CHILLI CRAB / PEPPER CRAB
Arguably one of Singapore's greatest culinary creations , this famous dish is a must have during the visit here . Chilli Crab is often considered to be Singapore's national dish. It was created in 1950 at the Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant on Upper East Coast Road (near the present day East Coast Seafood Centre) .
What makes this dish so special is its sensuous, sweet yet savoury sauce, created with a base of chilli and tomato sauces which will electrify your palate and satisfy your taste buds. The red-tangy sauce is made deliciously fragrant with light flavourings of garlic and rice vinegar, while thickening flour and egg ribbons (produced by adding beaten eggs towards the end of the cooking process) give the chilli crab dish the fluffy texture it’s known for.
While mud crabs are commonly used in the preparation of this dish, Sri Lankan, Burmese or Filipino hard shell crabs , other varieties such as the soft-shell crab can also be used.
Onions, garlic, sesame oil, ginger, black rice vinegar, sugar, tomato ketchup and of course, lots of ground chilli, are first made into a paste. The cleaned crab is chopped into pieces then deep fried in oil (or sometimes steamed) before being stir-fried in the paste. Some water is added to create a gravy to simmer the crabs in. Corn flour and beaten eggs are then added to thicken the sauce. The gravy should be spicy, thick and flavourful. The crab meat inside the hard shell should be soft and succulent. The result is a pile of bright-red crustaceans to be attached with a hammer and fingers, an utterly delicious experience which should be enjoyed with crusty bread to mop up the dripping sauce. It is commonly garnished with coriander leaves .
When the dish is served, you will notice that the crab has been chopped into fairly distinctive pieces and the shells partially cracked before cooking for ease of eating. Lovers of chilli crab will have their favourite parts. There is the shell, and if the crab was a female, you will find that it comes with dark orange clumps of roe. There are also the crab pincers which contain lots of meat but might be a little difficult to get to, especially if the cook has not cracked the shell properly. If you have problems digging the meat out, ask for help. This will come in the form of a nutcracker or a hammer. The remainder of the pieces are the body of the crab which have one or two of the other legs. The meat in this part tends to be smoother, and you will have to suck the meat from the legs. Do not be shy about using your hands when it comes to eating chilli crab, and crabs in general. It takes a lot of skill and practice to eat them with a fork and spoon or even a pair of chopsticks. Most places which serve crabs will usually provide either wet towels or a washing bowl.For extra oomph, order some man-tou (toasted buns) to scoop up the thick gravy, which will leave you hankering for more.
Its sister dish , Black Pepper Crab is where deep fried crabs are re-fried with garlic, coarsely ground black pepper corns and salt. The dish should be fragrant from the pepper and the flesh of the crab must be firm and spicy. Sometimes white pepper is used instead of the more traditional black pepper .The creation of Singapore's Black Pepper Crab is attributed to Long Beach Seafood Restaurant in 1959. The Black Pepper Crab is liked by many locals and foreign tourists because of its drier and fragrant pepperish nature.
thanks to all the sources : Wikipedia ; SingaporeLifestyle ; YourSingapore ; MakanTime ; and all the other sites and blogs
What makes this dish so special is its sensuous, sweet yet savoury sauce, created with a base of chilli and tomato sauces which will electrify your palate and satisfy your taste buds. The red-tangy sauce is made deliciously fragrant with light flavourings of garlic and rice vinegar, while thickening flour and egg ribbons (produced by adding beaten eggs towards the end of the cooking process) give the chilli crab dish the fluffy texture it’s known for.
While mud crabs are commonly used in the preparation of this dish, Sri Lankan, Burmese or Filipino hard shell crabs , other varieties such as the soft-shell crab can also be used.
Onions, garlic, sesame oil, ginger, black rice vinegar, sugar, tomato ketchup and of course, lots of ground chilli, are first made into a paste. The cleaned crab is chopped into pieces then deep fried in oil (or sometimes steamed) before being stir-fried in the paste. Some water is added to create a gravy to simmer the crabs in. Corn flour and beaten eggs are then added to thicken the sauce. The gravy should be spicy, thick and flavourful. The crab meat inside the hard shell should be soft and succulent. The result is a pile of bright-red crustaceans to be attached with a hammer and fingers, an utterly delicious experience which should be enjoyed with crusty bread to mop up the dripping sauce. It is commonly garnished with coriander leaves .
When the dish is served, you will notice that the crab has been chopped into fairly distinctive pieces and the shells partially cracked before cooking for ease of eating. Lovers of chilli crab will have their favourite parts. There is the shell, and if the crab was a female, you will find that it comes with dark orange clumps of roe. There are also the crab pincers which contain lots of meat but might be a little difficult to get to, especially if the cook has not cracked the shell properly. If you have problems digging the meat out, ask for help. This will come in the form of a nutcracker or a hammer. The remainder of the pieces are the body of the crab which have one or two of the other legs. The meat in this part tends to be smoother, and you will have to suck the meat from the legs. Do not be shy about using your hands when it comes to eating chilli crab, and crabs in general. It takes a lot of skill and practice to eat them with a fork and spoon or even a pair of chopsticks. Most places which serve crabs will usually provide either wet towels or a washing bowl.For extra oomph, order some man-tou (toasted buns) to scoop up the thick gravy, which will leave you hankering for more.
Its sister dish , Black Pepper Crab is where deep fried crabs are re-fried with garlic, coarsely ground black pepper corns and salt. The dish should be fragrant from the pepper and the flesh of the crab must be firm and spicy. Sometimes white pepper is used instead of the more traditional black pepper .The creation of Singapore's Black Pepper Crab is attributed to Long Beach Seafood Restaurant in 1959. The Black Pepper Crab is liked by many locals and foreign tourists because of its drier and fragrant pepperish nature.
thanks to all the sources : Wikipedia ; SingaporeLifestyle ; YourSingapore ; MakanTime ; and all the other sites and blogs