The Easy Way to Make Coconut Crab Curry

Making curry sounds difficult, but it’s not. Seriously.

This is what the team from New York’s Fish Cheeks came to prove. And with the Suansilphong brothers’ family-style Thai seafood dishes receiving raves and accolades, we trusted them to show us how it’s done.

For starters, you’ll need three different kinds of chilies (dried and fresh Thai bird’s eye, as well as dried red chilies); fresh galangal and turmeric; garlic, lemongrass, ginger, salt, and shrimp paste.

See? That wasn’t so hard.

You’ll need a few more herbs and spices for the rest of the dish as well, such as these kaffir lime leaves, betel leaves, lemongrass stalks—and don’t forget the fish sauce and tamarind concentrate.

If you’ve never peeled lemongrass stalks, know that it’s pretty satisfying and will make your hands smell great.

Mortar and pestles aren’t just for medieval medicine and witchy stuff, they’re the dynamic duo that will give your curry paste its velvety, finely ground texture.

Pow: This bright, beautiful, spicy stuff will be the base of our delicious crab dish.

You’re going to want rice to go with this, so start prepping that, too.

Next, you’ll heat coconut milk, chicken stock, shallots, palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind, and kaffir lime leaves, stirring it to smooth, aromatic perfection.

Add in your magical curry paste, the crab meat, the betel leaves, and more kaffir lime, and you’re almost done, believe it or not.

Spoon it over your piping hot rice, and you’ll got a super-flavourful, fancy-feeling meal that would make a Thai grandma proud.

Repeat after us: I can make curry at home, I can make curry at home, I can make curry at home.

And this dish is the deliciously idiot-proof evidence.