This recipe is so good that Ewen now prefers when I make crab fried rice at home rather than eating it at our favorite Thai eatery.

While you could steam your own crab and carefully pluck all the meat out while removing all the fragments of the shell, I much prefer to buy a tub of crab meat ready to go. This one is from the supermarket, but your local fishmonger will also sell tubs of crab meat.

Cooking on low to medium heat is key too; it creates a much nicer flavour than when cooking on searing high. I love plenty of fresh lime juice too, to really bring it all together. Serve it as the main event or as a side to a few other Thai dishes.

Fried Rice with Crab (Kao Pat Bpuu)

David Thompson

Print Recipe

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

• 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
• good pinch of salt
• 3-4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 eggs (ideally 1 duck and 1 chicken)
• 300g cooked rice– freshly-cooked and warm, but not steaming hot
• 1-2 tbsp light soy sauce
• pinch of sugar
• pinch of white pepper
• 100g crabmeat
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped

Chillies in Fish Sauce

• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 5-10 bird’s eye chillies, finely sliced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbsp lime juice

Instructions

 

• Combine the chillies in fish sauce ingredients and set aside for serving.
• Crush garlic with salt to form a coarse paste with a pestle and mortar, or simply mince the garlic and mix in the salt. Heat a wok on a low-medium heat together with 2 tbsp of the oil and stir in the garlic paste. Fry until aromatic and starting to colour, then crack in the eggs, allowing them to set slightly before stirring and scrambling.
• While the eggs are still soft and not fully-cooked, throw in the rice and turn the flame to low. Mix and toss the rice, handling it gently and ensuring all the grains are coated with oil and egg. If it appears to dry add an extra drizzle of oil (not too much though – the rice should not be swimming in it).
• Season with half the soy, sugar and pepper, and continue to fry until well combined. Taste and add more soy as needed. Stir in the crab meat and spring onions, reserving a little to sprinkle over the fried rice when serving if you wish.
• Spoon onto two plates and top with the reserved crabmeat and spring onions. Serve with coriander, lime wedges, cucumber slices and a small bowl of chillies in fish sauce on the side.