As the fresh garden produce gets leaner I rely on what I’ve stored and gathered from earlier in the year and there are always chillies in the freezer and garlic in the cupboard. The chillies here are a mixture of Pretty In Purple and Wenks Early Yellows, great names and great heat!
On my walk to the fishing beach and fish shops the other day I picked up a couple of crab claws, already cooked. They were monsters. I remembered seeing a recipe in a Rick Stein book, a dish from Malaysia that sounded tempting and this is my re-worked version.
I loved the combination of flavours – delicate and sweet crab meat with soy, curry leaves and lots of black pepper – a real fusion dish.
A bit about the crabs. The only way to break into them was placing them on a chopping board and then bashing them with my mum’s rolling pin. And yes a few bits went here and there but it worked, I was in 🙂
Malaccan Black Pepper Crab
Ingredients ~
- 2 large Crab claws or crabs
- 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp light Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp Kecap Manis or Dark Soy Sauce
- 1 tsp Brown Sugar
- 6 Spring Onions chopped
- 1 – 2 cloves of Garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 inch piece of Ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 15 – 20 curry leaves
- 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
- Butter
- 1 hot chilli, finely chopped
Method ~
- In a small bowl mix the soy sauce, kecap manis and brown sugar along with 3 tbsp of water
- In a large frying pan add the oil and when hot add spring onions, garlic, ginger and curry leaves and fry for a minute
- Now add the crab pieces and stir for a minute or two
- Add the black pepper and mix
- Stir in the soy sauce mixture and coat the crab pieces well
- Reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes
- Uncover and add a knob of butter and the chilli and mix into the sauce
- Scatter some spring onion pieces on top and serve
A gentle word about eating this, how shall I say it? OK, it can get a tad messy and is probably best done out of sight!
Variations ~ Instead of crabs use fresh or cooked prawns (shelled would be a lot less messy!) and I plan to try it out with some fried tofu, the rich flavours of the sauce would compliment it well.
I can just see you bashing that crab with your Mums rolling pins. Take That! and That! I can make this with prawns though.. you can buy frozen prawns here.. c
Prawns would definitely work, but no bashing!
In the US, the merchant ‘scores’ the crab claws with a small saw, but the heaviest shells still need a good bash to get into them.
I reserve them – and lobster, and anything else that requires a club to subdue – for summertime, and eating outside…
I like the sauce – be good with some firm white fish like halibut, too.
Hi, I haven’t heard of crabs being scored before, sounds nice and practical to me. And yes nice firm white fish would work too 🙂
Crab is my absolute all time favourite favourite! Fabulous flavour combination for this scrumptious dish. I usually use a nut cracker to crack through the claws.
🙂 Mandy
It’s rare I get to eat crab (having said that I have another recipe lined up) the meat is so sweet and delicate, I think though Lobster would be my all time favourite. Unfortunately these crab were too big for the nutcracker!
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall, watching you do battle with the mighty crab claws! This looks really good. Now all I need do is fine some curry leaves; the crab claws, being already cooked, are surprisingly available here.
Hi John, I’m glad you weren’t here I made a pig of myself eating them! But it was fun to bash bash bash 🙂
If you see fresh curry leaves you can freeze them in a container, and they are like fresh when used, if not you may find them dried and you need to saok them in cold water for a while before using them.
This looks simply delicious!! I love your colorful peppers and the combination in this dish is outstanding! How lucky for you to find such huge claws!!
Thanks for the compliment, I think the peppers are photogenic ?!
I would love so much to have some fresh crab. Canned crab meat is simply disgusting here (or so expensive I don’t even try to buy the best brand). Your dish looks fantastic and the purple chilies look amazing.
This looks good even for a veggie like me! I see some yummy garden produce being used here. Lucky you! The chillies have such a beautiful colour, I wonder how they taste? Too spicy?
Thank you 🙂 I love having chillies to hand, and they freeze so well. These particular ones are quite peppery and hot. I grow others that are a bit milder
Great recipe!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks 🙂
I don’t think there’s a neat way to eat crab, it’s always a delicious mess, and I think that’s part of the fun! Sucking that meat and sauce out of the shell is complete BLISS!!!
Hi there, you are so right, there is no neat and clean way to eat crab and that’s part of the fun 🙂
your chillies look so pretty all frozen, must remember to try that …and the crab is sensational … we only have small blue swimmer crabs at our beach so it would be prawns for us too 🙂 …however i do remember eating a ginger and chili crab in vietnam which was amazing!
Hi, the chillies freeze very well, great if you have a glut.
Vietnamese ginger-chilli crab sounds delicious. I’ll have to look around for a recipe 🙂
Oh this looks worth getting a bit messy for. Am seriously jealous of your seafood selection. And those peppers!
Hi Rufus and thanks, its a real bonus in life to live so near to the sea AND be able to buy local!