Delicious Crab Soup: Add an Extra Ingredient to Make it Irresistible!

Crab soup and salted snail are two typical dishes of many residents in the northern province. Crab soup cooked with rau day, mung bean sprouts, and luffa… is a refreshing soup and a rustic specialty of the Vietnamese people. But a delicious crab soup must have clear broth and a lot of crab meat floating on the surface of the bowl.

To cook a bowl of crab soup with a lot of meat chunks, follow these steps (note 2 tips to make the crab meat chunky and the broth clear):

Choose crabs

Good crabs must be of the right age, not too young, not too old, with plenty of meat and golden shells. Female crabs have more yellow roe and more fat meat than male crabs. Choose crabs caught in the wild that are healthy, with intact legs and claws. Check if the crab’s apron is empty and the meat is not hollow. If the apron is dented and there is a lot of foam, it means the crab is not good. Young crabs and crabs that are about to molt have soft shells, so there will be less meat and they will not form beautiful meat chunks.

The best time to eat crabs according to the lunar cycle is at the beginning or end of the lunar month, while crabs caught in the middle of the month often shed their shells, resulting in less meat.

The secret to adding salt when grinding the crab meat to make it chunky

Clean the crabs and remove the apron, then rinse them to get rid of the black color and fishy smell of the crabs. Then, when grinding or pounding, remember to add a little salt. If you do it in the market, remind the person doing it to add a few salt grains while grinding, because not all vendors do this. Adding salt at the same time as grinding will result in more meat chunks when cooking the crab meat. Salt helps the proteins in the crab meat to bind together better.

If pounding by hand in a mortar and pestle, the crab meat will be the most delicious, fragrant, and not contaminated with the metallic smell of the metal mortar.

Separate the crushed crab meat into a bowl and discard the black liquid, keeping only the meat chunks.

Cooking crab soup, pay attention to the heat and add this ingredient to make the crab meat chunky

Place the pot of crabs on the stove, heat it over medium heat, not too high or too low. Use a chopstick to stir the crab soup in a consistent direction, avoiding stirring in two directions, as it will make the crab meat disintegrate and not form chunks.

Using eggs: After stirring, let the crab meat float naturally. If cooking in a restaurant, they will add beaten eggs to help the crab meat stick to the eggs and form more meat chunks and clearer broth. Some places add tofu to have more crab chunks, but it will make the soup white and less appetizing. Adding eggs will make the crab meat chunks softer and more chewy.

When the crab meat chunks float, scoop them out into a bowl. Bring the crab soup to a boil again, then add the vegetables. Rau day, mung bean sprouts, and luffa are easy to cook, so do not simmer for too long. If there is any foam, remove it. Season with spices to taste.

Aromatic crab meal

There are two ways to cook according to different preferences

Some families prefer a refreshing crab soup without the aroma of fat, so they will add the crab meal directly into the soup to float together with the crab meat.

Other families prefer a flavorful crab meal, so they do as follows

Heat up some fat or oil in a pan, add fragrant fried shallots, then add the crab meal and stir to release the aroma, season with a little seasoning. Then pour this aromatic crab meal on top of the crab meat chunks that have been scooped out in the previous step. When serving, scoop the crab soup into a bowl, then place a piece of crab meat on top of the bowl.

A standard bowl of crab soup has clear broth, evenly cooked vegetables, and crab meat chunks floating on top.