Destination
Santiago
The story
Chupe de jaiba is Chile's coastal comfort dish: fresh crab meat, cooked into a rich sauce of bread soaked in milk, white wine, cream and a generous handful of grated cheese, then baked in individual clay bowls (pailas) until the top blisters. Served bubbling straight from the oven with a squeeze of lime and a piece of marraqueta bread. Iconic in Valparaíso, Concón and every fishing port on the Chilean coast.
Method
Tear the crustless bread into rough pieces and cover with the warm milk in a bowl. Leave 5 minutes to soak, then mash to a rough paste with a fork.
Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium heat. Sweat the onion 4 to 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic, paprika and merkén and cook 1 minute more.
Pour in the white wine. Simmer 2 minutes until the alcohol has cooked off.
Add the soaked bread paste and stir until smooth. Pour in the cream. Cook 3 to 4 minutes over low heat, stirring, until thick and glossy.
Off the heat, gently fold in the crab meat and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Don't stir too hard: you want visible pieces of crab.
Divide the mixture between the four pailas. Scatter the grated cheese generously over each and dot with the extra butter.
Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Bake the chupes 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops are deep golden and bubbling at the edges.
Serve immediately, straight from the pailas, with lime wedges and bread on the side. Warn everyone the bowls are extremely hot.
Tips
- Fresh crab meat is worth the spend. Tinned pasteurised meat gives you a flat, slightly metallic flavour; fresh picked crab is what makes chupe sing.
- Day-old bread thickens best. Fresh bread dissolves into gluey lumps; day-old bread breaks down into the correct thick porridge texture that gives chupe its body.
- Merkén adds the Chilean note. If you can source it (specialty Latin grocers), a teaspoon of merkén gives the smoky-earthy note that separates a Chilean chupe from a generic crab bake.
- Clay pailas are traditional but ramekins work. If you invest in one thing for Chilean cooking, small individual clay bowls are the best purchase; they retain heat beautifully and look right.
- Bake hot and short. High heat for 15 to 20 minutes gives you a browned top and a hot centre without drying out the crab. Long slow baking is a mistake.
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