Vietnam is blessed with a very long coastline (over 2000 miles / 3000 km) so supply of seafood is plentiful. Vietnam is specially famous for its fresh crabs and prawns. There are literally as many ways to cook seafood as there are species!
In Vietnam, one of the simplest and most popular way to cook crab is to poach it in beer. It’s understood that the origin of this dish was from the French, as are many Vietnamese dishes. If you love crabs, now is the perfect season to find crabs at a good price. For this recipe you could use 3-4 blue crabs, 2-3 stone crabs, 2-3 snow crabs. or in this case, I use 1 Dungeness crab. Any light or blond beer would do. In Vietnam, local beer (bia hoi) is usually used.
There’s no salt added while cooking the crab, so the dish is served with a dipping sauce. Most places in Vietnam would serve a very simple dip made with fresh lime juice seasoned with salt and pepper. Another option is to make a dip with a teaspoon of fish sauce, juice of 2 limes, chopped red chili and fresh garlic. This version has no added water or sugar, so the flavor is concentrated salty/sour/spicy and used as a dip, not as a sauce.
A last note: I’m a wimp, and can’t even kill a crab. Once I bought fresh live crabs, and driving home, I could hear them move around in the grocery bag, which made me feel super uneasy. When I got home, I just couldn’t bring myself to kill them and agonized over it for a while. Finally my better half, GJ did the job the most humane way possible but I won’t go into details. That was the single time I bought live seafood, and never again.
Crabs steamed in beer – Cua hap bia
Ingredients
- 1 Dungeness crab
- 1 can Beer
- 1 Onion, sliced
- 1 Ginger, sliced thinly
- 3 stalks Lemongrass, chopped (the tender part only or 1/3 of bottom) or 1 tablespoon chopped lemongrass (available frozen from Asian stores)
- 2 medium chilis
Dipping Sauce
- 2 limes
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Wash the crab carefully, scrubbing the shell.
- Slice the onion, slice the ginger thinly. Chop the tender part of the lemongrass (usually 1/3 of the lemongrass stalk, near the bottom).
- In medium deep saucepan, put the crab in. Scatter the onion, ginger and lemongrass around it and on top. Pour in the can of beer. Cover the pan. Cook on high heat for 5 minutes then around 10-15 minutes on medium heat, depending on the size of the crab.
- In the meantime, prepare the dipping sauce. Squeeze juice of 2 limes, add salt and pepper. Optional: you can add a teaspoon of fish sauce, chopped chili and garlic to the dipping sauce.
If you enjoy Vietnamese seafood, please check my Grilled Shrimps on Sugar Cane recipe.
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