Entertaining

Chilli crab

Name: Chilli crab recipe
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 2 mud crabs (ask your fishmonger to dispatch them for you); 4.00 tbs vegetable oil; 1/3 cup (80ml) tomato sauce (ketchup); 2 tbs chilli sauce; 1 tbs caster sugar; 1 cup (250ml) fish stock; 1 egg, lightly whisked; 2 spring onions, thinly sliced; Sliced cheap white bread, crusts removed, to serve; 6 red shallots, peeled and chopped; 6 garlic cloves, chopped; 4 long red chillies, seeded and chopped; 5cm knob ginger, finely grated; 2 tsp yellow soybean paste or miso; Sea salt

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by Matt Preston

delicious. senior editor

Nov 08, 2021

Egg whites add a lovely silkiness to the sauce when they are not overcooked. You can leave the egg white out if you wish, but on no account should you lose the yellow bean paste, which I think is the essential flavour core of this sauce. This is an edited extract from Matt Preston’s World of Flavour (published by Penguin Random House, $39.99).

2 mud crabs (ask your fishmonger to dispatch them for you)
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/3 cup (80ml) tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 tbs chilli sauce
1 tbs caster sugar
1 cup (250ml) fish stock
1 egg, lightly whisked
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
Sliced cheap white bread, crusts removed, to serve

Chilli paste

6 red shallots, peeled and chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
4 long red chillies, seeded and chopped
5cm knob ginger, finely grated
2 tsp yellow soybean paste or miso
2 tbs vegetable oil
Sea salt

Method

1.

To make the chilli paste, place the shallot, garlic, chilli, ginger and soy bean or miso paste in a small food processor and blitz until finely chopped. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the oil in a thin stream to form a smooth paste. Season with salt.
2.

Prepare the crab. Lift up the flap under the crab’s body with your thumb and remove. While holding the body firmly with the one hand, pull the top part of the shell off the body. Remove and discard the spongy, finger-like white gills on either side of the crab’s body. Cut the body into quarters using a heavy knife or cleaver.
3.

Heat the oil in a large wok or frying pan over high heat until just smoking. Add the chilli paste and cook for 5 minutes or until well cooked and aromatic. Add the tomato sauce, chilli sauce and sugar and cook for 2-3 minutes or until it thickens slightly. Add the stock and bring back to the boil. Add the crab and toss to coat in the sauce. Cover and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the crab is cooked and changes colour to bright red. Remove from the heat.
4.

Use tongs to transfer the crab to a large serving bowl. Quickly add the egg to the chilli mixture, whisking continuously so the egg doesn’t scramble, and cook for 1 minute or until the sauce thickens slightly.
5.

Pour the sauce over the crab. Sprinkle with the spring onion and serve with white bread.