Bun Rieu Cua Recipe (Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup)

This soup, called bún riêu, is typical Vietnamese comfort food. It's paired with the usual Vietnamese aromatic herbs and topped with other vegetables and fried tofu for a complete meal.

Just thinking about this seafood dish makes my mouth water! Tomorrow, my cousin Tri and his wife Tran are coming over to greet us for the Lunar New Year. So I spent today making a delicious, though a tad time-consuming (but oh-so worth it) soup dish for them. Bún riêu cua is a briny crab rice noodle soup garnished with feathery-like crab cakes in tomato and fermented shrimp (called mắm tôm) broth. Once you're ready to serve, shredded lettuce and mint finish the dish for added crunch along with lime and a drizzle of nuoc mam. 



If you love crab, this dish is ideal for you. If not, you could always try the veggie version (bún riêu chay) I make for the rest of my family members who are vegetarian. Either way, what a great way to start the year!

Roasted Lobster with Almonds

Oven-roasted lobster with almonds ("homard rôti aux amandes" in French) is Papa's (my dad's) specialty. Papa doesn't cook on a daily basis, except for Maman's birthday and special occasions such as New Year's Eve. Exactly one year ago, my husband Lulu and I were in Paris, celebrating the holiday season with my parents. And of course, Papa pleased me by cooking my favorite dish. First, the lobster is poached for a few minutes, then a drizzle of Hollandaise sauce covers the lobster meat along with a sprinkle of toasted almonds. Then, the lobster dish goes in the oven for a few minutes.

I absolutely love this seafood dish. The lobster meat turns out sweet and succulent. For obvious reasons, this luxurious dish isn't an everyday meal, but it’s a great way to make special occasions that much more special.

Cua Rang Muoi (Vietnamese Salted Crab Recipe)

I love cooking seafood, but I don’t always get the chance because of the number of vegetarians in my house. So when I do prepare seafood, I make a point of getting the freshest ingredients I can, and today that was crab.

Cua rang muối is one of my favorite recipes for preparing crab. The Vietnamese name literally translates to "crab toasted (roasted) in salt crust". The preparation is quite messy but the cooking time is fairly fast. The main ingredients are whole crabs (of course), freshly cracked black pepper, coarse sea salt, garlic, jalapeño chile peppers, green onions and tapioca starch. When cooked properly, the strong smell of seafood shouldn't bother anyone around with a seafood phobia. And for those of you who love seafood as much as I do, you’re in for a treat!

Don't they look like dentist tools?

Seafood Crab Salad Recipe

I bought 2 fresh crabs from the seafood market and was planning on making my favorite dish: tamarind crab. But as I was prepping the ingredients, we had surprise guests for lunch. So I improvised a crab salad with what we had available in the kitchen. All the extra ingredients and flavors in the salad help stretch the number of servings you can get out of 2 crabs, which is perfect when you’re entertaining.

To begin with, I boiled the crabs, removed the crab meat and drizzled it with lime juice. I added roasted green bell pepper, tomatoes, avocado and grilled eggplant. I served the crab salad with a flavorful wasabi-coconut salad dressing and toasted bread on the side.

Vietnamese Asparagus Crab Soup (Sup Mang Cua Recipe)

Súp măng tây nấu cua (white asparagus crab soup) was always a festive dish when I was a child. We would have it whenever my parents had non-Vietnamese friends to our house for dinner. I would help with cracking the crab and gathering the crab meat. Corn starch, used as a thickening agent, gives the velvety, thick broth gives the dish a unique texture. While white asparagus doesn't provide a lot of color contrast to the crab, it does complement the flavor quite well.

The authentic version of this soup requires shark fin, but given how expensive it is, crab alone is used instead. The dish still has a luxurious quality, and as such, white asparagus crab soup often appears on the menu at Vietnamese weddings. Now you don't have to crash a Vietnamese wedding to try this dish; make it the next time you throw a dinner party, and I guarantee it will be the highlight of the meal.