Thursday, March 24, 2011

Chinese New Years Crab


Crab is a food I rarely eat, and a luxury I have never cook at home. Now for Chinese New Years, it seemed apropos to eat something that would encompass all of the great things to come.

I went to whole foods, since crab was on sale, and really, it wasn't expensive at all! I bought 2 crabs, and had them cleaned and chopped up...which takes care of half of the mise en place (prep). At home it's hard to get any wok as high in btu's than most Chinese restaurants, so the generic "high" setting on my stove seemed a little futile.

Jessica likes spicy things, to the point where if I'm sweating bullets, she comments it has "flavor". So of course spicy crab was on the way. I made a slurry of oyster sauce, soy paste, siracha, cornstarch and stock which was used as the base for the sauce, mostly for background flavors and a proper sauce consistency. Chilis of choice were Serranos and jalapeƱos, which provided enough "flavor"!

Basically you get the wok screeching hot to the point where the oil dances around like water, and you add the crab to cook it through. The key to good wok cooking is constantly moving your product around so nothing ever has time to stick. After cooking the crab through, add your chilies, slurry, and some finely minced ginger and garlic. Keep tossing for a few minutes and serve this crab immediately.

Fiery finger-licking good is only a few words to describe this dish...get a handful of napkins and a good drink, and you'll be thanking yourself that you stayed in to make this dish!

Xin nian hao (post is far past the new years :)

-E-

No comments:

Post a Comment