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?

Shrimp Gambas in Garlic

While staying at my parents' during the holidays, I really enjoyed having giant wild gambas (large shrimp). We would simply sauté them in a lot of garlic and finish the dish with a little curly parsley. The large platter of seafood was a real treat.

The gambas were so sweet and yummy. My mouth waters just thinking about them. We had such a great time and great food while in Paris. Can't wait to go back and get more fresh gambas!

Horseradish Cream Sauce for Fish

Fish can have a strong taste, depending on the kind of fish and how it's prepared, which often necessitates a counter-balance of flavor. Horseradish sauce ("sauce au raifort" in French) is an excellent option.

Horseradish gives a depth of flavor to almost any fish due to its subtle tinge of heat, when added in small quantities. Whether you pair the sauce with a simple fish preparation cooked in butter, fish en papillote or steamed fish, this delicious horseradish sauce will be the highlight of your entrée.

Pan-Fried Turbot Fish Recipe

Turbot fish is a flat, bright white-fleshed fish that is well-known in both French and Asian cuisine. The flavor is quite delicate and is perfect if you're looking for a light meal.

I dredged the fish in a little flour and pan-fried it until the surface is slightly crispy. The only trick to preparing turbot is to carefully watch the cooking time. You don’t want the fish to be too dry and over-cooked.

I decided to serve it with fish sauce. You could also accompany the fish with spicy Indian-style salsa (called kachumbar) or a French sauce I often love to pair with fish, called sauce au raifort (horseradish).

Vietnamese Ginger Shrimp Stir Fry Recipe

Tôm xào gừng is Vietnamese-style sautéed shrimp. As a little girl, Maman would make this dish very often whenever she needed to throw together a quick dinner, because shrimp cooks very fast. This particular preparation has touches of sweet and spicy in the form of ginger, lychee and chile. The ginger is used both grated and cut into small matchsticks. This is not traditional, but I also added lychee jam that I had in my pantry and finished the cooking by flambing the shrimp in lychee-flavored liqueur.

Cooking shrimp is always a delicate task. First, you have to make sure the shrimp are extremely fresh. Then, the cooking time has to be precise so as not to over-cook, otherwise they become horrible and very chewy. Lastly, the flavors that are paired with the shrimp should season them well without concealing the freshness of the seafood. This recipe definitely hits the mark, but don't just take my word for it!