Chilli Crab (also known as là jiāo páng xiè, 辣椒螃蟹) is a Southeast Asian seafood dish originating from Singapore. Mud crabs are commonly used and are stir-fried in a semi-thick, sweet and savoury tomato-and-chilli-based sauce. It is listed at number 35 on the World's 50 most delicious foods list compiled by CNN Go in 2011.
Origin of the Singapore chilli crab
Roland Lim is a Singaporean restaurateur and it was his mother Cher Yam Tian who first came up with the idea of the chilli crab. "During the old days in the 1950s, we were living in a kampong, which is similar to a village, on a hill in Singapore. My mother loved to cook and my father loved to eat. We lived near the water and my father would catch crabs and bring them home and give them to my mother to cook. One day, my father asked her, “Why do you only steam cook the crabs? Can you do something different with them?” So my mother emerged from the kitchen with the chilli crab and started cooking it more often."
Chilli Crab Recipe
COOKING INGREDIENTS
1 kg crab
**Wash clean and cut into small pieces
Ingredients (A):
30g chilli powder
300ml water
70ml cooking oil
Ingredients (B):
100g onions (blend)
20g ginger (blend)
2 nos lemongrass (blend)
Ingredients (C):
10g salt
50g sugar
100g tomato sauce or Pasata
100ml water
COOKING METHOD:
1. Heat up oil and stir-fry crab pieces for 5 minutes. Set aside.
2. Mix well ingredients (A) and pour onto the existing cooking oil and cook under medium-high heat until fragrant.
3. Add ingredients (B) and stir well. Cook until fragrant and oil rises.
4. Add ingredients (C) and the pre stir-fried crab meat. Simmer for 10 minutes over small medium fire until the crab pieces are fully cooked.
5. Garnish with coriander leaf and ready to serve with rice.
Etiquette for eating chilli crabs
Some may be wondering how you attack these delicious little critters. Of course you can always try to be elegant and struggle with a knife and fork, and some gifted ones among us may even be quite deft with a pair of chopsticks Karate Kid style, but we all know that the most practical, easiest and most delicious way to eat chilli crabs is really with your fingers! Use a communal spoon to get a piece on your plate, but once it's yours, go for it with your fingers and trust us when we say, chilli crabs give a whole new meaning to the idea of finger lickin' good. In fact, we'd go so far as to say it's plate lickin' good!
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