Chilli Crab Revisited

macadamia nuts

The flu season has brought with it blocked noses. Consequentially, my wife has suffered loss of appetite. To bring back to life that which was lost I cooked some chilli crab. The flavour and spice hit it brings was sure to deliver and more...

chilli flakes

Some of you are probably wondering why a photo of macadamia nuts is prominently displayed. Read on to find out.

belacan

The foundation of a good chilli crab is a good rempah. Rempah is what Indonesians and Malaysians call their spice paste made from fresh herbs and/or dry spices. And one essential ingredient in the rempah is candle nut. It is named as such as the nuts can be strung together and lighted up like candles.

alimasag (blue swimmer crabs)

I've never seen them in the Philippines but apparently we have what we call lumbang after which the town of Lumban, Laguna was named after. If you know more about this please do not hesitate to comment.

cooked spice paste (sauce that has to split)

Although candle nuts are readily available in Australia there weren't any when I shopped for my chilli crab. Macadamia, which is both rich and buttery, is my chosen substitute. It's got none of the bitterness of the candle nuts but adds depth and texture to the sauce. Not many are aware of this but macadamia, although successfully cultivated in Hawaii, is in fact an Australian native.

The recipe below is a variation on the chilli crab recipe I posted here:






Chilli Crab ala Beancounter

3 fresh crabs cleaned and halved, leave the main shell whole
Some flour
3 large onions
3 cloves of garlic
a knob of ginger
Fresh chillies to taste
Chilli flakes or dried chillies to taste
4-6 macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon belacan (shrimp paste)
1 large onion chopped (yes, another one)
1/2 cup tomato ketchup/sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup stock
Salt to taste
Oil - lots of it

1. First, you need to make the rempah or spice paste. Combine the onion (the first 3), garlic, ginger, various chillies, and macadamia nuts in a food processor. Blitz until they turn to paste. You make this as fine or chunky as you like.
2. Heat up some oil for deep frying.
3. Coat the crab pieces in flour. Shake off the excess flour. Fry the crab pieces until they are about half way done. This should take approximately 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
4. Heat up a bit of oil then saute the chopped onion (yes, the other one) until it is nicely caramelised.
5. Add the rempah and cook for about 10 minutes.
6. Add the tomato ketchup and the sugar. Cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Add the stock. Reduce the sauce to a consistency you prefer.
8. Add the fried crab pieces. Make sure all the crab is coated well by the sauce.
9. Lower the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes or until the crab pieces are cooked.
10. Garnish with some fresh coriander. Serve hot!

Malaysian Chicken Curry ala Beancounter

I’ve heard somewhere before that there is no such thing as “curry powder” in India. It is more an innovation to help cooks like me who are less astute in combining spices.

Curry powder usually includes coriander, turmeric, cumin, and fenugreek. Depending on the blend, additional ingredients such as ginger, garlic, fennel seed, cinnamon, clove, mustard seed, cardamom, mace, nutmeg, and all sorts of peppers may also be added.

I’ve named my recipe as such as I find the Malaysian Curry powder blend to suit my taste the best. The recipe below is a variation to my Beef Curry recipe which I blogged about months ago.

Using a whole free range chicken makes for a tastier curry than simply using chicken breast. But if you’re horrified at the thought of bones in your curry then use de-boned chicken meat by all means.

Malaysian Chicken Curry ala Beancounter

Ingredients
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
6 slices of ginger
1 stalk of lemon grass sliced
1 red capsicum julienned
4-6 teaspoon Malaysian curry powder (more if you want it spicier)
1 whole free range chicken cut into pieces
1 can coconut cream (substitute coconut milk if you want a less creamy sauce)
Salt to taste
Potatoes quartered and fried
Carrots
A bit of oil for sautéing

Tip: It’s best to use heavy based pots.

Procedure
1. Marinate the chicken in a little of curry powder. Heat up a bit of oil using heavy based pot. Sear the chicken pieces in the pot (a few at a time) to seal in the juices. Remove from the pot and set aside.
2. Add a bit more oil if needed. Sauté the ginger first.
3. After about a minute or so add the garlic. Before it turns completely brown add the lemon grass.
4. After another minute add the onions and the capsicum (save about a quarter for garnishing later). Cook this for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the curry powder to the mix and cook for another minute.
6. Add the chicken and the carrots to the mixture.
7. Add the coconut cream and simmer for about 40 minutes.
8. Add the potatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes.
9. Serve with roti parathas or jasmine rice.

