Sunday, October 24, 2010

Ocean and Garden to Table Challenge ~ Crab & Celery

This few days I have some dilemma on how to harvest quickly our celery because I see some sign its going to bolt soon. I am not sure whether celery can be frozen or not. If anyone can give some idea it will be much appreciated. I was thinking of making a simple celery soup but I admit I don’t really know how. I borrowed a book from the library with soup recipes. The only soup that use celery as ingredient in that recipe book looks a bit complicated for me using too much of different ingredients. I was hoping of just a simple celery soup cooking. I need to do a bit more of researching (easily distracted with the kids). I have been following Wendy’s Garden to Table Challenge posts but have never participated before. So today I decided to have a go at it.  My husband went crabbing with friends late last night and caught some medium size crabs (about 20 of them). I kept some in the freezer and the rest I fried them coated with a bit of turmeric powder just slightly cooked for my chili crab dish. Below are some of the basic ingredient for my modified chili crab dish.

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I put some ginger, garlic and shallots into the mortar (lesung batu) and pounded. I heated the oil in the wok and sauted the pounded ginger, garlic and shallots. Then a spoon of chili paste, cooked until the oil is separated. Then add some tomato sauce, plum sauce, oyster sauce and mix well. Toss in the fried crab and celery. Beat 2 eggs and pour into the wok and stir. Cook the dish until the egg is done and its ready to serve.

 

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This summer I am thinking of growing sweet potatoes. I never grown them before by myself because my mother grows them and the thought of it make me lazy (manja sangat). So now mother is thousand miles away. So where oh where can I get sweet potato shoots. A week ago I tried with sweet potato tubers but that take a long time to sprout. So I went to a Sunday market today for sweet potato shoots hunting. Did I found it? I almost thought not a single stall have them but finally one stall have it and only 2 bunches were left. I was so excited, grabbed one and paid the man but he gave me a funny look. I said “a dollar per bunch isn’t it?”. “Yes” the man replied and look at his hand at the two coins that I paid him. Too excited I was, I finally realized that I paid him 70cents instead of 1 dollar and apologised. I thought I gave him 2 coins of 50cents but actually I gave him a 20cent and 50cent coins. But the man was so sweet he never said a word about my mistake but just keep on looking at his hands.

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I hope roots will grow from this shoot where the new branches develop. I am thinking of planting some of the shoots directly into the soil and some keep in water to wait for the root to grow. Another of my new trial of growing edible plants here in Adelaide.

13 comments:

Mr. H. said...

What a wonderful meal you created with the crab and celery. Yes, you can freeze celery. Take a look at this sight for easy directions.:)

http://www.pickyourown.org/Freezing_Celery.htm

Good luck with the sweet potatoes...how fun.

rainfield61 said...

My wife cooked the same crabs yesterday. I love the spicy taste.

Stephanie said...

Love your crab dish! Good idea in using celery to add some flavour :-D

nanniepannie said...

Thanks for visiting. I'm not a big celery fan so I have no advice to give there. Good luck with your sweet potatoes, those I love.

p3chandan said...

Delicious crab dish, could almost smell it from here!..good idea to grow them from the shoots, will like to try that too..I love to eat rebus sweet potato with sugar!

JGH said...

Looks so yummy, that crab!
Regarding the celery, if you wanted it to be crunchy, I wouldn't freeze it, but if you're making soup, I bet it would be okay. Have fun with the sweet potatoes!

kitchen flavours said...

You can use the celery to boil ABC soup (chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions and celery) the soup will be more "wangi" with the addition of some celery. I would usually like to leave the onion as whole, not sliced, for this soup. Your crab looks delicious! I really hope that you will be able to grow the sweet potato leaves!

kitchen flavours said...

...One more thing... this soup goes great with some pounded sambal belacan! Yummy..^..^

Malar said...

The chili crab look so yummy! Could you share the recipe? ;-)
Your celery look so fresh!

Wendy said...

ooooohhhhh mmmmyyyyy goooodd! these crabs look so incredibly delicious. My mom makes these crabs as well. You just need to suck on the shells too they're so good. She also has a version with curry that's also really good.

I LOVE your ocean and garden to challenge! You really met the challenge part! :)

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mr. H~ Thank you for the link. Celery takes forever to grow, feel good to know now I can freeze them.

Rainfield61~ Spicy crab is always yummy but I think your wife dish will be yummier than mine:).

Stephanie~ Flavour and aroma:)

Nanniepannie ~ I still can't stop thinking about your scarecrows. They so cute.

P3chandan ~ The potato shoots has already developed roots. So quick.

JGH~ I do not have the chance to make celery soup yet.Do you have a recepi?

Kitchen flavour~ ABC soup?Ais Batu Campur I know but ABC soup...is it a new delicacy? The way you describe it sounds delicious.

Malar~ I have written the bahan2 above. But mainly is campak-campak and mix:). If you have question I try me best to describe it.

Wendy~ Does you mom put pineapple together with the crab curry?

kitchen flavours said...

Hi, ABC soup is something like soup rempah, minus the rempah! We just boil it with chicken pieces (the soup will be tastier with ayam kampung), potatoes, carrots and big onions, sometimes I add about two sticks of celery and one tomato. I would boil the chicken first for about 20 minutes, then add the carrots, onions (peeled and leave as whole, I like the smaller size big onions for this soup) and celery. Boil for about 30-40 minutes, then add the potatoes and tomatoes, boil until potatoes are tender, don't forget the salt! I love to 'celup' the chicken meat and the big onions with the sambal belacan! Try it!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Kitchen flavours~ I will try it. ABC soup and sambal belacan yummy. Can eat with noodles too?