Chilli Plum Crabs Recipes

CHILI CRAB

Steps:

• In a casserole or large pot of boiling salted water, add the crabs and cook them for about 1 minute, or until no longer moving. Drain and set aside until cool enough to handle.
• To clean the crabs pull off top shells; pull and twist off each apron; remove gills. With sharp knife cut crabs into quarters, rinse and drain.
• In mortor and pestle or small food processor pound or process chiles, garlic, shallots and ginger with a little oil if necessary.
• Combine all sauce ingredients.
• Heat a wok over moderately high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil and heat until hot. Add chili and garlic paste and stir-fry 1 minute. Add crabs and stir-fry 2 to 3 minutes or until shells turn red. Add sauce ingredients, bring to boil and simmer, covered, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer crabs to serving dish.
• Bring sauce in wok to a boil. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to wok. Simmer until thickened. Gradually add eggs in a stream, whisking, and cook for 1 minute. Pour sauce over crabs and garnish with scallion.

CHILLI CRAB

Steps:

• If crabs live, put in freezer for 10 minutes to stun.
• Remove back shell and clean spongy bits and brown stuff, clean in water.
• Cut in half lengthwise.
• Remove claws from body and hit with blunt side of a cleaver to crack in several places.
• Cut the halves into two or three pieces leaving legs attached.
• Pound ginger and chili until they form a paste, or zap in the food processor or blender.
• Mix soy sauce, sugar, water (or stock), tomato sauce and chili sauce (if using) in a small jug.
• Put oil in a large hot pan or wok and over a medium heat fry ginger/chili mix for a few minutes.
• Add the crab pieces and stir fry at a higher heat till crab pieces turn red.
• Add liquid mixture and bring back up to the boil, add sesame oil, lower heat to medium and cover with lid for a few minutes giving the occasional stir.
• Garnish with sliced spring onion.
• Don't forget the finger bowls and a bowl in the middle for the shells and lots of paper serviettes/napkins.

SINGAPORE CHILLI CRAB RECIPE BY TASTY

Steps:

• Prepare the crab by removing the base flap, then pull off the head and clear out the cavity. Keep the head in a bowl. Moving to the body of the crab, remove the gills, which are an opaque brown colour on both sides of the crab. Using a sharp knife, cut the crab in half down the middle, then divide into six parts. Using the knife, crack the crab legs open to allow the flavours to enhance while cooking. Add to the bowl with the head then set aside.
• In a food processor, add shallots, ginger, red chillies, garlic, ketchup, and shrimp paste, then pulse until it comes together and forms a paste.
• Heat oil in a wok over medium heat, then once it comes up to temperature fry add the chilli paste and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the crab pieces into the wok and stir until they are fully coated. Give the crab time to start turning orange, approximately 5 minutes.
• Add the tomato puree, chicken stock, rice wine vinegar, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce and palm sugar, then stir until completely mixed. The crab should be fully orange by now. Add a lid on top and allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes.
• Remove the crab legs and head, and plate up on a shallow dish.
• Add butter, spring onions, and egg. Let the egg sit for a minute before stirring, then give the sauce a quick stir. The sauce should thicken up quickly.
• Pour the sauce on top of the crab and garnish with a few sprigs of coriander.
• Enjoy!

FATTY CRAB'S CHILI CRAB

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk the chili sauce, soy sauce, sugar, rice-wine vinegar, tomato paste and sesame oil with 1 1/4 cups water and reserve.
• Place the shallots, garlic, ginger and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture becomes a smooth paste. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water.
• Heat the peanut oil in a wok over high heat, and when it shimmers, add the shallot paste and fry for 30 seconds until very fragrant. Add the crabs and 1/3 of the chili sauce, and when the liquid simmers, continue to cook for 2 minutes, shaking the pan to cover the crabs with the sauce.
• Add the remaining chili sauce to the pan, and when it reaches a simmer, turn the heat to medium-low, cover the pan and continue to simmer vigorously about 8 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch paste, and when the liquid in the pan thickens, turn off the heat. Add the egg yolk and stir again to combine. Divide the crabs and sauce among 4 plates, sprinkle with the chopped scallions and serve immediately, with crab picks and many napkins.

FRIED CHILLI CRABS

Steps:

• Wash crabs well, washing away any "mossy" spots on the shell.
• Remove hard top shell, stomach bag, and fibrous tissue.
• With cleaver, chop each crab into 4 pieces- 6, if they are large.
• Heat wok. Add oil.
• When the oil is very hot, fry crab pieces until they change color- turning so they cook on all sides.
• Remove to a plate.
• Turn heat to low and fry the ginger,garlic,and red chilis, stirring constantly. They should cook but not brown.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.
• Return crabs to wok and allow to simmer in the sauce for 3 minutes You may add a little water if sauce reduces too much.
• Serve with white rice.

SINGAPORE CHILLI CRAB

Steps:

• The crab must be prepared before stir-frying (you can ask your fishmonger to do this). This involves removing the claws, the main shell, discarding the dead man's fingers, then cutting the body into four pieces, and cracking the claws and the legs so the sauce can get through to the meat.
• Heat the oil in a large wok and sizzle the garlic, ginger and chopped chillies for 1 min or until fragrant. Add the ketchup, soy and 100ml water, and stir to combine. Throw in the crab, turn up the heat and stir-fry for 3-5 mins or until the crab is piping hot and coated in the sauce. Stir through most of the coriander, spring onions and sliced chilli.
• Use tongs to arrange the crab on a serving dish, pour over the sauce from the pan and scatter over the remaining coriander, spring onions and sliced chilli. Serve with rice or bao buns, and a lot of napkins.

