Chef's Recipes

Brigitte Hafner: Crab, prawn, lemongrass and coconut soup

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for Brigitte Hafner's crab, prawn, lemongrass and coconut soup.

By Brigitte Hafner
  • 20 mins preparation
  • 20 mins cooking
  • Serves 6
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Brigitte Hafner: Crab, prawn, lemongrass and coconut soup
“This soup is more like a fish stew with Thai flavours.”

Ingredients

  • 1 snapper fillet (300gm) or other firm white-fleshed fish fillet
  • 2 green blue swimmer crabs (about 200gm each)
  • 4 golden shallots, coarsely chopped
  • 5 cm (25gm) piece of ginger, coarsely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 lemongrass stalk, white part only, thinly sliced
  • 1 small red chilli, finely chopped or to taste
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
  • 6 green prawns, peeled, head and tail intact, cleaned
  • 750 ml (3 cups) fish stock
  • 250 ml (1 cup) coconut cream
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce, or to taste
  • 2 limes, juice only (or to taste)
  • To serve: 1 bunch coriander, coarsely chopped

Method

Main
  • 1
    Cut fish into bite-sized pieces and set aside. Remove outside shell and gills of crab (discard), rinse crab and cut into quarters, set aside.
  • 2
    Pound shallot, ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chilli in a mortar and pestle to a fine paste. Heat olive oil in a wide saucepan over medium heat, add shallot paste and sweat until soft and fragrant (4-5 minutes). Add tomato and crab, cook for 2-3 minutes, add fish, prawns and stock (enough to half-cover the seafood), then reduce heat to very low and simmer, covered, until seafood is just cooked through (6-8 minutes). Add coconut cream, then season to taste with fish sauce, lime juice and salt. Serve immediately scattered with coriander.

Notes

This recipe is from the August 2009 issue of .

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