Black Bean And Chilli Mud Crab Recipes

SINGAPORE CHILLI CRAB

Steps:

• Prepare crab: See separate tutorial for how to clean and cut a whole crab. You will end up with: 1) Crab pieces; and 2) Reserved tomalley ("crab mustard", Note 8) and crab juices in a separate bowl. This is a key "secret ingredient" used to flavour the sauce.
• Chilli paste: Place ingredients in a small food processor or Nutribullet. Blitz until it's a fairly smooth paste.
• Sauté belachan: Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add belachan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. It will smell pungent (to put it mildly), but have faith! It will mellow and transform!
• Cook off chilli paste: Add chilli paste and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
• Add tomato passata: Add tomato passata and cook, stirring regularly, for 4 minutes.
• Add remaining sauce ingredients: Add sweet chilli sauce, ketchup, water and stir to combine.
• Add claws: Add the crab claws first (they take longer to cook), stir to coat in sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover with a lid and cook 3 minutes.
• Add "crab mustard" and juices: Add the reserved tomalley ("crab mustard") along with all the crab juices.
• Add remaining crab pieces: Remove lid, add remaining crab pieces and any juices that have collected in this bowl. Stir pieces to coat, put the lid back on and cook for 7 minutes.
• Remove crab: Use tongs to remove crab pieces into a bowl.
• Egg ribbons: With the sauce still on the stove, and while stirring in a circular motion, pour the egg in a thin stream into the middle of the pot. This will create little ribbons of egg in the sauce that is traditional and look lovely.
• Vinegar: Stir in vinegar.
• Return crab: Return the crab pieces into the pot, gently stir to coat in the sauce.

BLACK BEAN AND CHILLI MUD CRAB

Steps:

• Clean the mud crab (remove the carapace, lungs and guts) and then remove the claws and crack then with the back of a cleaver but don't smash them or you will be picking shell out all night and then cut the body sections into 3 or 4 depending on their size.
• Heat the oil in a wok and add the crab pieces and toss around until they turn red and then add the garlic and ginger and continue to toss for another minutes.
• Then add the chilli, black beans, rice wine, stock and light soy sauce and cover and simmer for about 3 minutes for the crab to cook through.
• Uncover and if lots of liquid remains, turn up the heat for a few minutes.
• Remove the crab pieces to a serving plate and add the spring onions and extra ginger to the liquid and pour this over the crab and finish with a scatter of the coriander leaves and serve with the lime.

STIR-FRIED CRABS WITH BLACK BEAN SAUCE

Steps:

• Pat the crabs dry with paper towels and set aside.
• Chop the black beans and combine with the rice wine, garlic, ginger and scallions. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, combine the hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar and chicken stock. Set aside.
• Heat the peanut or vegetable oil in a large wok or skillet and add the crabs. Stir fry for about three minutes over medium heat. Add the black-bean mixture and continue stir-frying for about one minute.
• Add the soy-sauce mixture, stir and bring to boil. Cover the pan and cook for two minutes. Then add the cornstarch mixture and stir until the sauce thickens and becomes glossy. Correct seasoning (you may wish to add more soy sauce or pepper) and add the sesame oil. Remove from heat and place on heated plates. Sprinkle with coriander and serve.