"Crabby" Experiments

Wednesday is Baclaran day for me... which also translates to seafood shopping. I buy them near the church in front of Chowking. I don't buy inside the seaside market in Baclaran because it usually is more expensive there plus the vendors don't seem to need to sell their wares.... so they are not very attentive to the customers.

I bought female crabs, medium sized prawns, green mangoes and my favorite bagoong, PIYESTA. All day long I kept thinking of what I'm going to cook when I get home.... and I mean ALL day long.... occupied my waking moments. So I was excited to try something from my "recipe book". Unfortunately, even if it tasted ok, it wasn't the taste I was looking for. I was aiming for Chili Crabs but it turned out to be "Szechuan " crabs. So it was a bit disappointing.

See how scary it turned out?????

When I cook something, I don't always get it right but I learn from my mistakes. I do make really good chili crabs, I got the recipe from the Lee Kum Kee pamphlets years ago. I looked in my files for the picture. When I cooked the LKK recipe at that time, it turned out really YUM! Let me share with you one of my successful "crabby" experiments.

Chili Crabs

1 K. crabs

1 T. diced ginger

3 stalks leeks, cut into 1" pieces (white parts only)

2 T. Lee Kum Kee chili-garlic sauce

2 t. tomato ketchup

2 t. perrin's sauce

2 t. Kikoman soy sauce

2 t. sugar

Steam crabs till cooked. Saute ginger and leeks, add the rest of the ingredients. Add steamed halved crabs and heat through. Garnish with the green part of the leeks.

Another "crabby" experiment I found in my file is the Ginataan na Alimango. Very easy to make.

Ginataan na Alimango

1 K. steamed crabs, halved

garlic

onion

ginger

1 C. coconut milk

salt and patis, to taste

green sili

Saute garlic, onion and ginger, add steamed crabs and continue sauteing for a few more minutes. Add coconut milk, season with salt and patis. Add the green sili.