Saturday, February 11, 2012

seafood weekend

I've never had Singaporean chili crabs before.  My default recipe for blue crabs is one of my family's favorite seafood dishes, crabs with sweet chili sauce. But the way my aunt Nangnang described it compelled me to try her recipe for crabs.  She reminisced about living in Singapore, the vibrant city-state in the middle of Southeast Asia.  Singapore has been described as a gourmet's paradise.  Nangnang tried this crab dish in a restaurant and she later on created her own recipe.  While she promised that she was going to cook it for us when we were together a few months ago, she was too busy to give us a taste of her recipe.  So I called her when I got back to St. Louis and got her recipe for Singaporean chili crabs.


My husband and I have have found a good seafood grocery here in St. Louis.  Seafood City on Olive Boulevard flies in fresh blue crabs every weekend.  And ever since we tried Nangnang's recipe, my husband would always request for it.  We had it for two consecutive weekends... but now we have to abstain from eating it, as we had enough crabs for the whole month.  So let me pass on the obsession to you... here's my Nangnang's Singaporean Chili Crabs but hey let me warn you... it is so finger-licking addicting!




Singaporean Chili Crabs ala Nangnang
Ingredients:
2-3 lbs of blue crabs
5 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp ketchup
1 1/2 sriracha
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp cooking oil

Clean crabs thouroughly.  Boil the crabs for a few minutes, just enough for the color to change to orange/light red.  Season with salt and pepper.  Drain the crabs.

In a big wok, melt the butter.  Saute the garlic and onions.  Add oyster sauce, ketchup, sriracha and brown sugar.  When the sauce is mixed thoroughly, add the crabs.  Cook for another 10 minutes.  Break one crab to add more flavor to the sauce.

Let cool for a few minutes then serve.  Enjoy!









12 comments:

  1. You are so lucky to have a local Seafood City, Malou and your husband is so lucky to have you to cook him this dish. Lip smacking!

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  2. Look wonderful. I love the heat that goes with the crabs.Finger licking good indeed.

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  3. I've never had crabs in this manner - but I'm game - love, love crabs and the heat would be a welcome change.

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  4. Hi Malou! It's been so long since we caught up! I've missed checking your blog the whole of December as I was travelling & then Jan got crazy too. The crabs look fantastic, sadly I can't eat crabs yet as I am on medication for the allergy I've had since a few years now. But I hope to try this for my hubby as he loves crabs!

    Also, thanks for the lovely comment on my blog, I am so glad that my blog is a medium for you to learn about so many cultures that are encapsulated in my blog. If you ever make a trip to Mumbai I will definitely make the Daal-Baati u!

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  5. Hi Adora, yes we are lucky to have Seafood City here, although it's not as good as the one that we had in San Diego// but we can't complain. at least we have.

    Roti: and ess it's addicting...

    Claudia: I hope you get to try this kind of cooking the crabs for yourself. Trust me you're going to love it.

    Shireen: so so glad to see you! I know we should get to visit each other's kitchen more often. I promise I will visit you as often.

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  6. wow these crabs look so good, adore crabs

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  7. Oh my goodness! This dish looks sensational! We don't have access to blue crabs, but will save this recipe for when I return to the bay area.

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  8. I've been seeing these chili crabs everywhere lately. Yours look super amazing! I'll have to see if one of my aunts will be responsible for the touching of the live crabs (I'm weirdly squeamish) and I'll take over the rest of the recipe.

    Great post!

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  9. Hi, Malou! Those crabs are "batok special"! Hahaha! But High BP aside, I want to try this recipe.

    What's sriracha? Any substitute for it here in Manila?

    Thanks and happy valentine's day!

    :)
    Mima

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  10. Reb: thanks for stopping by.

    Christine: Thank you for the kind words. Oh no you don't have crabs over there? sorry to hear that.

    FoodJaunts: Yeah let your Tita do it if you can. I was squeamish to at the start but I had no choice hihi

    Mima: Sriracha is a Thai chili hot sauce. It is difficult to find in Manila. You could use Chinese Chili garlic sauce. I hope you could find an alternative over there.

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  11. Wow these look fantastic! I have never seen crab prepared this way before...wonderful recipe!

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  12. This literally made my mouth water, I just wish really really bad that I'm binging on this right this moment. o_O

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