Salt And Pepper Red Crab (cua Rang Muoi)

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 800 g crabs (live or raw)
• vegetable oil (for deep frying)
• potato starch (for dusting)
• 3 red shallots (finely diced)
• 2 garlic cloves (finely diced)
• 3 spring onions (scallions cut into 5cm lengths)
• 2 chilies (red long thinly sliced diagonally)
• jasmine rice (to serve)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper (fine)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder

Recipe

• 1 to make the seasoning, combine all ingredients in a bowl.
• 2 to prepare your crabs humanely, place them in the freezer for 1 hour or submerge them in an ice bath for 5 minutes.
• 3 remove the upper shell of the crab, pick off the gills, which look like little fingers and discard.
• 4 clean the crab under running water and drain.
• 5 place the crab on its stomach and chop the crab in half with a heavy cleaver.
• 6 next, divide each half into 4 pieces, chopping each piece after each leg (if your crabs are small cut each half into 2 pieces).
• 7 with the back of the cleaver, gently crack each claw - this makes it easier to extract the meat.
• 8 heat the oil in a wok to 200c (400f) or until a cube of bread dropped into the oil browns in 5 seconds).
• 9 dust the crab pieces with potato starch, shaking of any excess.
• 10 deep fry the crab in batches for 3 minutes, turning over once until golden brown.
• 11 remove from the wok and drain on kitchen paper.
• 12 remove the oil, reserving 2 tablespoons and clean the wok.
• 13 heat the reserved oil in the work, then add the shallots and garlic and fry until fragrant.
• 14 return the crab to the wok with the spring onion and chilli and add the salt and pepper seasoning to taste.
• 15 serve with jasmine rice and finger bowls.