lynn in love with crab...and moms

hello friends! Thanks for all the well wishes for my boards! It was quite gruelling, especially since I was visited by my old friend, insomnia, the night before. However, it is all done and over... and hopefully I'll be board certified in December :)

To celebrate, my mama lured me home with promises of a crab meal.
Did you know I love crab? It's one of my favorite foods... well, any seafood really, but crab and crawfish hold the spots of the top contenders to my stomach's heart.

Ha! I didn't know my parents read this blog! But apparently they do. Hi Mom! Hi Dad! It's nice to know they support this little bit of writing of mine. Apparently, my mother was impressed by my new found domestic-ness, and offered to teach me how to make her famous tamarind crab recipe! Definitely a step up from my simple chicken recipes! and boy... was it yummy!

Here we go: Mama's kitchens are always the best, yes? Always stocked, with all the spices and flavors we grew up with.

beautiful baby onions and garlic

this recipe definitely needs lemongrass

we bought the live crab at Hiep Thai in Garland. My sweet dad, cut them up and precracked them, my least favorite part of this whole thing.

pretty colors

Do a little intial fry of the crab in a skillet...sort of like browning the meat, not really cooking them all the way through.

lay them on a wire rack between batches

mama cooking them crabs up

the special sauce: oyster sauce, soursop sauce (tamarind), couple spoonful of sugar, mushroom powder, pepper...and a special ingredient not to be revealed :)

fry the crab again in the onion, lemongrass, garlic, butter and sauce mixture in batches. The sauce will thicken up.

transfer the crab to your plate. Meanwhile add cooked rice to the leftover sauce and fry. This will make the BEST FRIED RICE EVER

the best crab.... sweet and savory

and the fried rice is to die for...

my mom is the best cook

hope you all can make this one day! Sorry I can't give you exact measurements, as I wasn't given any. I hope I can be a great cook like my mama one day!

Happy Weekend!