SINGAPOREAN CHILI CRAB

Steps:

• Chili Crab Sauce:
• Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl (or 22-quart plastic Cambro containers, like we do) until it becomes one unified homogenous mixture of red chili sauce. It should taste spicy, sweet, and savory and not too ketchup-y.
• Prepare the crab:
• Clean crab and cut into pieces. If you have never done this before, this might sound easier said than done, but it's not nearly as daunting as it seems.
• In a debate of "humane" ways of killing crab: the Asian preparation of crab is a near-instant killing of the crab versus the longer and drawn out steaming/boiling method. Additionally, the boiling method tends to result in a much fishier "crabby" flavor, not as fresh tasting as with this method. If you look up videos on YouTube, look up "How to kill a live crab humanely," which will demonstrate this way of breaking down a crab.
• With that said, I wasn't as prepared in the photograph process, so I'm going to personally walk you through this as the first "Crab Killer" at Starry Kitchen:
• Quick tips: Put crabs in the freezer or refrigerator before breaking down. It will make them sleepy-slow them down very severely. There is also a way one of our cooks, Sean, uncovered on the web to gently pet a soft spot on their shell over and over and they'll start falling asleep. We've seen it. It's crazy, but it takes a lot longer than the freezer method.
• Next, when you're ready, you're going to need a decently sharp knife for this process or at least one with a sharp tip for this next step: try to grab the crab from the tail end, and flip the crab over, claws and eyes pointing away from you, and so it's belly-side up. If you look at its abdomen right in the center, you'll see a longer triangular lip (top of it pointing away from you) that can actually be lifted up. Until you're comfortable doing it often, you can use the tip of your knife to lift it up, but you'll want to use your hand to quickly just lift up and fold it over completely. The crab will potentially get VERY mad at this point. You've just exposed its most vulnerable spot.
• Then, this part is simple if you can move quickly: just stab it downward right through that spot that's been exposed until you reach the shell. Hold for about 10-20 seconds. The crab should die almost instantly.
• Afterwards, line your knife across the middle, and firmly press down and cleave it through the abdomen to cut the crab in half. The crab will snap in half once you come all the way down. You'll also be able to pull the crab by each of its claws, and it'll just come apart.
• You'll then want to turn each half over, and remove the white gills off of each and dispose.
• Dispose of the lip, and any other loose appendages from the front and back end of the crab.
• Dispose of the white film and any black matter inside the shell itself, but do not clean out the rest of the shell. That orange part, the coral, the fatty tissue is the MOST coveted part of the crab in Asian households (typically held for the father, no joke). It's like sea urchin/uni, really rich and very briny...and super-awesome to put rice into once it's cooked and scoop it out with. Yummers!
• Depending on how large your crab is, the two halves of crab legs can be broken into either 2 or 3 sections (there should be a minimum of 2 legs per section) using the same cleaving action as you did to halve the crab.
• And that's it! (If YouTube, this, and the web doesn't help you feel more comfortable-seriously, feel free to reach out to us: @starrykitchen. This dish is COMPLETELY worth it.)
• To make the Chili Crab:
• Now clean the crab legs again, then pat dry with paper towels. Put into a big bowl with cornstarch, but make sure to leave enough room to coat crab with starch.
• Diligently dredge all exposed crab pieces including the coral and head, inside and out, with starch. Next, shake off excess starch, but make sure all of the exposed (non-shelled) parts are covered in starch. This seals in all of the crab's flavors throughout the cooking process. This is especially important if you need to prepare in advance.
• Fill a wok/pot with 2 to 3 inches cooking oil, enough to submerge crab pieces, including the head. Heat oil to 350°F over high heat, then carefully fry in batches, arranging crab pieces in a single layer in the oil. Turn over pieces with tongs to fry evenly.
• When the crab pieces turn red all over and the battered parts are golden, remove and shake the excess oil over your pot. Set aside (we like to set crab on a rack/grate and baking sheet to allow a little bit more oil to drip off). Refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
• Once you're ready to make your chili crab, heat a wok/pan on high heat and add 1 tablespoon cooking oil per crab. Sauté garlic, shallots, ginger, and chiles until aromatic (enough to make you cough-that's how you know you got the GOOD stuff). Next, add the beautiful monstrosity that is your crab. Stir quickly for 10 to 15 seconds, then add Chili Crab Sauce. Cover, cook over high heat, and cook that bad boy (or girl) for 7 minutes.
• Keep the pan over heat, but remove crab from pan and place on a serving dish. While reconstructing your sea beast, make sure to leave all the sauce in the wok/pan. Crack eggs into the sauce, and quickly mix to fully incorporate them and thicken the sauce. Increase to high heat and reduce sauce to desired thickness. (I like it pretty thick and a little bit gloppy GOOD.) Once done, remove from heat, and pour sauce all over the crab. Garnish with chopped scallions and cilantro. Serve with Buttermilk Beer Beignets. Break down the crab, sop up all that sauce, and eat like a Singaporean king!