Recipe Archives->Asian Sea->Thai Crab Cakes

Boo Jah (Crab Cakes with Cilantro Pesto)

Sweet-Hot garlic sauce
1/2 pound cooked lump crabmeat, picked over for shell fragments
1/2 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons Cilantro Pesto
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teasoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
a handful fresh cilantro leaves
3 fresh red chee fah chiles (Thai birds), cut into long thin strips

Prepare the Sweet-Hot garlic sauce and pour into a small serving
bowl.  Let cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, gently combine the crabmeat, pork, pesto, egg,
fish sauce, soy sauce, salt and sugar.  Mix well, leaving the
crabmeat in large chunks if possible.  Put the flour on a plate
and set this by the stove.

Carefully shape the crab-pork mixture into small cakes.  Dip each
cake in the flour to coat it lightly.  Heat the oil in a large
skillet over medium-high heat for 1 minute.  Add the crab cakes
and saute, turning once, until golden brown and cooked, about 5
minutes per side.  Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with
the cilantro and chili.  Serve at once wth the dipping sauce.

Try a simple dipping sauce of 3 tablespoons fish sauce, 3 tablesopons
freshly squeezed lime juice, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon
chopped fresh hot chili.  Stir to dissolve sugar and serve.


Sweet-Hot garlic sauce

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chile-garlic sauce (tuong or toi sauce) 

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, vinegar, garlic and
salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Stir to dissolve the
sugar and salt and reduce the heat to low.  Simmer until the liquid
reduces slightly and thickens to a light syrup, 20 minutes.  Remove
from the heat and stir in the chile-garlic sauce.  Cool.


Cilantro pesto

1 teaspoon whole white or black peppercorns
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro roots or leaves and stems
2 tablespoons coarsley chopped garli

Using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, crush or grind the
peppercorns to a fine powder.  Combine the pepper, cilantro roots,
and garlic and work the 3 ingredients into a fairly smooth paste
in the mortar or in a small blender or food processor.  If you use
a blender or food processor, you may need to add a little oil or
water to ease the grinding.

Printable version: thai-crab-cakes.txt.