In this video, join us as we learn how to create Chef John's exquisite Chili Crab Stuffed Rice Noodles. With step-by-step guidance, discover the art of crafting succulent crab-filled rice noodles bathed in a delectable chili sauce. Chef John's expertise shines through as he shares his secrets for achieving the perfect blend of flavors and textures. Whether you're a seasoned chef or a novice in the kitchen, this recipe promises to delight your taste buds and elevate your cooking skills.
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00:00 Hello this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Chili Crab Stuffed Rice Noodles.
00:09 That's right, I'm going to show you how to take some inexpensive, easy to find rice paper
00:13 spring roll wrappers and turn them into these amazing fat pan fried stuffed noodles.
00:19 And while these really are incredible filled with crab, what I really want you to pay attention
00:23 to is the technique.
00:24 Since once you master that, you can fill these with anything you want, and you probably will.
00:29 So, with that, let's go ahead and get started with our filling.
00:33 And what I have here is a half pound of pick crab meat, and this will work with fresh crab
00:38 or canned crab, or what I'm using here, those refrigerated vacuum packed cans that you find
00:43 next to the fresh seafood at the market.
00:46 And then because I'm calling this chili crab, I'm going to go ahead and add some finely
00:49 diced red hot chilies.
00:51 And in case you're keeping score at home, these were Fresno.
00:54 I'm also going to add a couple teaspoons of sambal, which are basically fermented ground
00:59 chilies.
01:00 And then we'll finish up the chili portion of the program with a generous squeeze of
01:04 sriracha.
01:05 We'll also add a ton of freshly minced garlic, or at least I am.
01:10 You add how much you want.
01:12 And then next up, we'll toss in some freshly sliced green onions, along with the always
01:16 optional chopped cilantro.
01:19 And then I like to grate in a little bit of fresh lemon zest, because I think a little
01:23 bit of lemon flavor is great in this, but I do not want the acidity from the lemon juice,
01:28 which I think can often cover up the sweetness of the crab.
01:31 So we're just going with a little bit of the zest.
01:34 And then we'll finish up with some sesame oil, plus one rounded tablespoon of mayonnaise,
01:40 which is going to add some moisture and richness, and also sort of help bind this together as
01:45 we portion it out.
01:47 But anyway, once we have that thoroughly and evenly mixed together, it is technically ready
01:51 to use, but for best results, I like to wrap this and pop it in the fridge for at least
01:57 30 minutes to an hour, just to give all those flavors time to meld together and start to
02:01 vibe.
02:02 All right, there is no such thing as a party that is awesome right when it starts.
02:07 So we'll go ahead and wrap that up and pop it in the fridge.
02:10 And then once we are ready to stuff our rice noodles, what we'll do is drizzle some sesame
02:14 oil on a plate, and we will rub that all over.
02:18 Because we're going to transfer our stuffed rice noodles to this plate, and if we don't
02:22 oil it, they might stick and tear.
02:24 And once that's set, we can move on to the star of the show, and the secret to this whole
02:29 operation, and that would be these rice paper spring roll wrappers, which these days are
02:34 very easy to find in large grocery stores.
02:37 And yes, they look and feel exactly like plastic, and if we tried to roll them, they would snap
02:42 into pieces, which is why what we'll do first is dip these into some cold water for about
02:47 3 or 4 seconds, at which point I'm going to transfer this onto a plate, and no, not the
02:53 one we oiled, this is just a plain plate.
02:56 And as that starch slowly hydrates, these wrappers are going to soften up and become
03:00 pliable.
03:01 And once that happens, we will be able to shape our stuffed noodles.
03:06 So what we'll do is grab our chili crab filling, and I'm going to place on about an ounce right
03:10 in the middle, in three separate piles.
03:14 And yes, we could just spread that all out, and not leave any space in between, but I
03:18 really do think the texture's better, and more noodle-like if we do it this way.
