Chilli Crabs

It has been quite a while since I last cooked crabs at home. I think the last time I cooked crab was before Cheryl started to eat the same food as daddy and mummy as I find it quite troublesome and inconvenient to serve crabs to kids at such young age. During these period, we only have crabs when we eat out, which is a rare occasion.

When we went for our weekly grocery shopping at Aeon the other day, we decided to buy 2 medium-sized flower crabs to re-establish our connection with these sea creature with pincers. Hahaha! What a funny description. By the way, it costs us about RM12 for the 2 medium-sized crabs.

Initially, I was quite indecisive on whether to give it a more modern feel or cook it the more traditional way. If my memory serves me right, I remembered the last time I made a crab dish, it was butter crabs. So, this round I decided to make a more traditional crab dish with the crabs, which I think is the best. So, chilli crabs it is! Whenever, mum cooked crabs, she always made chilli crab. Even my MIL and grandma also only made chilli crab with crabs. 

Few years back, there was an uproar when Ng Yen Yen, the Malaysia's Tourism Minister claimed that chilli crab among other dishes is Malaysian. Singapore on the other hand claimed that chilli crab is their national dish and that it originated from their island. No matter what is their point of argument, both sides agreed that the dish was introduced in the 1950s. I find it quite hard to establish where it originated from as both countries are closely connected. What I know is that I have been eating chili crab since I was a little girl. Maybe it is not a question of who is copying who and who should claim ownership of the dish. At that point of time, the only sauces widely available to the locals are chilli sauce and tomato sauce. So that was what the locals used in the preparation of the dish. Maybe it is just a co-incidence that both countries came out with this dish. However, every chef or home cook have their own blend of ingredients apart from the main sauces ie the tomato sauce and chilli sauce. So, chilli crabs created by different people have different unique identity. Hmmm on second thought, maybe the dish is Malaysian after all as no matter whether it originated from Malaysia or Singapore, the fact is that Singapore was still part of Malaysia then.

I don't know how Singapore's chilli crab taste like as I have not tasted one yet. This is my version of chilli crab. This round, I didn't add in 1 whole egg. I only used the remaining egg whites that I have from making other thing.

Chilli Crabs

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized flower crabs, cleaned and cut

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, minced

4 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp chilli sauce

1 tbsp fermented yellow bean paste

1 tsp oyster sauce

1-2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp light soy sauce

Water

1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok. add in garlic and shallots. Saute till aromatic. 

2. Add in fermented yellow bean paste and sugar. Stir for a while before adding in tomato sauce, chilli sauce and oyster sauce.

3. Stir till evenly mixed. Add in water. 

4. Bring gravy to a boil. Add in crabs. Let it simmer for a while till the crabs are cooked. If required, add in the light soy sauce.

5. Whisk in the beaten egg and dish up.