Went to morning wet market & came across loads of fresh flower crabs. Although not really in my shopping list, but made an quick decision to cook some crabbies dish tonight. Cook whatever is freshly available than rather stick on the shopping list and end up went around searching for it or not freshly available. There's the occasionally surprise dish. Bought 2 crabbies for a 2 person dish. Normally 1 crab per person will be enough as there will be some other side dishes normally. Unless you really wanted to eat alot alot, full of crabbies on the table, then you buy more & double or triple my recipe portions.
The seller at the market will actually help to chopped up the crabs into small portions so that I don't need to worries of how to dismantle & chop it up into small pieces. Quite convenient.
Crabs must be eaten on the same day of purchase. Uncook crabs cannot be kept in freezer as the soft meat will melt and you will have nothing to eat after that !!
My mum's easy & delicious recipe for flower crabs in tomato sauce.
(Below : fresh crabs after cleaning) As you see here, this is the original color of the crabs. There's actually 2 types of crabs - one is orangey in color & the other is blue purple shades in color. Both taste equally sweet.
Ingredients : (serves 2)
2 pcs Flower Crab
2 cloves Garlic - minced
2 pcs Shallots - minced
20g Ginger - minced
15 tbsp Water
3 tbsp Cooking Oil
4 tbsp Ketchup (Tomato Sauce)
½ tsp Dried Chilli Flakes
dash of Black Pepper
*Optional : Salt
Step by Step:
1. Cut crabs into small pieces. Turn the crab upside down, cut away the flap in the middle of the back.
2. Using a chopper knife or another strong kitchen tool (a stone pestle in my case), crack the body and claws open.
3. Add cooking oil in a heated pan.
4. Saute minced ginger, garlic & shallots till fragrant.
5. Add in crabs and stir to mix evenly & let it cook for 1 mins on each sides. Crab shell will turn to bright orange in color.
6. Then add in water, ketchup, dried chilli flakes, black pepper and stir again and cook for 2 mins with lid covered.
7. Stir again and cover for another 2 minutes or until crabs fully cooked.
8. Optional : Season with salt. For my case, I didn’t add any salt as I find the taste just perfect for my taste bud.
9. Remove & serve hot.
Cooked with Queen's Xense Casserole Marble Coated Anodised Coating. Non stick 5 layer marble coating. Durable & Long Lasting. High heat efficiency. Easy cleaning & maintenance.
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