 1/3 of stem, thinly sliced

• ¼ cup mint leaves

• selection of raw vegetables

Heat a large pot of water to boiling. Blanch the liver slices in the boiling water for 30 seconds or until they are almost cooked. Drain and set aside.

Place the liver slices in a large frying pan, add the fish sauce and lime juice and cook on medium-high heat for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the chili, rice, shallots and lemon grass. Stir to combine. Sprinkle with the mint leaves and remove the contents of frying pan to a serving plate. Arrange the vegetables around the liver slices.