Ben Shewry recipe: Crab rice with desert lime nam jim

Ben Shewry

April 7, 2017

Crab rice with desert lime nam jim.Justin McManus

Time:30 mins - 1 hourServes:4

Some of the ingredients in this sweet-savoury sensation may be a little tricky to source, but it's well worth trying to track them down. See Ben Shewry's Q and A below. You may want to begin by cooking the rice.

Ingredients

For Davidson plum jam

330g Davidson plum flesh, or substitute blood plums (add half a teaspoon of citric acid with these)
220g sugar
11g apple pectin
20ml lemon juice

For desert lime nam jim

50g desert lime, finely chopped (or normal limes)
80ml Sunrise lime olive oil (orange-infused olive oil is a good substitute)
80ml verjuice
35ml fish sauce
1g garlic, chopped and sweated in a little canola oil for three minutes

For picked crab

*1.2kg live snow crab (see Q and A below)

For seasoned rice

600g hot, cooked basmati rice
45g salted butter, melted
5ml fish sauce
a good pinch of ground alpine pepper
salt to taste

To finish

salt to taste
16 x native river mint leaves (see Q & A below)
16 x native oregano leaves (see Q & A)
*Q and A with Ben Shewry
Q: Can we buy pre-picked crab meat, and how much should we end up with?
A: I'd say 500g of picked crab meat would be generous. I wouldn't recommend pre-cooked and picked crab meat as it's pretty horrible. Live crabs are readily available from markets. Live spanner crabs would be a good substitute for snow crabs. Snow crab is the greatest crab in the world, however!
Q: Can we substitute normal mint and oregano?
A: People should grow their own like we do! Look at bushfoodshop.com.au. A substitute for native mint would be Vietnamese mint. There's no substitute for native oregano, unfortunately.

Method

For Davidson plum jam
1. Roughly chop plum flesh, combine with sugar, pectin and lemon juice in a pot and simmer over a medium heat for 10 minutes or until the jam begins to thicken. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
For desert lime nam jim
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
For picked crab
1. Humanely kill the crab as per RSPCA guidelines.
2. Separate the claws and legs from the body and steam gently until just cooked (about 15 minutes for the body and 5-10 minutes for the claws and legs).
3. Pick the crabmeat using a crab fork, keeping it in large chunks. Cover and set aside until needed.
For seasoned rice
1. Combine butter and rice in a large bowl and stir carefully but thoroughly. Add fish sauce, ground alpine pepper and salt.
To finish
1. Spread a large tablespoon of the Davidson plum jam around the bottom of a bowl using the back of a spoon. Place warm seasoned rice around the edges of the bowl. Season the crab meat lightly with salt and place in a large pile in the centre of the bowl.
2. Scatter native mint and oregano and dress liberally with the desert lime nam jim.

More Ben Shewry recipes: Coconut, chicken and bunya bunya nut salad, and kangaroo and macadamia satay.