A Queensland mud crab is the best thing in the tank and it costs accordingly, so do not drown it. Crack it, fry it hard, and build a sauce that clings to the shell rather than sitting in a puddle underneath. The Extra Hot has black cardamom and star anise in it, which is doing the job a chilli crab sauce usually needs four separate ingredients to do. Bread on the table, fingers only, and a bin nearby.
40 mins. Serves 2, generously.
Ingredients
- 1, about 1.2kg Live mud crab, killed and cleaned
- 3 dessertspoons Plateit Extra Hot Chilli Crunch
- 4 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
- Ginger, finely chopped, a thumb
- 200ml Tomato passata
- 150ml Chicken stock
- 1 Egg, beaten
- 3 tbsp Neutral oil
- White bread, to mop, plenty
Method
- Ask the fishmonger to kill and clean the crab that morning if you would rather not. Pull the top shell off and keep it. Quarter the body, then crack every leg and claw with the back of a heavy knife so the sauce can get in.
- Big wok or your widest pan, oil smoking. Crab pieces in, cut side down, and fry 4 to 5 mins until the shell goes properly orange. Out onto a plate.
- Heat down. Garlic and ginger in for 30 seconds, no colour. Add the Plateit Extra Hot Chilli Crunch, the passata and the stock and let it bubble 3 mins.
- Crab back in, top shell on top, lid on. Steam 8 to 10 mins, turning the pieces through the sauce twice.
- Lid off, stir the beaten egg through the sauce in a slow stream. It will thicken and go ragged, which is what you want. Straight to the table in the pan.
Do this: Blue swimmer crabs work if mud crab is out of reach or out of season, but use three of them and cut the steaming time to 6 mins.