Bun Rieu - Crab soup for when youre feeling crabby
Vietnamese Crabby Soup, this soup takes good ole' tomato soup to exotic destinations! I must admit when I first tried this soup I was hesitant and curious, but one slurp of this stuff and you will add it as a staple to your wintertime-sick-tool-box!
The combination of oceany crab dumplings, fried tofu, Cha Lua (Vietnamese Ham), fragrant herbs and the comfort of simmered tomatoes makes this soup a delight to the senses, with the varying textures and aromas, its a big bowl of yes for any season.
This soup takes quite some ingredients but wait for sales at the local Asian market and stock up on ingredients. I generally have homemade chicken stock on hand but store bought chicken broth works fine.
There are a bunch of different recipes calling for different ingredients but this recipe I am about to share is the simplest and quite honestly tastes the same as if you were to use the other more smellier ingredients. For example, the original recipe calls for Shrimp paste (Mam Tom) which is basically ground up fermented shrimps. The paste is grey, and it smells literally like dog shit...I am not joking. You have to buy a regular sized jar of the stuff and you only need to use a teaspoon at any time, in any recipe. Skip.This. Ingredient. You have been warned.
Weird Ingredient Warning
Crab in Spices ~ You can find it in the canned meat section at any local Asian Market. This is the heart of the soup. Its a blend of crab meat with spices and some annato for red coloring.
Annato Seed Powder ~ This ingredient gives the soup its red color, this really is all this ingredient is ever used for. If you cant find annato powder, some Vietnamese just use ketchup.
Cha Lua (Vietnamese Ham) ~ This is a scrumptious ham roll steamed in banana leaves you can buy at any register at your asian market. Sometimes specked with black pepper. Savory and scrumptious! You can def skip this but why?
Fried Tofu - You can buy fried tofu in the cold section of the Asian markets, next to the regular tofu. Fried tofu saves time frying it yourself, and it also freezes well for future use.
BUN RIEU - VIETNAMESE CRAB TOMATO SOUP
- Half Pound Ground Pork
- One can Crab In Spices
- One Teaspoon Baking Powder
- One whole shallot - minced
- 6 Cloves Garlic - minced
- 3-4 regular tomatoes quartered
- One teaspoon Annato Powder or One table Ketchup
- One box of Chicken Broth
- One Teaspoon Fish Sauce
- One Teaspoon Sugar
- One to Two Teaspoons Salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- One package Fried Tofu cut in cubes
- Vietnamese Coriander ( Rau Ram )
- Green Onions
- Mint Leaves
- Chilli sauce - Soul Chili Sate is best, but you can use Sriracha or Sambal
- Thin Vermicelli Rice Sticks - Cooked to package directions.
- Mix Ground Pork with one can Crab and one teaspoon baking powder and set aside.
- Cook Rice Vermicelli according to package directions and set aside.
- Heat up chicken broth with about 3 cups of water until simmering, add in one teaspoon fish sauce, salt and sugar.
- Fry minced shallots in two tablespoons butter then add minced garlic and fry until golden, when golden, add the annato powder, stir and add to the chicken broth. (If using ketchup instead of annato oil, just add ketchup after you've added the shallots and garlic to the broth.)
- Add quartered tomatoes.
- When tomatoes begin to get smooshy, slowly spoon the crab mixture spoon by spoon into the soup. Let soup boil for about 10 minutes to ensure the crab dumplings are cooked through. Then add fried tofu.
- Adjust seasonings (salt, fish sauce, sugar) Let soup sit to allow flavors to blend and marry.
- To serve place cooked rice noodles in a bowl, add the Cha Lua (Vietnamese Ham) and ladle soup over noodles, then garnish with fresh herbs and chilli sauce.
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