I used to make remoulade back in law school for crab cake night.  Before your mind starts wandering with a million questions, I’ll just go ahead and tell you that crab cake night was typically a night where I ate alone, in my little hovel of an apartment, because the grocery store around the corner from my house would sell a single one to me as opposed to making me buy a pound, which usually meant I’d get 2 or 3 crab cakes and be unable to finish them while they were still fresh.  It wasn’t my proudest moment, standing in my kitchen and devouring single lonely crab cake, but at least it’s cathartic sharing this little anecdote with you now.

Back then, a remoulade sauce might take me about a half-hour to prepare, and I’d make it from scratch, with a raw egg and oil as the base.  For this event, though, I didn’t really love the idea of serving up raw eggs in 90 degree-plus heat to a large group of people.  In addition, preparing any sort of multiple-ingredient American dish here in Kuala Lumpur is not without its challenges.  All sorts of American products are available here, but you might have to pay a price for them.  One time, I got an irrational craving for strawberries and bought a box imported from Driscoll’s in the US.  After popping one in my mouth, I realized I had paid almost $20 for the right to be holding that pint.  Yikes.

Anyway, I searched and searched online for a large group-friendly recipe with affordable ingredients readily available here, and finally found one on a food discussion board that I thought would work.  A couple of trial runs and adaptations later, the recipe below is what I ended up with.  It’s made to feed 170 remoulade-hungry people; I think I probably could have cut the recipe in half and still had enough sauce for everyone.  When I get a chance, I’ll update this post with a smaller scale recipe, although large-scale recipes haven’t deterred me before.