Ginataang Alimasag is a savory crab dish in creamy coconut sauce with vegetables depending on one's personal choice.
You will find a lot of different versions of this recipe, but they're practically the same except for the vegetable that comes with it.
The base ingredients are crabs, coconut cream or kakang gata, garlic, onion, ginger and your choice of seasoning between fish sauce (patis) or shrimp paste (bagoong).
Basically, you want vegetables that can soak up and absorb the richness and creaminess of the sauce, or any of your favorite vegetables will do.
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Ingredients :
- 3 medium uncooked sand crabs (approx. 1kg)
- 2 big cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 thumb size peeled ginger, sliced
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 1/2 pumpkin (deseeded/peeled/cubed)
- 150g string beans, cut slanted into 2 parts each
- 3x small cans coconut milk (165ml each) or 1 large can
- 1 1/2 tbspn fish sauce (patis)
- pinch of pepper
Preparing the crabs :
Cooking Procedure :
- Rinse the crabs in cold water, snap of the claws from the body. Take out the triangle bottom parts on the underside of the crabs. Using a metal nutcracker, slightly crack the claws and thick limbs.
- Using your knife, cut the crab on its underside with the thickest part of your knife facing the mouth of the crab, use firm pressure. Once the knife is halfway, use the palm of your hand to slowly tap the top of the knife to cleanly cut the top shell.
- Make sure you divide the crabs dead centre, don’t rinse the crab pieces.
- Pile all the crab parts in a large container and set aside.
Cooking Procedure :
- Heat oil, sauté garlic, ginger, onion and cook till onion slices are translucent.
- Add crab pieces and stir till well combined. Cook till the crabs are slightly turning red in colour.
- Pour in coconut milk and pepper, bring to boil, lower heat and let it simmer, add fish sauce. Carefully stir the crabs for even cooking. Once the crabs turns bright orangey red, they are cooked.
- Remove the crabs from the broth and set aside.
- Add the pumpkin pieces and string beans and let it all simmer till the pumpkin pieces are cooked through but not too soft. Simmer for approximately 10-15 minutes, uncovered.
- Combine the cooked crab pieces and let it simmer for another 3-5 minutes. Stir carefully to distribute the sauce evenly to the crab pieces. Carefully place the crab pieces first to your serving plate/bowl and pour over the sauce and vegetable pieces.
