Stir Fry Crab with Ginger and Spring Onion

To Dad

A long long time ago, when my granny was in charge of the domestic kitchen, crabs were reserved for special occasions such as birthdays. I could still remember my anxious anticipation on my birthday, not for birthday pressies, not for birthday cake, but for crabs on the dinner table! I am sure my father would understand my sense of anticipation because he is a keen crab eater too!

Here in the UK, crabs are relatively cheap but they are often sold dressed. We can get hold of live ones in Chinese supermarkets, but they won't prepare the crab for you. So we are left with live crabs (sometimes excessively active with their claws moving around)...you can imagine the difficulty I had in 'humanely' dismantling the crab.

This dish was taught by Uncle 9, Y's father and is a great example to demonstrate his talents in cooking and his generosity in sharing his cooking tips with me.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1. 2 big crabs
2. 3 spring onions
3. 10 slices of ginger
4. 1/2 onion
5. potato starch
6. 2 cloves of garlic
7. 3 tablespoons brandy
8. 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
9. salt
10. sugar
11. soy sauce
12. oil
13. water

Method

• Carefully send the crabs to eternity and chop them into big pieces. Use kitchen towel to pat dry.
• Slice the onion and ginger and chop the spring onions roughly.
• Then, fill the wok with oil halfway up and heat up the oil. Dip a chopstick in the oil. Air bubbles will surround the chopstick when the oil is hot enough.
• In the meantime, use potato starch to coat all crab pieces.
• Gently put the crab pieces into the wok and fry until golden brown.
• Take out the crab pieces and put on kitchen towel to absorb off excess oil.
• Drain the oil from the wok very carefully and clean it thoroughly.
• Heat the wok over a high heat.
• Add 2 tablespoons of oil and then add in onion, garlic, ginger and spring onion. Toss well.
• When you can smell the aromatics, put in the crab pieces. Toss well for 2 minutes (mind you, this requires lots of elbow grease.)
• Add salt, sugar and soy sauce to taste.
• Put in about 100ml of water into the wok. Put on the lid and cook for 2 minutes.
• Finally, pour in the brandy and oyster sauce and let them evaporate a bit. If there is little sauce, you may want to add some more water. Toss for 1 minute.
• Finally add potato starch water (2 tablespoons of cold water with 1 teaspoon of potato starch) to thicken the sauce and let the sauce come to the boil. Serve immediately.