Singaporean Chilli Crab

I first came across this dish when on holiday in Singapore with my family years ago. I wasn't originally keen on it as i'm not a fan of really spicy food, however my dad absolutely fell in love with it. So when I decided to make a huge oriental feast on my day off work, I thought i'd try making some. 

Although it's a tad spicy for my taste, it is absolutely packed full of flavour and really, really tasty. It's also one of the messiest dishes i've ever made so stick on an old t-shirt and don't be afraid to dig in with your hands.
This is a recipe from Jamie Magazine; February 2015 issue. 

Ingredients

• 1 large cooked crab (roughly 1.2kg)
• 4 cooked crab claws
• 1 large bunch of coriander, leaves picked & stalks finely chopped
• 4 spring onions, whites finely chopped and greens finely sliced into matchsticks 
• Groundnut oil
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, finely grated
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp cornflour

Chilli Sauce

• 1 white onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• 2 sticks of lemongrass, bashed, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 
• 1 tsp dark brown soft sugar 
• 1 heaped tbsp tomato puree 
• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tsp shrimp paste 

Method

1. To prepare the crab, twist off the legs and claws. Turn the crab upside down, hold both sides and, with your thumbs, push under the central body until it breaks away. Remove and discard the spongy gills and carefully pick out any white meat. Scoop out the brown meat from the main shell and place in a bowl. Crack the large claws in half and pick out all the meat. Reserve the legs and meat; discard the other parts of the crab. If you need any help with how to prepare a crab or find where the gills are (like I did), there are plenty of useful videos online.
2. Fill a bowl with iced water and add the coriander leaves and green spring onion chopsticks- this will make them go curly. 
3. To make the chilli sauce, add all the ingredients to a food processor, along with the remaining coriander stalks, and blitz until finely chopped. Place a frying pan over a medium heat, add the paste and cook for 8-10 minutes, until softened and coloured. 
4. Place a wok over a medium heat along with a little groundnut oil. Once hot, add the chopped white spring onion, garlic, ginger and chilli and fry for 10 minutes until cooked through. 
5. Add the crab legs and cooked crab claws. Mix in the chilli sauce and the cornflour diluted with 100ml of warm water, bring it to the boil, simmer and season to taste for 5 minutes, then take it off the heat and gently stir through the reserved crab meat. 
6. Sprinkle over the drained coriander leaves and curly spring onions to serve. 

The only thing I tweaked with this recipe is the chilli content. Jamie Oliver uses 3 red chillies in the chilli sauce whereas I cut it down to one, however the sauce is still spicy in my opinion. Cutting down slightly on the chillies also means it will be more suitable for the whole family to enjoy, as I know i'm not alone in my aversion to spicy food. I also chose to add some extra crab claws to the recipe as the meat from the whole crab didn't seem enough. 

I served mine with egg fried rice, but this would work equally as well with white rice or Jamie Oliver recommends serving them with roti which would also work really well.