Krungthup Crab Cakes with Coconut

Yes, I know it has been a LONG time since I have posted, but I do have my excuses ready.

First of all I have been on a diet, and hence the food has really not been all that blog worthy. It has been worth it though. I have managed to lose around 9 kilos!

What have I learnt while on this diet? I have learnt that you can make a low carb approximation of rice by placing the florets of cauliflower in the Thermomix and processing them on reverse, and low,and behold they kind of look like rice - steam it and use it just like rice, or use them as a topping instead of mashed potato on a shepherd's pie! You can also make a low carb "bread" and I use that term very loosely, from whipped egg whites, and a mixture of the yolks and cream cheese. Bake them, and use them in place of bread?! All I can say is that if you are hungry enough you will eat anything!

More importantly the main reason for my extended absence has been that any spare time I have had has been spent poring over all things Italian in anticipation of my upcoming trip. Yes, we are on the countdown now, only days to go! For those of you that want to follow my adventures I will post the address of my travel blog in the next few days.

So in amongst all that diet food I did make a few little treats along the way to relieve the boredom. For me this meal was a breath of fresh air, vibrant and zingy. For DH, not so impressive. The recipe came from "my partner in crime" and she and her husband couldn't understand why, but each to their own I say!

Krungthup Crab and Coconut Cakes
Recipe from Ainsley Harriot

Serves 4

350g white crab meat, squeezed to remove any excess liquid
150g firm white fish, skinned and boned
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium egg, beaten
25g unsweetened shredded coconut
1 red long , seeded and thinly sliced
4 shallots (spring onions)
3 tbs chopped coriander
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying

Chiang-Mai Thai Dipping Sauce to serve

Cut the fish into chunks, and check that there are no bones. Place the fish into a food processor with the fish sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and a a small amount of salt and pepper. Process for a few seconds, until a rough paste has formed.

Add the crab meat and the egg, and process for a seconds or two, until well blended.

Scrape the mixture into a bowl and mix in the coconut, chilli, shallots, and coriander.

Using oiled egg rings, shape the mixture into patties. Spray the, lightly with cooking spray, and cook in a frypan that has been heated to medium high. Note that these patties will be quite sloppy, but they will firm up as,they cook. Cook the patties for 3-4 minutes each side, or until golden brown, and cooked through.

Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

Chiang-Mai Dipping Sauce

6 tbs rice wine vinegar
4 tbs caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 clove of garlic, very finely chopped
2 red Birdseye chillies, thinly sliced
1 tsp chopped coriander
1 shallot, trimmed and very finely sliced

Mix together the vinegar and the sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Stir in the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

I did serve these with a small serving of garlic chilli prawns. Yum! Make them and you be the judge!

So now back to diet food. A couple more weeks and a couple more kilos to go!

Check this out!!!

Dear Readers I just have to boast!!!  I have had a recipe featured in this month's Good Food Magazine!!!

It was one of the first postings I did when I started this blog several months ago - it was simply called Heaven on a Plate!  They have renamed it - and only slightly modified it!

If you want to check back through the archives you will find it under crab!!

Or if not - here it is again

Crab Pasta

2 x punnets of cherry or grape tomatoes

olive oil

butter

garlic

250ml white wine

300ml cream

basil - that has been shredded by cutting with scissors - a good half bunch is best.

Phillips "fresh" canned crab meat - 1 can

500g Maccheroni al Ferretto

Fresh grated parmesan to serve

Now this is incredibly easy, and very impressive - so if you are having guests or if there is someone you want to impress this is the recipe! The above quantities serve 4 - but unfortunately it doesn't seem to go that far in this house.

In a frypan gently heat a good splash of olive oil with approximately 50g of butter (no need to get too technical). Once the butter has melted and it is starting to foam add in the two punnets of cherry tomatoes and a good generous amount of chopped garlic (I always used the bottled type and just pour it in - really can you ever have too much garlic in a pasta dish??)

Gently saute the tomatoes until their skin starts to split. Once the skin starts splitting gently crush the tomatoes with the back of a spoon to release all their wonderful juices. To this I want you to add a good 250ml of white wine - more or less, depends on how juicy the tomatoes are. Now gently cook this concoction down until you have a beautiful syrupy sauce.

