Thailand: Part One... Crab Fried Rice, Spicy Salads and Nosebleeds

This blog is in a series of 5 parts which will follow my recent trip to Thailand. The other 4 parts will follow over the coming weeks. A recipe will follow after every post. This week: Crab Fried Rice.

When my partner, Lio and I first met we talked about the food we like to cook and eat, and the best places we had travelled to. With work schedules and childcare to arrange, the best time of year we decided would be February. Our first holiday together had to be Thailand, and my favourite part, the Andaman Coast. Over 9 days we ate like kings, ordering many dishes per meal. Sometimes up to 8 dishes! (I know we're greedy ha ha). The unfair thing was that after cutting back on the wagon wheels, Lio came back thinner. Annoyingly for me, eating like a man was only going to mean one thing...I came back fatter.

We ate so much and took so many photos that I have split this blog into 5 parts, the next 4 parts will all have a recipe for one of the dishes and are as follows,

* The Phuket Open Air Night Food Market

* Our day at the Phuket Thai Cookery School

* Pad Thai at the Temple

* Street Food Stalls at Cape Panwa

Lio had chosen a beautiful hotel in Cape Panwa, a tranquil little haven on the busy and chaotic island, Phuket (Phuket airport is an experience!). We arrived at the Hotel late at night, it was absolutely amazing, what luxury! After 12 hours of plane food we checked in, showered then went out into the streets on the hunt for some Thai food.

It was so late most places had already closed. However we spotted a little cafe that seemed to be just about to shut down for the night. I think the owner's heart sank as she saw us, bless her she looked knackered. Nonetheless, we begged her to cook us some food and she was so welcoming we went back to the same place many times. It became our favourite lunch spot and I think we pretty much ate our way through her entire menu.

One of our favourites was the crab fried rice (on the green plate below). The owner used to bring me the little condiment of fish sauce with fresh chillies and lime to pour over the rice, so nice. The recipe for crab fried rice will feature at the bottom of this post, adapted from one we learnt at Phuket Thai Cookery School. (Thailand trip blog Part 3).

The next morning we got up and went down to the buffet, Lio, being French, headed straight for the pancakes with banana and syrup while I went to the thai section. One station had a big pot of stock which was different every day, they added pork, beef sometimes chicken with noodles and various green leaves. About 10 pots of little condiments to put on top, the standard fish sauce, chilli, lime mixture and then little pots of fried shallots, crispy garlic. I wanted them all. I soon remembered that Thai dried chilli flakes are much spicier than most of the ones sold in the UK, sinus explosion in the morning is the best way to wake you up! I really enjoyed the congee, a rice dish like porridge which is a very popular breakfast dish in Asia. It's especially comforting if you have an upset stomach or a hangover.

I often wake up craving something spicy, so these breakfast dishes were perfect for me. I find chilli quite addictive and can eat it any time of day. The spiciest dishes we ate were these two salads below Spicy Mango and Spicy Papaya Salad, they nearly killed my chilliphobic Monsieur off!

I convinced Lio that he could build up a tolerance to the old scoville scale. Little did I realise that he would take the largest forkful ever and cram it into his mouth before I could shout "NOT THAT MUCH IT'S REALLY SPICY!" The scene that ensued was as if he was a character in Royston Vasey after eating some of Hillary Briss's special stuff. If you haven't seen the League of Gentlemen (you should if you're from or living in yorkshire) In other words he got a massive nosebleed.

I would normally laugh at something like this but this day I wasn't laughing. After nursing for 18 years I had persuaded him it was a good idea to take some aspirin before the flight. I was convinced that I had caused it and bless Lio, forever thoughtful, he spent the next 10 minutes googling can chilli give you a nosebleed? I learnt that it could and thankfully he didn't have to go to the ENT ward to have a foley catheter shoved up his nose (this is what they did in my day as a student nurse). Anyway onto the recipe for Crab Fried Rice.....

