Chilli (Flower) Crab

There are so many ways to cook crab. Chilli Crab is one of the more popular one, which is also one of Singapore's national dishes. 

My family love chilli crab, except the younger one, who is can't even take a tiny bit of chilli.  However, it's not easy for me to get crabs at my area.  Hence, I have been cooking the same chilli (crab) sauce with other seafood.

The other day, I happened to get 2 big flower crabs but the kids didn't want to eat porridge. So I kept the crabs and cooked it for supper. :P  It's not as tasty as the regular crabs which have firmer meat, but it's good enough for me.   Like what we always say, No fish, prawns also good. ;p

Ingredients:

• 2 Crabs (in my case, flower crabs),  scrubbed clean and remove the gills and internal organs
• 1 teaspoon Apple Cidar or White Vinegar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• Salt to taste
• Cornflour Mixture (thickener)
• 3 tablespoon Oil

Spice to grind coarsely:

• 5 Fresh Red Chillies
• 5 Dried Chillies, soaked to soften
• 5 clove Garlic
• 2 tablespoon Dried Shrimp, soaked to soften

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon Cooking Wine
• 5 tablespoon Tomato Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Chilli Sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon Fermented Soya Bean Paste (Tau Cheong)
• 500ml Water or Stock

How to do it:

1. Chop the pincers from the crabs and chop the body into halves and then into 2 parts.
2. Heat wok with oil.
3. Stir fry crabs till they turn red but not completely cooked.
4. In another wok, heat 1 tablespoon oil and stir fry the spices till fragrant.
5. Add in crabs.
6. Stir fry till the crabs till well mixed with spices.
7. Add in the sauce and stir well.
8. Cover and simmer over high heat for 5 minutes or till thoroughly cooked.
9. Add apple cider and salt to taste.
10. Gradually stir in cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce.
11. Add in egg while stirring slowing.
12. Dish and serve immediately.

Note:

1. To kill the crab, turn it over to have the belly up.
2. Lift up the round (for female crabs) or triangle (for male crabs) tab.
3. Stab using a pair of chopsticks or knife.
4. Turn it over and pry off the shell.
5. Remove the internal organs near the eyes/mouth and use a scissor to cut the mouth part off.
6. Remove the gills from the body of the crab.
7. Clean and chop the crab in to smaller pieces.
8. Smash the pincer slightly so it's easier to eat later. 
9. For flower crab, please skip step 1 to 3 as they are usually frozen dead. The shells are a lot softer so you can actually pull then apart using your hands. 
10. You can also use shellfish, like crawfish or prawn to go with the chilli (crab) sauce.

Flower Crab with Glass Noodles 花蟹冬粉

I had always wanted to try Crab with Tang Hoon aka Glass Noodles. I never had the chance; mainly because of the kids. Hence, to date I do not know how it tasted like. :P

I decided to do a trail on error for this dish and it turn out to become my son's favourite. He skipped his usual dinner and finished this whole lot, excepting the crab.

My food reviewer (husband :P) said my version is more like what he had in China which is a bit saucey. Those in Singapore are drier and the tang hoon is more fragrant. However, he thought it was pretty tasty. ^^  It will be better if dark soy sauce was added though to give the tang hoon more colour. I didn't notice that I had run out of it.  Next time, it will be better. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 Crab Crab, cleaned and chopped into 4 parts
• 100g Glass Noodles aka Tang Hoon
• 4 slices Ginger
• 3 clove Garlic, chopped

Seasonings:

• 1/2 teaspoon White Pepper1 tsp chicken seasoning powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tsp dark soya sauce
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp Sugar
• 500ml Chicken Stock (reduce if you prefer it drier)
• Salt to taste.

How to do it:

1. Soak tang hoon till it's soften.
2. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat wok with a tablespoon oil.
4. Stir fry ginger and garlic till fragrant.
5. Add in the crabs.
6. Stir-fry till crab turns red.
7. Add in the seasonings except for salt.
8. Bring to a boil.
9. Add in the tang hoon.
10. Simmer for about 10-15 mins to let the tang hoon absorb the sauce and flavour.
11. Stir fry to evenly cook the tang hoon.
12. Add salt to taste if necessary.
13. Serve immediately.

Flower Crab Porridge 花蟹粥

I'm sure most of you know how to make porridge. Rice grains plus water and boil till the grains break up.

