Bánh Canh Cua (Bánh canh cua)
Overview
Bánh canh cua is a Vietnamese crab noodle soup made with thick, chewy noodles of tapioca and rice flour. The broth is thickened slightly with tapioca starch and coloured orange with annatto oil, giving it a glossy, almost velvety body. It is loaded with sweet crab meat, whole shrimp, quail eggs and sometimes crab claws, pork or fish cake, and finished with spring onion, fried shallots and black pepper. Diners add lime, chilli and fish sauce at the table. Many versions use pork bones in the stock, but it can also be made with seafood stock alone. The noodles are thick and slippery, a little like Japanese udon.
History
Bánh canh means soup cake, after the way the noodle dough is cut or pressed into the boiling broth. It is found all over Vietnam, with many regional forms, and the crab version is one of the most famous dishes of Saigon street food. Many small shops in Ho Chi Minh City specialise only in bánh canh cua and are crowded from early morning.
Main ingredients
Thick tapioca noodles, crab meat, shrimp, quail eggs, annatto oil, spring onion. The soup is built on crab and pork stock and is usually served hot. Diet: pescatarian; not usually gluten-free.
Explore: Fish and seafood soups · Noodle soups · Egg soups · More soups from Vietnam
Recipe
Method
- 1
Heat the stock and season with fish sauce.
- 2
Fry the crab meat briefly in the annatto oil and add it with the shrimp to the stock.
- 3
Stir in the tapioca starch until slightly thick, then add the quail eggs.
- 43 min
Cook the noodles in the broth for 3 minutes and serve with spring onion, shallots, lime and chilli.
- ✓
Serve. About 1h 25m from start to bowl.
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