---

RECIPE

CRAB FRIED RICE (10 -15 mins including prep)

I don't know about you, but I always cook too much rice! This recipe is perfect for using up any leftover rice. Just make sure any leftovers are cooled quickly and then bang them in the fridge straight away, to use the next day. You must reheat the rice to at least 70 degrees or piping hot when you stir fry it. It's better to use cold rice so if you're cooking it the same day it will need to be cooked cooled and refrigerated for at least an hour first.

Don't be put off by the amount of ingredients, it really is easy. I can do it in around 7/8 minutes but only because I've done it so many times it shouldn't take you more than 10-15 mins. When you're stir frying keep scraping the bottom of the pan to stop the rice and egg from sticking and burning.

I have adapted the recipe from the one we learnt at the cookery school to make it my own version with a few tweaks of what I prefer. For example I like to use coconut oil instead of their suggested vegetable oil. To be honest you can use any oil that has a high smoking point. You can substitute the crab for chicken, prawns, ham, tofu anything you like or even leave it out all together. You can use fresh crab, the prepared stuff you buy in tubs or even a tin of white crab meat. I love the brown meat but I wouldn't personally use it in this, but hey each to their own! The maggi seasoning liquid/golden mountain is optional but if you can't get hold of it don't worry just use an extra teaspoon of soy sauce.

You should be able to find all these ingredients your major supermarkets (all except golden mountain sauce which can be sourced online or from an oriental supermarket). I have read some controversy over golden mountain sauce being a carcinogen but I'll leave you to make your own mind up on this one. It's totally optional.

If you have any trouble sourcing ingredients or any aspect of the recipe please feel free to email me on kirsty@kirstyiscooking.co.uk or post in the comments below. Why not send a photo in if you try the recipe?

INGREDIENTS

2 Tablespoons of coconut oil (or vegetable/groundnut/ricebran)

4 cloves of garlic

150g of cooked crabmeat

2 eggs beaten

300g of cooked left over rice that has been cooled and refrigerated.

1 small onion chopped diced fairly finely

1 tomato diced

2 spring onions chopped finely

3 tablespoons of light soy sauce

1 teaspoon of maggi seasoning or golden mountain sauce if you have access to an oriental supermarket.

A pinch of sugar (they used a teaspoon which I thought was far too much)

A pinch of white pepper.

For after you turn off the heat:

2 teaspoons of roasted/toasted sesame oil

The sesame oil is optional, the cookery school didn't use it but to be honest I put it in at the end of most stir fried dishes, it gives it a lovely flavour. It doesn't need any heat though that will ruin it's flavour.

For garnish:

1 lime cut into wedges, fresh coriander, sliced cucumber, tomato and lettuce

METHOD

1. Heat your wok to a high heat then add the oil, when it's sizzling add the onions and stir fry for one minute. Next add the garlic be careful not to burn it you may need to turn down the heat once it starts to brown to medium as burnt garlic can taste bitter.

2. Once the garlic is starting to go slightly golden at the edges add the egg and scramble vigorously scraping the bottom so it doesn't stick. If you are using a non stick pan you'll need to use a wooden spoon.

3. When the egg is nearly cooked add the rice, turn up the heat and stir fry for a while until it's too hot to touch, then add your crabmeat, tomato, spring onions and soy sauce, sugar, seasoning, and pepper and stir fry well for another 3 minutes or until the crab is hot.

4. When it's hot turn off the heat stir in your sesame oil. Taste it now and you can always add a bit more soy sauce or pepper. Serve at once on some lettuce leaves with tomato and cucumber around the edge. Scatter over a few coriander leaves and a wedge of lime on the plate to squeeze over.

5. Once you have eaten, discard any leftovers you can't eat it again as the rice has already been reheated.

For the part two of the Thailand trip Fried Pork and Ping Pong with a recipe for Fried Pork with Garlic and Black Pepper here is the link

ENJOY!

Like the recipe? You can share using the social buttons below?

Thanks! from kirsty@kirstyiscooking

#food #cooking #spicy #freshfood #foodtravels #thailand #capepanwa #friedrice #crab #crabfriedrice