Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Chilli Crab ala Kidpawan


When I’m feeling generous and want a special treat and have loads of time I would cook Chilli Crab. It is not really complicated to make but it does take a long time to prepare and cook… Ok, Ok, it’s quite involved but the reward at the end is worth all the effort.


Chilli Crab is an original Singapore dish. You’ll find lots of variations to this dish on the net. I based mine on the one I found in the Australian Gourmet magazine in the late 90’s. I can still remember my wife, heavily pregnant with our first child, photocopying the magazine for me. I was studying for my final exams at State Library of WA but she decided to tag along to keep me company. I tweaked the recipe a little bit to suit my taste better. It worked then and still works now more than a decade later.


Chilli Crab ala Kidpawan

4 fresh blue swimmer crabs cleaned and quartered
Some flour
4 large onions
2 cloves garlic
6 slices ginger
Chilli flakes/powder to taste
1 large onion chopped (yes, another one)
1 cup tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup stock
Salt to taste
Oil – lots of it

1. First you need to make the chilli paste. Combine the onions, garlic, ginger and chillies in a food processor and blitz until they turn to paste. You can make this as chunky or as fine as you like.
2. Heat up some oil for deep frying.
3. Coat the crab pieces in flour. Shake off excess flour then fry. Set aside fried crab.
4. Heat up a bit of oil the sauté the chopped onion until golden brown.
5. Add the paste and cook for about 10 minutes.
6. Add the tomato ketchup and the sugar. Cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Add the broth.
8. Add the crab pieces. Make sure all the crab is coated well by the mixture.
9. Lower the heat and simmer for about 2 minutes.
10. Serve hot with jasmine rice

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yum yum but making it myself? i will leave it up to you. just let me know when you want to extend your generosity and we will be there for sure.

The Beancounter said...

HAHAHAHAHA! Siguro during the holidays.... or we can do a BYO crab... hehehehe

Unknown said...

looks good bro... but i don't like crabs, lots of shell and not much meat... have you tried using chicken?

The Beancounter said...

this works best with seafood... but i think it would work with chicken too.. just make sure you fry the chicken first...

this works really well with fried fish... lapu lapu and the like.

The Beancounter said...

if you want less hassle pare, use soft shell crabs... you eat the whole thing... medyo may kamahalan nga lang... o kaya naman prawns, peeled prawns..