However, that's not how I usually makes my porridge.  I make porridge using cooked rice and I have been doing it since my kids started eating porridge. My aunt told me that this way of making porridge is better (for kids) as it causes less wind. Err ... I'm not quite sure about the wind part. I only find it easier to make especially flavoured ones, for this instance, Flower Crab Porridge. I find time use to cook the porridge using cooked rice is shorter and not to messy to eat.

The one question we always have when we make porridge is, how much water is need? Usually it will be an estimation. If the porridge is drying p during cooking add more water or scoop out the excess water. Right? It's easy if you are making plain porridge but if you are making making say flavoured ones, adding more water will ditule the taste (unless you made extra stock to add on), throwing out excess water will be a waste.

Whichever way it is done, porridge, plain or flavoured, is always my comfort food, especially on a cold rainy day.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup or 80g Rice Grain
• 2 Flower Crabs, clean
• 1.5 - 2 litre Homemade Chicken Stock
• 2-3 slices Ginger
• 1 teaspoon Chinese Cooking Wine
• 1/2 teaspoon Chicken Powder (optional)
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Cook the rice as normal in rice cooker.
2. Meanwhile, prepared the crabs.
3. Pull out and remove the tail flap.
4. Open the upper shell and remove and discard the gill and innards.
5. Chop the crab into 2 parts each.
6. Place the crab parts into the chicken stock.
7. Bring to a gentle boil for 10 minutes or till just cooked.
8. Remove the meaty parts of the crab.
9. Remove the crab meat.
10. Set the meat aside and return the remaining shells to the stock to continue cooking for 15 minutes.
11. When the rice is cooked, scoop it out into a pot.
12. Pour the drained stock into the pot with the rice.
13. Add in the sliced ginger.
14. Bring the rice with stock to a boil.
15. Reduce to a simmer.
16. Continue cooking for 20 - 30 minutes, stirring it occasionally to prevent the grains from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
17. Cook longer for a smoother congee-like consistency.
18. Add in the crab meat.
19. Season with the cooking wine, chicken powder, if using, and salt.
20. Serve, here with fried shredded ginger and it's oil and spring onion.

Note:

• In step 12, you can add the chicken stock in parts instead of adding all at once.  Add more stock later if you find the porridge too thick.
• I cooked and removed the meat of the crab so it will be easier to eat. You can add the crab parts with the cooked rice and stock to cook together if you like.
• To remove the crab meat in step 9, you can use a pair of kitchen scissor to cut open the crabs. You can only do this if you are using flower crabs as they have much softer outer shells.

Soft Shell Crabs in Butter Cereals

This the 3rd dish for my husband's birthday dinner. The 4th was a dessert (please see the next post) .

My husband and I love a particular dish from Bi Feng Tang 避风塘 (literally translated as "Storm Shelter" in Chinese), Soft Shell Crab Bi Feng Tang Special. So on his birthday, I cooked this for him. An extra big plate some more. What you see here was only 1/5 of the whole dish. Yeah, I cooked that much. That's how much we, including my son, enjoyed that dish. *wink*

By the way, you can use the same method to cook with prawns or squid. I had also tried replacing cereals with oats too. Tasty too.

Ingredients:

• 500g Soft Shell Crabs, half
• Oil for frying

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 tablespoon Corn Flour
• a dash of Pepper

Flour Coating (not batter, DO NOT ADD WATER) :

• 3 part Corn Flour
• 1 part Rice Flour

Seasoning:

• 3 tablespoon Butter
• 6 tablespoon Cereals (I used Nestle's Nestum Cereals)
• 1/2 tablespoon Garlic, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon Shallot, sliced
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 3 sprig Curry Leaves, leaves removed from stalk
• 4 Chili Padi, sliced
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Marinade soft shell crabs for half an hour.
2. Heat oil in pot.
3. Drip dry crabs and coat with flour.
4. Fry till crabs turn red.
5. Remove and drain.
6. Return to oil pot for frying again when you are ready to make the butter cereals. This helps to make them extra crunchy.
7. Remove and drain.
8. Put butter in wok.
9. Add garlic, shallot and curry leaves.
10. Stir fry till fragrant.
11. Add the remaining ingredients.
12. Stir fry quickly till the cereals turn slightly brown.
13. Add in the crabs and coat well.
14. Dish and serve.

Note:

• If you are using squid or prawns, do not re-fry them as they would turn too hard.
• If the seasoning is too dry, add more butter, otherwise it will not coat well.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe

* Alternative dishes using same cooking method *