Ba Khia Tron Toi Ot (Salted Crab with Garlic and Chili), No Added Refined Sugar
Vietnamese dishesSaladsMekong Delta5 to 10 minutes soaking, 30 to 45 minutes resting
Ba khia tossed with garlic and chili is a salty, sour, spicy dish for eating with rice, and it deepens the longer it sits. What makes it good is the thick dressing coating every claw. The difficulty is judging the salt: too short a soak leaves it harsh, too long and the meat goes soft.
Soaking the ba khia in water of about 70C for 5 to 10 minutes and then pouring that water away is the step that decides the salt level. The dressing is stirred until thick before the crab goes in.
This batch weighs about 658g, at roughly 46 calories per 100g.
Method
Soak 250g ba khia in 200ml hot water at about 70C for 5 to 10 minutes to draw out the salt, then pour that water away.
Squeeze 1 large lime for about 100ml juice and strain out the seeds. Peel 5 garlic cloves and chop them very fine together with 5 chilies.
Remove the shell from the back and the flap underneath, and separate the claws. If there is roe in the shell, scoop it out with a chopstick and keep it.
Put 4 tablespoons kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 1/2 teaspoon MSG, the lime juice and the minced garlic and chili in a bowl. Stir until the mixture thickens.
Add all the prepared ba khia and toss so it takes the dressing.
Leave it for 30 to 45 minutes, or overnight for a deeper flavor.
Tips
Chop the garlic very fine so it does not taste raw against the crab.
In a sealed container in the fridge it keeps for 3 to 4 days, and the dressing thickens the longer it sits.
Keeping the roe from the shell and tossing it through makes the dressing richer and more fragrant.
Dissolve the kOBE Monk Fruit Blend in the lime juice first, where it goes into solution faster.
Pour away all of the curing liquid the ba khia came in, since even a little of it leaves the dish harshly salty.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.