Tag Archives: Crab

Cooking Our Catch, Crustacean

Chilli Crab

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We have caught many blue swimmer crabs in our time. At times in South Australia, they are abundant. Over the summer months, you see many people catching them in crab pots or raking for them waist deep in water.

crab

The sweet meat of the blue swimmer crab is delicious and chilli crab is one of my favourite recipes to make with them! This is how I make my chilli crab and it has been a hit with many people. Be warned it is messy to eat… best not to worry about the mess and dig in though, because it will disappear fast!

chilli crab 2

Ingredients

1kg raw Blue swimmers
2 Tbs peanut oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp ginger, grated
2 red chillies, seeded and sliced
2 Tbs hoisin sauce
½ cup tomato sauce
¼ cup sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbs fish sauce
¼ cup of water
¼ tsp sesame oil
4 spring onions, sliced
½ cup water
Coriander sprigs to garnish

chilli crab

Method

Clean and cut crabs into segments and crack the claws. Click here for video of how to clean blue swimmer crabs.

Combine the hoisin, chilli, fish and tomato sauces, the sesame oil and the water in a bowl and set aside.

Heat wok until hot, add oil and swirl to coat. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.

Add the crab pieces and stir-fry for 5-7 minutes until they turn orange.

Stir in the hoisin, chilli, sesame oil mix. Toss the crab and sauce together to combine well and bring to the boil.

Cover and simmer for about 8 minutes. Sprinkle with spring onion and garnish with coriander.

Like this recipe? Please share and pin using the image below… thank you!

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Cooking with Local Ingredients, Crustacean

Huge Prawns Fresh From The Fishing Boat!

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We were anchored in Thailand off a lovely island called Koh Phayam, just below the Myanmar (Burma) border. It was high season in Thailand at the time but even then, Koh Phayam was a quiet, idyllic place. Nowhere was too busy. There are no cars on Koh Phayam, just motorbikes, bicycles and the odd tractor.

We spent our days watching the brahminy kites and white belly sea eagles soaring overhead in search for their dinner, and we would catch sight of the hornbill birds as they flew amongst the trees on the nearby shoreline.  From the advantageous location of our comfy hammocks we watched the bait fish jumping out of the water as the predators close in on them. How peaceful… could it get any better than this?… Seafood lunch perhaps?

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On one of these “peaceful idyllic” days Dwayne visited a local fishing boat that had dropped its anchor nearby. He returned with a large bag of school prawns and some baby squid. The fishermen wouldn’t accept any money, so Dwayne took some beers over to them. They must have been impressed with the beers as they then presented him with two good sized cuttlefish, some crabs and a pile of huge prawns!

Dwayne cooked the crabs and prawns in salt water. We then chilled them before we devoured them, for lunch, with a little homemade seafood sauce.

For the seafood sauce… I simply mixed Kewpie mayonnaise with tomato ketchup. I didn’t measure the ingredients, I just did it to taste. It’s simple but delicious and the prawns were sooooo fresh!

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Cooking Our Catch, Crustacean

Chilli Mud Crab

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We made this chilli crab while anchored off a small island in Indonesia called Lapan. We had been in Indonesian waters for three days, and had yet to find a village with a restaurant/Warung. Having a craving for something a little spicy we cooked up the last of our crabs (caught in Darwin) and enjoyed this chilli crab for lunch before we jumped in the very inviting water for a snorkel.

CHILLI MUD CRAB

This is is what I did…

To a small bowl I added and set aside;

2 Tbs of Hoisin sauce
½ cup tomato sauce
¼ cup Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 Tbs Fish sauce
¼ cup water
¼ tsp sesame oil.

Dwayne, in the meantime, cleaned and cut the crab into segments, cracking the claws to allow the flavour to enter and infuse the crab. I heated a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pot (I was currently wok-less) and sautéed three finely chopped garlic cloves and two teaspoons of grated ginger for about thirty seconds, then I added the crab pieces and stir-fried for around 3-4 minutes.

CHILLI MUD CRAB

I added the sauce and tossed to cover all the crab, heating it until it was just beginning to boil, then I reduced the heat to simmer, and covered until cooked (around 7 minutes). I added some chilli flakes (would have used sliced chilli, and sauted with garlic and ginger if I had any) and served with steamed basmati rice. Note: I would have used sliced chilli, and sauted it with the garlic and ginger if I’d had any at the time.

CHILLI MUD CRAB