Thai-Style Seafood Casserole with Basil -

1 sm Dungeness crabs

1/2 ts Black peppercorns

1 tb Chopped fresh coriander root

4 Garlic cloves

1 ts Sugar

1 tb Golden Mountain Sauce, or -dark soy sauce 1 tb Light soy sauce, or Thai

-fish sauce (Nam Pla) 2 ts Oyster sauce

1 tb Rice wine, or dry sherry

1 ts Asian sesame oil

2 tb Vegetable oil

3 qt Slices of ginger, crushed

4 Red chilies, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces 6 oz Medium shrimp

36 to

4 Green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths

1 To 1/2 cup water

1 lb Fresh fish filets, cut into 1-inch pieces 1/2 lb Large squid, cleaned, cut 1-inch rings

1/2 c Thai sweet basil leaves

10 minutes. Drain. Set aside. If you are using a cooked crab, have the fishmonger crack it into large pieces. To clean a live crab, be careful, and use a brush to scrub its underside and between the claws and legs to loosen the sand and grit. Rinse thoroughly with cold water. Plunge the crab into boiling water for a minute to kill it. Remove. When cool, clean, disjoint and chop the crab into large chunks. In a mortar or spice mill, pound or grind the peppercorns first, then add the coriander root and garlic, and work it into a paste. Mix together the sugar, Golden Mountain, soy and oyster sauces, rice wine and sesame oil in a bowl. Pour the vegetable oil into a

3 1/2-quart sandy clay pot casserole (or a Dutch oven) and set over medium heat. Add the coriander-garlic- pepper paste and saute lightly. Increase the heat to high. Add ginger, chiles and raw crab pieces; toss and brown for a minute. Add the shrimp an green onions to crab mixture; stir-fry for 30 seconds. Pour in the soy sauce mixture and mung bean noodles; toss and mix together. Stir in the water, cover pot, reduce heat to medium and braise for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the noodles seem dry, add more water. Increase heat to medium-high, and gently stir in the fish and squid (and cooked crab if using), mix with the noodles, top with the basil leaves. Cover and cook for 3 to 5 minutes longer. Check for doneness. Garnish with fresh coriander sprigs. Bring the clay pot to the table and serve hot with rice and vegetables. Serves

4. Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; March