Behold!!!! The all time favourite Chilli Crab! Just how can any Singapore-themed recipe series exclude this dish which arguably best defines Singaporean cuisine? Honestly I have reasons to hate and like this dish. Lets start with the bad one; I dont like the fact that most establishments serve spicy ketchup crab under the guise of Chilli Crab (yknow, the awfully sweet and diluted versions). As for what I like about this, its meaningfully a Singaporean dish. The thing is, in the past, the Chinese cooks crabs with ginger and scallions; the Malay cooks them with fiery Southeast Asian spices; the Indian probably have theirs swimming in pots of curries. And with Chilli Crab, the essence from the various cultures magically combine to make all that magic. The magic is there only if the dish is executed properly; and by properly we dont mean perfectly. Once again, featured in this video is a pair of hands which has never handled a single crab before. Perhaps, that annual Chinese New Year feast deserves another dish and it could certainly be prepared by you! So here it is, CHILLI CRAB! Ingredients 1. Mud Crabs (700g and above) x 2 2. 1 cup Sambal Sambal Ingredients 1. 2 bottles Sambal Belachan 2. 200g Onion, blended 3. 50g Dried Shrimps 4. 300g Lard*, fried and mashed. Reserve the oil. 5. 100g Roasted Peanuts, grounded 6. 100g Candlenuts, grounded Method 1. Cooking the Sambal. Fry onions in reserved oil from frying lard. Do this on a wok over medium heat. When lightly browned, add the nuts and continue frying till ingredients are golden brown. Next, add the rest of the Sambal ingredients and cook over low heat till most of the moisture is removed. When this is the case, bubbling will be minimal. 2. Preparing the crabs. Follow the video to butcher a crab. Take note to scrub and wash the shells. When you end up with the individual parts, drain them and keep them as dry as possible. 3. Cooking the Crab. Heat, in a large wok, 1/3 cup oil till smoky. Add the crab pieces and cover for 1 min. After which, toss the crab briefly before mixing in 1 cup Sambal and enough water to barely submerge the pieces. Cover and allow to simmer for 7min over medium low heat. Finally, bring to boil, uncovered, over high heat to slightly reduce the gravy. Season with 2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 cup ketchup and some light soy sauce to taste. When youre happy with the taste, reduce the heat before attempting to stir in potato starch slurry (2 tbsp starch, 4 tbsp water). Once gravy is thickened, bring back to a boil and add the roes and all the gooey goodness and 1 beaten egg. Remove from heat once egg is slightly set. Garnish with coriander and serve with fried Mantous! *For those who wishes to omit lard, use the same amount of chopped shallots instead.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 10:25:14 +0000
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