Korean Fried King Crab
As seen on TV
Which Show?
Who made this dish?
Korean Fried King Crab with Gochujang Honey Glaze and Pickled Water Chestnuts
The randomizer generated:
Protein: Live king crab;
Produce: Fresh water chestnut;
Equipment: Pressure cooker;
Style: Breakfast and dinner;
Wild card: Sticky
Kevin Lee: "Then for our dinner, we're making a Korean fried king crab." He nodded to the traditional accompaniments to Korean fried chicken.
Kevin Lee: "Korean fried chicken, they typically have those pickled radishes you serve it with. So I'm going to pickle these water chestnuts, kind of mimic that." He put the pressure cooker to work a second way.
Kevin Lee: "I'm going to use my pressure cooker a second way to make the pickled chestnuts for my dinner dish. Also, I want to make this crab rice. I'm adding the ends of the crab into my rice, so it really enhances that crab flavor."
On the fry and glaze: Kevin Lee: "Korean fried chicken typically has a hint of turmeric. For the fried crab, I want to use the nice, fatty legs so I can have a nice, juicy, succulent fried king crab in a tempura batter. This is a play on the Korean fried chicken. Korean fried chicken is sticky, and the sticky is the name of the game this round. So for the fried crab, I'm making my gochujang glaze, some honey, the sambal, the garlic, to really make a fun sticky sauce. I'm going to glaze it all over the fried crab."
On plating: Kevin Lee: "For the dinner, I have my crab fried rice going with my Korean fried king crab with my pickled chestnuts in this little ramekin."
Voiceover: "Dinner is tempura fried king crab with a sticky, spicy glaze and pickled water chestnuts. That pressure cooker was used to make those water chestnut pickles."
Mei Lin: "When you go over to the dinner portion of the king crab, you have this delicately tempura fried crab that eats so good."
Cat Cora: "My crab was so tender. I thought the tempura was done well. I would have liked to see the water chestnuts diced up and put in the rice. That's nitpicking, but I thought it was a really great execution. This is why these two chefs are in the finals."
Brooke Williamson: "Moving on to dinner, I really love these pickles. They're really delicious and really refreshing."
David Chang: "But this, to me, is the most interesting thing here. Really smart. I would not have thought of that. I think that's one of the most clever techniques and also shows you that whoever the chef is understands the sort of food science of a water chestnut, that it can take that. It's a really good dish. All the dishes have been really good. But this is the final, and this is very difficult. It's very hard for me to make up my mind."
Combined finale score (breakfast plus dinner): 83. Runner up.
