Soup: Flower crab & bitter gourd

Once upon a time, in the central region of Peninsular Malaysia, my dad boiled soup made of only flower crab with a little salt and nothing else but boy, it tasted very delicious and completely oil-less!

Right away I thought of Ban. He likes watercress soup the best but he doesn't like oil in the soup, even if the oil comes naturally from pork or chicken carcass. He also doesn't like the smell of ikan bilis (anchovy) soup although it's oil-less. See? Such a tough nut to crack, right?

So I tried replicating the crab soup. Ban couldn't stand the smell of the fresh crab and had to vacate the kitchen. He, however, did help to slice the bitter gourd.

Taking out the carapace was as easy as my parents said it would be. The harder part was chopping its body because I am not good at using a chopper. I fear chopping off my other hand should I use it to hold the food. It's not an unfounded fear because at times the part on the food where the knife connected was significantly away from the intended part. Scary.

After boiling for hours in the afternoon, I tasted the soup. It was not even close to as sweet as the soup my dad boiled. I cheated and added a little sugar. Tasted it again later. It was a little better but far from what I had hoped to achieve. Either there was too much water or too little crab meat.

Good news is that Ban doesn't mind having it again. I should clarify the recipe with my dad before trying to boil some again.