Chili crab is a seafood dish originating from Singapore. it was created in 1950 by Singapore chef, Cher Yam Tian with her husband, Lim Choon Ngee. The couple ran Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant on higher East Coast Road (near the current day East Coast Seafood Centre.) Mud crabs are commonly used and are stir-fried in an exceedingly semi-thick, sweet and savoury tomato and chilli based mostly sauce. It can be widely found at Malaysian and Singaporean seafood hawker stalls, kopi tiams or restaurants. Despite its name, chili crab is not a really spicy dish.
Chilli Crab, Singapore’s unofficial “national dish” had beginnings as humble because the country itself. in the 1950s, Madam Cher Yam Tian had a hawker stall right on the seashore, and she spent her time everyday from dusk till the wee hours of the morning cooking by the light of a kerosene lamp. {one of|one among|one in an exceedinglyll|one amongst|one in every of} Madam Cher’s specialities? Live crabs in a zesty chilli-spiked gravy, the primary version of the Singapore chilli crab.
That stall is long gone, however close to its original spot now stands the East Coast Seafood Centre, where a bevy of restaurants cook up a storm of chilli crab each night for hordes of eager diners.
Nowadays, the dish has many incarnations: some are packed with fresh spices like galangal, ginger, and turmeric, some are sweet-sour and rosy with tomato, others are ribboned with overwhelmed egg, and still others carry the sting of chilli oil. All are meant to be attacked with gusto – and a nutcracker to tackle thick shells, plus a number of slices of French bread or mantou (Chinese buns) to assist you absorb each last drop of delicious sauce. Black pepper crab started changing into common in the Nineteen Eighties, and now most crustacean-themed restaurants provide crabs merely stir-fried with pungent doses of black or white peppercorns, alongside chilli crab.
RECIPE
Ingridients:
2 1kg crabs cleaned
3 tblsp veg oil
10 Thai style shallots, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, diced fine
1 lrg knob of ginger (50g) grate on micro plan
1 cup of water
1 tblsp tomato ketchup (recipe follows)
2 tblsp caster sugar
60g ground roasted peanuts
Rempah (recipe follows)
Crusty bread to serve and mop up the juices
Tomato ketchup
15 ripe tomatoes, cored
500ml peanut oil
1 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, fine diced
2 knobs ginger, fine diced
roast tomatoes in oven until soft (180 for 10 min) and force through a food mill. Heat oil in Pan and fry paste until fragrant
Add tomato puree and simmer for 40min, until it is reduced so far that it is frying in the oil.
Store in sterilized Jars until needed.
Spices:
5 red chillies
10 dried chillies (rehydrate)
1 tblsp shrimp paste
1 stalk lemongrass
1 knob galangal
4 candle nuts toasted
roast shrimp paste in oven for 3 min to release oils, slice and pound all ingredients to a fine paste in mortar and pestle - just add hardest to softest ingredients.
How To Make:
Clean crab well and cut into 6, also keeping the head and coral, crack the claws and legs with a pestle.
Heat oil in a wok until very hot, fry shallots, garlic, and ginger for 2 min, then add Rempah and stir fry for 1 min.
Add crab and stir fry, add water, stir and cover until crab is cooked (10min) topping the water up if needed so the crab is steaming in the Chilli sauce.
Reduce the water down to original paste and add sugar, stir fry until lightly caramelized, then add the tom ketchup. Simmer to combine the flavors, then add the crushed peanuts.
To serve:
Place in a large bowl, top with Chiffonade of kaffir lime leave, coriander and basil, and of cause the crusty bread to mop up.
Original recipe By: Chef david Perry