Ginger Spring Onion Crabs

Hub's tangje (cousin) Huiyi and her hub from Shanghai were in town for the last three weeks. If I may drop names for any basketball/NBA fans out there (Daisy?), Huiyi was a national basketball player for China and played alongside Yao Ming's mom. How's that. And this: Yao Ming's mom is 1.9m tall, his Dad 2.0m tall and he's 2.3m tall. His wife is 1.9m. Can you imagine how tall their kids will be?

Since I don't have her permission to post her pic, I'll make it very small. Taken at KK's Shangri-la Resort Hotel.

Huiyi is an inspiration to me. She has kept herself so young, slim and toned, and is full of enthusiasm about everything, even if it's a bug or a sunset (those who have been to KK will know that the whole town/city is lined up along the coastline and the sun sets into the sea, not some mountains or buildings! We are SO lucky!). I have stopped eating starch for dinner since Huiyi's arrival 3 weeks ago (that's one of her beauty secrets) and I think that's the best decision I've made regarding my diet this year, haha. Do you realise how much starch you eat, especially if you eat noodles out for breakfast or/and lunch? It's 95% starch, 5% meat and veg.

Apparently crabs are very expensive in Shanghai, and all Huiyi and her hub wanted to eat were crabs, crabs and crabs. They found Luyang Restaurant's crabs very good but they thought Welcome Restaurant gave the best value for $ (although I find their crabs too small and the portions have gone down). I bought some mud crabs last Saturday and Huiyi immediately dissected them. I told you she's hyper. Here's what she did with them.

Ginger Spring Onion Crabs

2.5 kgs crabs
1/2 cup smashed & minced fresh ginger
1/2 to 1 cup spring onions, in 2 cm lengths
1 to 2 t salt
white pepper

1 to 2 Tlight soy sauce
chicken stock powder (optional)
1/2 cup water
2 T cornflour + 2 T water
1 t sugar

extra cornflour to coat
oil

1. Clean the crabs well. Cut the body into half (quarter it if it's big), and smash the claws lightly. Keep any juice that comes out (so, crack the claws over a bowl).

2. Stick the cut part of the crab's body into cornflour, dabbing it quite forcefully to stick.

3. Heat up about 2 cups of oil and fry the cornflour-coated crab pieces until slightly golden and half-done. Remove and fry the claws until half-done.

4. In a clean wok, put in 3 T oil and fry the minced ginger until fragrant but not brown, then add the fried crabs and fry, adding the water (and retained juice) in as you fry. Season with salt n pepper, sugar, chicken stock powder if using and light soy sauce. Cover for 10 minutes to simmer at medium heat.

5. Taste and adjust seasoning. Increase heat to high. Add the cornflour water, stir well to mix and when starch thickens (there won't be much sauce but if you like it more saucey, you can add more water) add the spring onions. Dish up.

Note: I haven't given the exact amount of the seasoning so you'll just have to adjust them to your taste.