At this time bring your pan of water to the boil for the pasta. Leave this just sitting until you are ready for it. The sauce will take a good 20-25 minutes to reduce down - be patient. Once you can see that the sauce is reducing put your pasta on to cook. Good Italian pasta takes a little longer to cook so make sure you give yourself a good 15 minutes to cook the pasta. So rule of thumb is to add the pasta to the boiling water after the sauce has been cooking for about 10 minutes.

Back to the sauce. When the pasta is cooked drain it - but not so much that all the cooking water is gone - it is ok if there is still a little in the folds of the pasta, this will make your sauce go a little further! Place it back into the saucepan.

To the sauce add the crab meat, a good generous amount of cracked black pepper and the cream (I use the light cooking cream). Give it a gentle stir, taking care not to break up the crabmeat too much. Heat through. Once it has heated through add the shredded basil. Now add this sauce to the pot of pasta.

Ladle out into bowls and top with grated parmesan cheese.

I can taste it now, heaven!!!

Crab Pasta

Heaven on a Plate!

Although I did not cook this last night I am going to share with you a recipe that I made a couple of weeks ago that is just too good not to share.

I haven't given it a name - at our house it just goes by the name of

Crab Pasta

2 x punnets of cherry or grape tomatoes
olive oil
butter
garlic
250ml white wine
300ml cream
basil - that has been shredded by cutting with scissors - a good half bunch is best.
Phillips "fresh" canned crab meat - 1 can
500g Maccheroni al Ferretto
Fresh grated parmesan to serve

Now this is incredibly easy, and very impressive - so if you are having guests or if there is someone you want to impress this is the recipe! The above quantities serve 4 - but unfortunately it doesn't seem to go that far in this house.

In a frypan gently heat a good splash of olive oil with approximately 50g of butter (no need to get too technical). Once the butter has melted and it is starting to foam add in the two punnets of cherry tomatoes and a good generous amount of chopped garlic (I always used the bottled type and just pour it in - really can you ever have too much garlic in a pasta dish??)

Gently saute the tomatoes until their skin starts to split. Once the skin starts splitting gently crush the tomatoes with the back of a spoon to release all their wonderful juices. To this I want you to add a good 250ml of white wine - more or less, depends on how juicy the tomatoes are. Now gently cook this concoction down until you have a beautiful syrupy sauce.

At this time bring your pan of water to the boil for the pasta. Leave this just sitting until you are ready for it. The sauce will take a good 20-25 minutes to reduce down - be patient. Once you can see that the sauce is reducing put your pasta on to cook. Good Italian pasta takes a little longer to cook so make sure you give yourself a good 15 minutes to cook the pasta. So rule of thumb is to add the pasta to the boiling water after the sauce has been cooking for about 10 minutes.

Back to the sauce. When the pasta is cooked drain it - but not so much that all the cooking water is gone - it is ok if there is still a little in the folds of the pasta, this will make your sauce go a little further! Place it back into the saucepan.

To the sauce add the crab meat, a good generous amount of cracked black pepper and the cream (I use the light cooking cream). Give it a gentle stir, taking care not to break up the crabmeat too much. Heat through. Once it has heated through add the shredded basil. Now add this sauce to the pot of pasta.

Ladle out into bowls and top with grated parmesan cheese.

I can taste it now, heaven!!!

TIPS: Dear reader let me tell you a little tip that I picked up several years ago. I use it all the time when chopping up herbs. Using scissors will give you a lovely uniform shredded shape to your herbs - in particular basil, and kaffir lime leaves. When you chop basil on a chopping board the basil oxidises and goes a dark colour - using scissors means the basil stays lovely and green.

The Machceroni al Ferretto I have used is a beautiful authentic Italian style pasta that holds this rich delectable sauce so beautifully. You will find it in the Gourmet section of your supermarket. See the picture above. If you cannot find this pasta just use one that will hold onto all the lovely sauce.

The Philips Crab will be found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket where you find smoked salmon etc. It is technically a can - but it is "fresh" crab meat.