Off The Hook – Crab Meat Fried Rice Recipe

I am not a professional chef nor am I a cook that’s been hovering about the kitchen for years. I actually started cooking quite by accident and I find it to be more therapeutic than anything else. It is my greatest stress buster and the more I explore or experiment the happier I am. I try my hardest at making simple dishes that are not over whelming or complicated and don’t need any special ingredients. I find I’m most attracted to recipes that do not intimidate me. For this reason in particular I tend to stick to vegetable or chicken based dishes because I’m comfortable cooking and most importantly cleaning them. I stay away from fish ( except for shrimp ) and I genuinely find it difficult to clean and don’t really know what to do with it.

I was recently introduced to a seafood specialty store in Mumbai called Off The Hook and while I must admit my initial skepticism, I find them to be economical, convenient and CLEAN which makes an association with them quite attractive. So I’m proud to introduce my brand new series of recipes on the blog aptly called ‘ Off The Hook ‘ where I’m going to experiment with their produce ( it’s incredible the kind of seafood they get ) and everything will be cut and cleaned for me at the store itself before it is sent to my doorstep. While there is plenty of excitement with all sorts of creatures from beneath the sea coming up soon, my first recipe is with crab meat.

I don’t cook with crab, in fact I never have because of the tiresome procedure of cleaning the crabs but this is convenient because all the plump juicy meat ( usually it’s mostly just in the claws or pincers ) is already cleaned and given to me in a can. It’s a sealed tin so I know it’s fresh and I’m even able to just eat it straight from the can itself without cooking it. Most recipes for crab meat are crab cakes which is some form of  deep fried patties or croquets. I opted for something lighter and more filling. While I have mentioned using 350 grams ( Priced at Rs 1150 and it is actually the meat of an entire crab about 2 kgs in weight ) in the recipe which is the whole can, I did save a quarter of it and plan to add it to a soup later in the week. You can use as little or as much as you like. The recipe was enough for 4 people and if the clean glistening wok at the end of the meal was any indication, I’d say it was a hit! Hope you enjoy this one 🙂

 

Ingredients –

350 grams of cleaned Crabmeat ( I got mine from Off The Hook )

1 packet of mushrooms ( sliced or chopped )

1 green onion chopped ( keep the white and green separate )

3 – 4 stalks of celery chopped ( the stems and leave separate )

2 egg scrambled

2 tablespoons of oil

4 tablespoons of soy sauce

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

5 – 6 red bird’s eye chilli

1 cup of cooked rice ( preferably made the night before )

Method –

Beat the eggs in a bowl till they mix well. In a smaller pan, add some oil and add the beaten egg mixture. Once it cooks slightly and the eggs start to firm up, scramble them completely till you get scrambled eggs. Set aside till you need to use them.

In a big wok, add the rest of the oil and heat. Add the garlic, chopped white part of the onion and red chillies. Cook for a minute. Add some of the greens from the spring onions and the stalks of the celery and cook for another minute.

Add the mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes or till they start to catch colour. To this add the crab meat and keep stirring till the meat catches colour and cooks. This should take a minute or so. Season all the vegetables and crab meat with salt and pepper.

Add the cooked rice to this and start mixing everything together. Add the soya sauce to the rice mixture. Keep stirring and mix it all well so the soya coats all the rice, meat and vegetables. Add the rest of the spring onion greens, the scrambled eggs and the celery leave and cook for 1 – 2 minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy !

The Pricing for the crab meat depends on the type and weight. All the prices are listed on their website  here you could go to the stores and pick your loot or call and have them delivery to you.

Disclaimer : This post was done as part of an on going series. It is in collaboration with Off The Hook a seafood specialist in Mumbai that offers incredible produce that I have fallen in love with. As always, thoughts, ideas and recipes are my own.

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