Cheap Eats – Laksa Hut

51 Sherwood Road
Toowong, QLD 4066
Speciality: Laksa

You’ve heard the old adage “do not judge a book by its cover”. It’s fairly true with a lot of my favourite eateries. They are sometimes literally “hole in the wall” operations. But the look of premises betrays little about the glorious food that is on offer.

Laksa Hut is a good example of such. The signage was obviously done on a very limited budget (it looks hand painted – and I do not mean that as a compliment). There’s very little décor to speak of. Basic white crockery was probably too minimalist for them (an eclectic mix of tableware was more their thing…Hello Kitty plastic spoons, etc). And so on and so forth… but the food is good and that’s what matters!

Laksa Hut almost did not make it on my list of cheap eats. You see, a cheap (but not nasty) meal for me should cost less than $10.00. But Laksa Hut recently pushed up their prices by a $1.00. The cheapest laksa on their menu now costs $10.50.

I’m no laksa expert. All I know is how I want my laksa. And Laksa Hut do theirs pretty close to my idea of a good laksa. My Singaporean friends concur with this. The laksa here, according to them, is very similar to what they get back home.


I always order the Roast Pork Laksa but they offer a whole range, from vegetarian to roast duck. It always comes steaming hot, chockfull of the ingredients you would expect and with just the right amount of spiciness!

Laksa Hut can push up their prices a bit more (they might actually do as another unwanted effect of the GFC). I might complain a bit but I know I’ll be back.

At home - Beef Curry

The only reason I call my beef curry Malaysian is because I use a curry powder labelled as “Malaysian Curry Powder.” I don’t think you’ll find “my style” of cooking in any Malaysian cookbook. I should have titled this post “Kidpawan’s Beef Curry Using Malaysian Curry Powder” but that’s just a bit too indulgent.

The recipe works well with other types of meat. I know because I’ve tried. You just adjust the cooking time based on the meat of your choice (chicken, for example, cooks quicker than hippopotamus).

searing meat

There are also lots of curry powders available out there that you can substitute. I just find the Malaysian one fits my taste better than the others.

sauteing veges

Malaysian Beef Curry

Ingredients

2-3 cloves of garlic chopped

6 slices of ginger

1 stalk of lemon grass sliced

1 red capsicum

4-6 teaspoon Malaysian curry powder (more if you want it spicier)

1 kilo beef (cheap cuts like brisket, chuck steak, shanks, etc.)

1 can coconut cream (substitute coconut milk if you want a less creamy sauce)

Salt to taste

Potatoes quartered and deep fried

Carrots

A bit of oil for sautéing

Tip: It’s best to use heavy based pots for cooking this.

Procedure

1. Heat up a bit of oil in a heavy based pot. Sear the meat pieces in the pan (a few at a time) to seal in the juices. Remove from the pot and set aside.
2. Add a bit more oil if needed. Sauté the ginger first.
3. After about a minute or so add the garlic. Before it turns completely brown add the lemon grass.
4. After another minute add the onions and the capsicum (save about a quarter for garnishing later). Cook this for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the curry powder to the mix and cook for about another minute.
6. Add the meat to the mixture. Make sure the meat is coated well.
7. Add the coconut cream and simmer for about 1 hour before adding the carrots.
8. After about 10 minutes add the fried potatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes.
9. Serve with roti parathas or jasmine rice.

Rendezvous, Darwin Seafood Laksa

The Laksa at the Rendezvous was highly recommended by my colleagues in Darwin. The café’s opening hours was not the most convenient for me. I was only able to visit just this once on this trip. My workload was lighter than on my normal visits.

It was not the best Laksa I’ve ever had but it sure was good. The soup was spicy coconuty rich. I prefer an equal balance of egg and rice noodles but this one was served with more egg noodles. As a plus though, the egg noodles were really fresh and had a good bite to it. The seafood was real seafood. None of those “crab/prawn” imitation that’s very prevalent in seafood kuno takeaways in the land down under.


I’ve ordered home made lemon iced tea with my Laksa. The iced tea was excellent! I would go back to the Rendezvous Café just for that. It was unsweetened but it came with a serving of sugar syrup so you can sweeten it to your liking.

It’s 8.5 out of 10. The extra 0.5 for the excellent home made lemon iced tea!