Vietnamese Crab Omelette: Trứng Chiên Với Cua

Vietnamese "Trứng Chiên Với Cua" means "Omelette with Crab." This omelette is good served with Vietnamese dipping sauce.

Ingredients (2 servings):

4 large eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (or black pepper)

1/2 cup crab meat, in small pieces

3 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced

2 small red chilies, seeded and sliced (I generally prefer not to seed them)

1 teaspoon fish sauce

3 tablespoons peanut oil (divided uses, see below)

Vietnamese dipping sauce to serve (link to the recipe for the dipping sauce: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/12/vietnamese-dipping-sauce-nuoc-cham-or.html ) 

 

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in an 8" or 9" skillet (a nonstick skillet is best for this) over medium heat. Add the chopped green onion and the sliced chili pepper, saute for about 90 seconds, then add the crab meat and saute another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring the ingredients around as they cook. Empty the contents onto a dish and set it aside briefly. Heat another tablespoon of oil in the skillet. Beat the eggs with the pepper and the fish sauce in a bowl. Add half the eggs to the skillet and as they cook, keep pulling the edges in toward the middle to allow the still raw egg to fill in the outer edge (tilt the skillet to help with this). Cook until the eggs are almost set, then add half of the crab mixture to top half of the basically cooked eggs, and then fold the other half of the egg over onto the filled half. Press down lightly to secure the filling. Carefully turn the omelette over to the other side and let it cook until it reaches the desired level of doneness (I don't care a lot for well browned omelettes, as can be seen in the photos below, so I don't let them brown much, but many people prefer them well browned, so whatever you prefer; none of this will end civilization any time soon). Repeat the cooking process for the second omelette.

 

Vietnamese nuoc cham dipping sauce on the side ...

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Tram-The history of this word is obscure, but it seems to be from the Germanic languages along the North Sea (for some strange reason referred to as " North Sea Germanic"... hm, wonder why? And by the way, English is one of those North Sea Germanic languages, although this grouping is generally used for the ancestors of the modern languages, like Old English and Old Saxon). The word seems to have come into English in the late 1400s or early 1500s from Flemish,^ Dutch or Low German, which had forms like "traam(e)," "trame," and where it meant "beam;" thus also, "handle for a (wheel)barrow," then the word began to be used for the carts used to haul coal and ore in mines (the carts had handles). Where the word came from is unknown, and some believe it developed in the Germanic languages and dialects in the northwestern part of Europe from a word now lost to us. By the early part of the 1800s the word was also used for "the track/rail for a cart," and between that usage and the cart meaning, this developed into the use for "tram-car;" that is, "streetcar," and this was then shortened to "tram," and this was also used for cable cars.