Well, you might have if you travel.
This dish is inspired by watching
Mark Wiens visit to Sri Lanka eating crab curry. It looked so good I had to have it and so the journey began. I watched many videos, read recipes and researched till I knew the basic dish and then took it to another level.
I don't know what to call it except Addictive.
It all starts with seafood, any seafood you like. Today I used frozen gumbo crabs which means they're just small crabs, it gives the broth an excellent flavor. I've been using a frozen Paella seafood mix from the grocery store but today they had Little Neck clams so I tried those along with frozen snow crabs and fresh shrimp.
I peeled the shrimp and used scissors to cut all the small crabs legs off and used that to make a stock. Just add water and bring to a boil then reduce to a very light simmer and cook for an hour then strain. Longer is better but I didn't plan ahead.
Here's all the other ingredients.
2 carrots grated
about a thumb size piece of ginger chopped fine
1 medium onion chopped fine
about a 1.5" of cilantro stalks chopped fine. I cut off the ends and use the fresh stalks
1 medium sized tomato diced.
I cleaned all the seafood and cracked the shells so the broth will penetrate the meat. The shrimp were deviened and the clams were rinsed and checked for dead ones. You can see the broth strained and it's about 2.5 cups.
These are the seasonings and sauces you need, I'll explain when to add them as I go.
I started with about 2 tbs of canola oil over medium high heat then added onions and carrots. Sweat those down a few minutes till soft and add the other veggies and cook till all of the liquid is evaporated. Then add 1 tsp of Garam Marsala and the yellow curry powder, stir to incorporate then add 1 tbs of the Tom Yum soup base and stir it in, it should look like this and the house will smell like an Indian kitchen!!
Add the seafood stock and simmer over medium heat till reduced, this step is important to cook the veggies down and make the sauce thick without adding a thickening agent.
This is what you're looking for, a nice thick almost paste texture. It should cover the pan in a few seconds after swiping the spoon across the pan. Be careful not to burn it or you'll have to start over after all this work.
Now add the coconut cream or you can use a can of coconut milk, both work equally well. Add that heaping spoon of hot pepper paste and 2 tbs of the Sambal. Stir it in with 2 cups of water and simmer on a low boil then add the seafood.
Now is the time to start your noodles, I'm using this brand but any noodles will work. I try to find the smallest noodles I can at the Asian store. It's also good on white rice so cook what you like. The trick to make these noodles better is to cool them off after cooking with cold water and set them aside to dry out some so they suck that awesome broth in. Fresh noodles cook in a few minutes compared to dried so plan ahaed if you're using dried noodles.
It should look like this when done and time to eat.
Top off the plate with fresh cilantro, green onions and more Sambal. Yes there's noddles under there
All that work to get to this point but it's worth it. You won't believe how good this is till you make it.
I hope everyone tries this at least once and if you do you'll know what you've been missing.