I am currently in Portland, Oregon almost half way done with my CBY for anesthesiology. These past few months have been such a whirlwind rollercoaster. I have experienced and learned so much over such short period of time. Residency has definitely been stressful and challenging experience, but also has been very rewarding and fulfilling. When I reflect over these pass few months I am proud about how much I've grown. I mean... on my first day of residency, my attending asked me to name any cephalosporin and I completely went blank. You can only go up from there right? The training I am receiving and my mentors I work with have been phenomenal. I am excited to continue learning and training in my craft to become an amazing anesthesiologist.
Although my days away from the hospital has been scarce these past couple of months, when I get a day off, I will try and make my way to the Oregon coast to go crabbing. It is a hobby that I have picked up since I moved to the west. If you don't know me, I am a huge lover of seafood. When I found out you could catch Dungeness crabs off the Oregon coast I had try it! On a good day of crabbing, I would catch about 9-12 crabs. If you are unfamiliar with Dungeness crabs, these guys are pretty massive with a heck load of meat inside. Their meat is very sweet, juicy and has a mild nutty flavor. However, my favorite part of the crab is actually the yellow-white-greenish substance in the head of the crab known as "crab butter". It is considered a delicacy in some places. My siblings and I would fight for the heaviest crab as it indicated that the crab was plentiful in "crab butter". The flavor of the crab butter is a sweet and fatty with a hint of bitterness towards the end of the bite. After extracting the crab meat from all the crabs I caught, I wanted to try incorporating "crab butter" into a simple dish everyone loves, fried rice.
In this dish, I blended the "crab butter" into the eggs we use in our fried rice. I am excited for everyone to try this easy, simple and delicious recipe!
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
INGREDIENTS
2 cups rice (cook and leave in fridge overnight)
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 eggs
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
½ white onion, chopped
¼ tsp white pepper
2 cups crab meat (the fresher the better)
2 green onions, chopped
8 sprigs of cilantro, chopped
1 tomato, sliced into wedges
Lime wedges for serving
Vegetable oil
½ cup extracted crab butter (Optional)
RECIPE
Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and whisk. If you have the extracted crab butter, whisk the eggs and crab butter together. Coat a wok with vegetable oil and turn on the heat to high. Once the oil is hot, add the egg mixture and fry it. If you added the crab butter, let the eggs rest for 5 minutes. Remove the extra juices that accumulate after the resting period. We do this because crab butter adds a lot of extra juices to the egg, making it wet. When we make fried rice, the goal is to minimize all the extra juices so the rice does not get soggy. Chop the fried egg into smaller pieces
Mix soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, white pepper in a small bowl.
Coat the wok again in vegetable oil. Add the chopped onion and garlic cloves in while the vegetable oil is still room temperature. Turn the heat on to high.
Once the garlic starts to brown, add the rice. Fold the rice in until it is not clumpy.
Add the sauce mixture from step 2 and the crab meat in. Continue folding until the crab is throughly mixed in and the rice begins to brown.
Add the tomato wedges, cilantro, chopped green onion and eggs. Allow to cook for 3 more minutes and continue to fold periodically.
Serve on a plate and squeeze fresh lime over the top and enjoy!
CONCLUSION
This dish was delicious! the incorporation of the crab butter into the eggs was delicious! It added this sweetness and umami to the eggs that was very unique. I did not need to add any extra seasoning to the eggs as the crab butter was flavor enough. One thing I wish I did was let the egg/crab butter mixture rest more after I cooked it as it produced a lot of juices that was absorbed by the rice. This made the rice a little bit on the soggier side. However, overall this was such a delicious way to work with the crabs I caught on the Oregon coast. I definitely recommend this to people if they can get their hands on delicious Dungeness crabs. Overall I rate this recipe...
