No, this is not an April fool’s joke. Yes, a real King crab in Singapore’s famous chilli crab sauce on the blog of a Poor student. King-sized King crab. Gosh, I haven’t even had the luxury of eating King crab of any affordable form in Singapore, it’s always those small puny crabs that you’ll expend half the calories of your meal trying to crack the shells to reach the meat. Not that those puny crabs are any inferior (in fact, the orange gooey stuff beneath the shell and the art of picking the shells are irreplaceable), but WHOAA KING CRABBB ah…!
So what actually happened? Well, once upon a weekend, my housemate, U was having a guest T over, and he decided to purchase some fish roe from the fish shop. They didn’t have any, and so they offered him this eye-popping bag of crab legs for 200kr (SGD$50). I’d estimate that was some 2kg of King crab (and yes, you’re right, the bigger the crab, the larger the proportion of meat to shell).
What would you do, faced with a crazy offer like this, but not expecting to spend 200kr? Would you grab it? (OF COURSE LAH) But this buyer has not had crab before to realize the gravity of the matter, and he risked an offer of 100kr instead. The seller’s response: “oh alright, you can have it”. OMG OMG OMG!! I think if this were in Singapore, it would have been YOU SIAO AH!??!?!*daylight robbery*
I know that as a student, the first thing I do when I assess a recipe is: can I afford it? YES I know crab is expensive, but while cooking it, I realized that the sauce already tasted pretty amazing even before putting the crab in. Why not simmer in some shrimp instead or if you’re a stingy student like me, those tiny frozen shrimp and surimi sticks are what I use to add that umami (delicious, savoury flavour) kick to any stir-fries. Shiok ah! 🙂
Singapore Chilli Crab Recipe inspired by Almost Bourdain’s recipe
- 2 onions
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4-8 chilli padi (depending on your tolerance for spicyness!)
- half inch ginger
- 1-2 tbsp oil
- couple of tomatoes
- 6 tbsp ketchup
- 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- 2 tbsp sambal belachan if you have it!
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- Juice of 1 large lime or half a lemon
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1/3 cup water
- Crab / shrimp / surimi crabsticks
- 2 eggs
- Throw the first 5 ingredients into a blender, otherwise, happy chopping!
- Stir fry (1) in oil until fragrant!
- Add in ketchup, chilli sauces (up to you to adjust), vinegar, lime / lemon, sugar and water and bring to a boil
- Taste and adjust sweetness / spicyness / saltiness as you wish (tasting is important unless you really know your ingredients)
- Throw in the crab / shrimp / surimi and simmer until flavours infused
- Thicken sauce with corn starch dispersed in a little water
- Stir in 2 eggs into simmering sauce
- Serve with rice, man tou (chinese steamed bun), or simply white fluffy bread!
Poor Student | Food Geek 