03:23 And then once we have our crab placed down in the center like that, we will take the
03:27 bottom of the wrapper, and we will fold that over, and then we'll go ahead and give it
03:31 a light pressing in between the sections, and as we're doing this, we're making sure
03:35 those portions of crab are equally spaced.
03:38 And once that's set, we'll roll that over one more time, kind of sort of pulling it
03:42 back a little bit as we do, to get a nice tight roll.
03:46 And then eventually we will simply roll this up, ideally ending up with a seam on the bottom,
03:51 or somewhere close.
03:52 And believe it or not, that is all there is to this.
03:55 Oh, and usually we do fold in the ends before we roll this up, but I dint on this first
04:00 one to show you that that really doesn't matter that much.
04:04 And also I forgot.
04:06 And that's it, we'll transfer that onto our sesame oil grease plate.
04:10 And if you use the same amount of crab I am per noodle, you'll be able to get about 8
04:14 to 10 of these.
04:15 But if you did want to use some more to make bigger ones, and you're okay getting fewer,
04:20 that's fine.
04:21 Or on the other hand, maybe you only want to use half as much, so you can get twice
04:25 as many stuffed rice noodles.
04:27 That would be an option as well.
04:29 But anyway, that's up to you.
04:31 I mean you are after all the HR puffin stuff, of how much stuffing is enough.
04:36 But for me, I thought these had the perfect ratio.
04:39 And by the way, you do not have to make these one at a time on a plate.
04:42 Okay, once you get this technique down, which is not going to take long, you can do 2, 3,
04:47 4 at a time right on the countertop.
04:49 And please note, I let these two sit and soften up for an extra minute before I started stuffing
04:54 and shaping.
04:55 And as you can probably see, it's more flexible, and a little stickier, and a little easier
05:00 to work with.
05:01 But if you wait too long, and they get too soft and sticky, these can be a lot more difficult
05:06 to work with.
05:07 So if your phone rings, let it go to voicemail.
05:11 And as I mentioned, to play it safe, we generally want to fold a little bit of that outside
05:15 edge in.
05:16 But as you'll see, thanks to my forgetfulness on that first one I made on the plate, which
05:21 ended up pan frying just fine, I really don't think it makes that much of a difference.
05:26 Although I guess it does make it look a little bit neater.
05:28 Oh, and as I kind of mess up, and try to fine tune this one on the left, I should mention
05:33 that once these are pan fried, they almost always look amazing no matter what they look
05:37 like at this stage.
05:38 So what I'm trying to say is relax, since as long as these get rolled up somehow, and
05:43 they're even remotely close to this shape, they are going to cook up beautifully.
05:48 Oh and for the purposes of this video, I'm only going to make six of these, but like
05:52 I said, you'll be able to get about eight to ten.
05:55 And once those have been formed and plated, we can pop those in the fridge until we're
05:59 ready to cook.
06:01 And then the only other thing we should prep would be a nice light sauce to go over the
06:04 top, which is going to be nothing more than some nice cold fresh water, plus some rice
06:09 vinegar, and then we could do a splash of soy sauce, and I usually do, but this time
06:15 I tried it with a couple tablespoons of oyster sauce, which I thought was amazing, so I think
06:20 we should go with that.
06:21 And then we'll also add a couple tablespoons of ketchup, for color and flavor, and acidity
06:26 and savoriness.
06:28 And then we'll finish up with a little bit of sesame oil, plus one small spoon of corn
06:32 starch, and then we'll go ahead and take a whisk and mix that in.
06:37 And classically, we would bring the other ingredients to a boil first, and then stir
06:40 in a slurry of corn starch and water, but I like to save a step and mix it into the
06:46 cold ingredients now, which as you'll see works out just fine.
06:50 And that's it, we'll place that on medium-high heat, and we will give it a stir while we
06:55 wait for it to come to a boil, and as soon as it does start to simmer, you will see it
06:59 thicken up.
07:01 And once it does, and it looks a little something like this, we are done!
