Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Ginger Spring Onion Crabs

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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?

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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.

13 comments:

ekeng said...

i can imagine how tall their kids..2.0m tall like that..haha..i dun want my wife taller than me..haha..

Awww..u make me craving for crab now..slurp..slurp :p

ekeng said...

kaima, i will go back to KK on 12 April..hope to see u there :)

Precious Pea said...

No photo of Huiyi for us to see??!!??!!

I love this style of cooking which sadly, very uncommon in KL. I was told this is more to HK style. And also i like to put egg noodle beneath those crabs. Really nice when it soak the crab gravy.

Anonymous said...

1.9m, that is about 6'3' right? That's how tall Bob is! Yes, like precious pea said, I wanna see pix of you guys standing next to them!
I have never cooked crab before. The last time I saw mom cooked it was about oh,30 years ago? The one and only Chinese, ok, Oriental grocery store run by Vietnamese couple, in town gets their supply weekly from Houston and they get fresh crab quiet often. I have been tempted to buy them but was kinda worried about prepping them but with this post, I might get up the courage the next time they have them in and try... Wonder if the girls and Bob will eat them?

jimctang said...

my god

jimctang said...

my god, what a lovely color..

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

ekeng: i think their kids will be taller than 2m. i heard their bed is super duper gigantic size. but his ego is small, very humble guy. hey, april 12 is fine with me :) woohoo, i have a date!now better get those wrinkles fixed...

pp: as requested. she's twice your age minus two years, i just found out!you shd see her long toned legs. i am so envious.why didn't i play any sports??

oh, when u r in Melb, u can eat lobsters on egg noodles at New Royal Garden, High St. n Blackburn Rd. it was THE best.

daisy: i can't tell you how tallness is irresistable for me but 2.3m??...my guy's not bad at 1.80m... Day, Wey mentioned the other day tt he misses Tokyo bc of your breakfasts of mini sausages and eggs. made me feel so guilty.

jim: like angpow color, rn't they? yes, they were slurp-worthy.hey, u working or studying in Bris?

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

daisy: hang on, not 1.8m.what's 5'11".

Precious Pea said...

Hahaha! Thanks for posting up the photos. Wow, she indeed looks so fit! I think you can still start doing some sport activities. Try wii...the tennis is toning up my muscle now. ;)

Anonymous said...

Tell Wey when you guys come visit us here in Arkansas, I'll make him sausages, eggs. bacon, muffins, the whole works! he just have to sweet talk you all into making that trip. Meeting in CA sounds tempting as well but have to consult the girls' schedules. they still have swim and volleyball practices, meets, during the summer hols, plus 2 camps that they wanted to go to which I have already signed them up for.....

Anonymous said...

The sausages here are yummier than the ones I got in Japan. I bought an American brand there as well but we have more choices here.... beef, pork, turkey, spicy, sweet etc....

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

daisy: he liked the little mini sausages.I'm sure the sausages in the US r way better..Ming said "Go to Arkansas to look at cows??" Tt's like saying "Go to KK to look at headhunters??" Don't u feel like slapping him.I couldn't answer tt, bc i have no idea how Arkansas is like. u must start a blog n let us know!

Western Dental said...

Crab prepared in this style with any sauce, black bean, XO, etc is my absolute favorite way to eat crab!!

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