Eating crab outdoors is one of life’s great pleasures. Native brown crabs, with their glossy white and deep rust flesh are pretty much available all year, but somehow seem especially suited to spring and summer eating. This soup, rich but fresh and lively too, is something to serve in suitably small bowls as a starter. As a main course soup (when the recipe will serve 3-4) I would add a last minute addition of raw bean shoots or maybe some shredded, very lightly cooked mange tout.

 

Serves 4-6
 
small spring onions - 5
lemon grass - 3 sticks
olive oil – 2 tablespoons
a hot red chilli
tomatoes, medium sized - 4
chicken stock -  a litre
a small orange, or half a large one
mixed white and brown crabmeat – 500g
Thai fish sauce (nam pla) – a tablespoon
a large, ripe, lime
a small bunch of coriander
 
Slice the onions thinly, peel the outer leaves from the lemon grass and cut
the tender leaves within into paper-fine slices. Warm the olive oil in a
large, thick-bottomed saucepan over a moderate heat, stir in the onion and
lemon grass and let them soften without colouring. Seed and finely chop the
chilli, then add it to the pan.

 

Chop the tomatoes. You can peel and seed if you wish, but I
really can’t see the point. Stir them into the onions and leave to soften
for a few minutes before pouring in the chicken stock and orange juice, then
stirring in the crabmeat, nam pla, and a little salt. Bring to the boil turn
down the heat immediately and leaver to simmer for four or five minutes,
stirring from time to time.

Squeeze in the lime juice, roughly chop a good handful of
coriander leaves and stir them in. Check the seasoning and serve, piping
hot.