07:06 And we should be looking at a very beautiful, shiny sauce, that has the consistency of a
07:11 nice thin gravy.
07:13 And then all we need to do is keep this warm, and we'll spoon that over our stuffed noodles
07:17 later.
07:18 And yes, you can make this ahead, and then just reheat it gently when you're ready to
07:22 use it.
07:23 But you know what, I'm ready to use it!
07:25 So let's place a non-stick skillet with a little bit of oil in it, over medium-high
07:29 heat, and once hot we can transfer in our stuffed noodles.
07:33 Oh, and by the way, that first one I made, where I didn't tuck the sides in, is the last
07:38 one I'm placing in here, and if you keep your eye on that one, you will see, it really didn't
07:43 cook up any differently than the other ones.
07:46 And fair warning, these things do like to stick together, so we'll try to not crowd
07:50 those.
07:51 But the good news is, even if they do stick to each other a little bit, they are usually
07:55 pretty easy to separate without anything tearing.
07:58 Alright, if we really crowded these, and they were packed and pressed together, and stuck,
08:03 and then cooked that way, they would at that point be really hard to separate.
08:07 So let's not do that.
08:09 And as fast as these were to make, they are even faster to cook.
08:13 Alright, these are only going to need a couple minutes on each side, or until they're nicely
08:18 browned and look a little something like this.
08:21 And by the way, as usual, the exact heat setting is going to be up to you.
08:25 Ok, if the pan seems too hot, and you think they're getting too dark too fast, simply
08:30 back it down to medium.
08:31 Alright, that is just you cooking, so do not be afraid to adjust.
08:36 And by the way, please ignore what might appear to be me unnecessarily moving these around.
08:41 I'm not sure why, but I kind of wanted the subtle curve of the noodle to be going in
08:45 the same direction as the curve of the pan, and I would love to explain why I needed to
08:49 do that, but I can't.
08:51 Anyway, no matter how you position these, like I said, all we need to do is cook these
08:56 for a couple minutes per side.
08:57 And when I thought those were looking perfect, I pulled them off the heat.
09:01 And I'm going to go ahead and serve up three.
09:03 And then once plated, we'll go ahead and spoon over that flavorful, beautiful sauce.
09:07 And we'll try to make sure the tops of our noodles are nicely coated, because who does
09:12 not like a nice glistening noodle?
09:14 And once that's been accomplished, we can spoon out a little bit extra, since I think
09:18 we want that to kind of pool up on the plate a little bit.
09:22 And then to finish these up, I'm going to do a nice scattering of toasted sesame seeds,
09:26 as well as a little more freshly sliced green onion.
09:30 And then last but not least, one more sprinkling of our hot red chilies.
09:35 And that's it, our chili crab stuffed rice noodles are ready to enjoy.
09:39 So I'm going to go ahead and grab a fork and cut in between those lumps of crab filling.
09:45 And I'm going to eat that in one bite.
09:47 And what a magnificent bite that was.
09:49 All right, the combination of that spicy, sweet crab filling and the always irresistible
09:54 chewy rice noodle, along with that beautifully light oyster sauce flavored sauce, which is
10:00 very savory and a little bit sweet and a little bit sour, with just the perfect amount of
10:05 saltiness.
10:06 Okay, all that, my friends, makes for an extremely memorable bite of food.
10:11 So to summarize, I absolutely love everything about these.
10:15 And please keep in mind, this is really just a technique I showed you.
10:19 And while this garlicky chili crab stuffing was phenomenal, these could work with so many
10:23 other things.
10:24 All right, pretty much any of your favorite pasta fillings or dumpling fillings could
10:28 be easily adapted to this method.
10:31 But no matter what you stuff these with, they are fast and fun to make and profoundly pleasurable
10:36 to eat.
10:37 Which is why I really do hope you give these a try soon.
10:41 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe and much
10:46 more info as usual.
10:48 And as always, enjoy.
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