Chilli Crab

Ingredients

Crab

• 2live Sri Lankan mud crabs, about 800 g each
• 2 tbspcornflour, for dusting
• 500 mlvegetable oil, for flash-frying (optional but standard in hawker kitchens)

Rempah

• 8dried red chillies, soaked in hot water 20 min and deseeded
• 4fresh red chillies
• 6garlic cloves
• 40 gfresh ginger
• 3shallots
• 1 tbspfermented soy bean paste (tau cheo)

Gravy

• 3 tbspvegetable oil
• 200 gtomato ketchup
• 3 tbspchilli sauce or sambal oelek
• 2 tbsprice vinegar
• 2 tbspsugar
• 1 tspsalt
• 500 mlwater or light chicken stock
• 2 tbspcornflour slaked in 60 ml cold water
• 2large eggs, beaten

To finish

• 3spring onions, cut into 3 cm lengths
• 1 handfulcoriander leaf
• 8mantou buns, steamed then deep-fried until golden

Directions

1. Dispatch the crabs humanely: chill them in the freezer for 20 minutes to sedate them, then drive a heavy knife point through the underside apron before cleaning. Lift the top shell, remove the gills and the stomach sac, and rinse.
2. Cut each crab into four or six pieces through the body, leaving the legs attached to their sections. Crack the claws firmly with the back of the cleaver so the gravy gets inside and so they can be eaten without tools.
3. Blend or pound the soaked dried chillies, fresh chillies, garlic, ginger, shallots and tau cheo into a smooth rempah. A little oil helps the blender.
4. Dust the crab pieces lightly with cornflour and flash-fry them in hot oil at 180°C (350°F) for 60–90 seconds until the shells turn bright orange, then drain. This step seals the meat, sets the shell colour and keeps the flesh from going watery in the gravy.
5. In a wok over medium heat, fry the rempah in the 3 tbsp of oil for 8–10 minutes, stirring constantly, until it darkens, the raw smell goes and the oil visibly splits out at the sides. This pecah minyak stage is the single most important step for a gravy with depth rather than one that just tastes of ketchup.
6. Add the ketchup, chilli sauce, sugar, vinegar and salt and fry 2 minutes, then pour in the water or stock and bring to a boil.
7. Add the crab pieces, cover the wok, and simmer 8–10 minutes, turning once, until the meat is opaque and pulls away from the shell cleanly.
8. Stir the slaked cornflour in and cook 1 minute until the gravy thickens enough to cling to the shells.
9. Turn the heat to low, pour the beaten egg in a thin stream in a circle over the surface, wait 10 seconds, then fold through with two strokes only. You want distinct ribbons and clouds of egg, not a scrambled, uniformly yellow gravy.
10. Scatter over the spring onion and coriander and serve at once with hot fried mantou for mopping up. Chilli crab is eaten with the fingers, messily, and the mantou is not optional.

Technique

• Singapore chilli crab is sweet, savoury and tangy before it is hot. It was created in the 1950s by Cher Yam Tian and later refined at Palm Beach and Dragon Phoenix; the tomato and egg were the additions that made it famous.
• Mud crab is the correct crab: heavy, sweet-fleshed and thick-shelled enough to survive the frying and the simmering. Buy them alive and heavy for their size.
• Frying the rempah until the oil separates cannot be rushed. Ten minutes of patient stirring is the difference between restaurant gravy and a thin sweet sauce.
• Add the egg off the boil and barely stir. Overworked egg disappears into the gravy and you lose the silky ribbons that are half the texture of the dish.

Substitutions

• No mud crab? Dungeness, blue swimmer or brown crab all work; adjust simmering time to the size, and note that thinner-shelled crabs need only 6 minutes.
• Tau cheo can be replaced by 1 tbsp of white miso plus 1 tsp of soy sauce, though the fermented funk is milder.
• No mantou? Thick slices of white bread, fried in a little oil until golden, are the accepted stand-in and do the same job.

Variations

• Black pepper crab, the other great Singapore crab dish, dry-fried with butter and crushed black pepper instead of gravy.
• Salted egg yolk crab, a modern favourite with a rich, grainy yellow sauce.
• White pepper crab and creamy butter crab, both standards on Singapore seafood menus.

History

Created in 1956 by Cher Yam Tian, who fried crab with bottled chilli sauce from a pushcart; her family later opened a restaurant on it.

Frequently asked questions

What is Chilli Crab?

Chilli Crab is a main from Singapore: mud crab in sweet-savory tomato-chili gravy, mopped with fried mantou. Created in 1956 by Cher Yam Tian, who fried crab with bottled chilli sauce from a pushcart; her family later opened a restaurant on it.

How long does Chilli Crab take to make?

Chilli Crab takes 35 min of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Chilli Crab?

Yes, within limits. No mud crab? Dungeness, blue swimmer or brown crab all work; adjust simmering time to the size, and note that thinner-shelled crabs need only 6 minutes. Tau cheo can be replaced by 1 tbsp of white miso plus 1 tsp of soy sauce, though the fermented funk is milder. No mantou? Thick slices of white bread, fried in a little oil until golden, are the accepted stand-in and do the same job.

What is the most important thing to get right in Chilli Crab?

In a wok over medium heat, fry the rempah in the 3 tbsp of oil for 8–10 minutes, stirring constantly, until it darkens, the raw smell goes and the oil visibly splits out at the sides. This pecah minyak stage is the single most important step for a gravy with depth rather than one that just tastes of ketchup.