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Singaporean Chilli Crabs Recipe
Serves/Makes: 6
Ingredients:
- 6 large fresh swimmer blue crabs*
- 1/2 cup peanut oil
- 3 large cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 tablespoons ginger, finely sliced
- 3 small birds-eye chillies, chopped
Singaporean Chilli Sauce: - 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 cup vegetable or fish stock
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Garnish: - 2 spring onions, sliced
- 3-4 banana chillies (optional)
- 10-20 cherry tomatoes (optional)
- 1 tablespoon coriander, sliced (optional)
How to cook Singaporean Chilli Crabs:
- Place crabs in freezer 15 minutes before cleaning (this puts the crab to sleep). Remove gills, internal organs and rinse clean. Use only as much water as you have to (you don’t want to wash away any flavor from the meat).
- Prepare the Singaporean Chilli Sauce in advance by adding the tomato, sweet chilli, hoisin and fish sauce in a large bowl and mixing it together. Then add the stock and mix together thoroughly.
- Heat the oil in the pan to a high heat (the reason why you use peanut oil is because it doesn’t start to burn, like olive oil, at high heat).
- Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and fry for a minute or so.
- Place the crab in the pan, turning each piece over so that it can fry in the oil.
- After all the crab has been tossed through the hot oil, pour in the the Singaporean Chilli Sauce.
- Let the sauce heat up, and toss the crab thoroughly. You actually turn the crab, rather than toss it. If you are too rough with the crab, the meat will start falling out of the shell.
- Lower the heat to low-medium, then pop the lid on the pan to let it cook. Check every five minutes or so and toss the crab if necessary.
- The crab will be cooked when the shell turns red, a good place to check is between the joints, as these are the last places that will go red.
- Just before serving, sprinkle over the spring onion, coriander, cherry tomatoes (for some sweetness) and chillies (for some extra kick).
- Serve the Singaporean Chilli Crab with plain steamed rice and a plate of steamed or stir-fried green vegetables.
Comments:
*Portunus pelagicus, also known as the flower crab, blue crab, blue swimmer crab, blue manna crab or sand crab, is a large crab found in the intertidal estuaries of the Indian and Pacific Oceans (Asian coasts) and the Middle-Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
**Hoisin sauce, or Haixian Sauce, also called suckling pig sauce, is a Chinese dipping sauce. Mandarin-style Hoisin sauce ingredients include water, sugar, soybeans, white distilled vinegar, rice, salt, wheat flour, garlic, and red chili peppers, and several preservatives and coloring agents.
Tips:
If you don’t like the heat, remove the seeds from the chillies, or use less of them.
If you want to thicken the sauce, while the crabs are cooking in the sauce, add some cornflour mixed with cold water.
Depending on your appetite, 1 blue swimmer crab per person is usually enough, especially with the side dish.
This recipe for Singaporean Chilli Crabs serves/makes: 6
Main Ingredient: Crab
Preparation Method: Pan Fried/Sauteed
Cuisine: Other Asian