Mud Crab and “Sweet Fish Sauce”

I have called this sauce Sweet Fish Sauce in keeping with the way the Khmers call it but it’s complete tanslation is ‘water fish sweet’. How clever are we translaters? Anyway I was wondering through the Preston Markets after witnessing the usual parking road rage (‘ you’re going the wrong way! this is my car spot beep beep, are you f***ing crazy?”…. you get the picture).  I usually do a circle, just to see what’s around and to talk to a stranger about something they didn’t understand, like what you would use a bitter melon or a pan dan leaf for and then I do my shopping. The other day at the very busy and always exciting Asian grocery there were live mud crabs from Darwin that brought me to ruins. I snapped one up without torturing myself too much and I made this very simple dish, steamed mud crab with sweet fish sauce.

The sauce has fish sauce, raw sugar, lime juice, garlic and fresh Asian herbs like coriander, red basil. This is the sauce that have won me so much affections amongst friends. You use it as a dipping sauce for cold and hot seafood, fried fish, grilled chicken, and boild pork. You don’t even have to put the herbs in but you must use all the other stuff. I’m not sure of it’s origin but it’s a South East Asain sauce and no one in the reasturants have been able to make it so I’m guessing its also a sauce akin to the provence or village that I came from, maybe.

 

The crab, I steamed, let cool and then put in the fridge to chill before I openned it up and ate it’s sucullant flesh.