Ginger And Spring Onion Blue Swimmer Crab With Egg Noodles 薑蔥花蟹撈麵

I cook ginger and spring onion chicken with egg noodles all the time but using crab for the more popular and expensive restaurant dish was a first for me. I know this is not quite the real deal for some since blue swimmer crabs were used instead but at A$45/kg for the meatier mud crab I simply can't justify spending half of that on inedible hard shells.

While mud crab is pricey and seasonal, blue swimmer crab on the other hand is very affordable and is always in abundance year round. I personally prefer female crabs for their tasty roes which add wonders to the final dish but do make sure they are fresh and do not smell of ammonia.

P.S If you are using mud crab, the method is the same but one large mud crab (about 1.5 to 2 kg) will be more than sufficient.

recipe from the tummies' kitchen
serves 3 to 4 as a one dish meal or as part of a Chinese meal
you'll need;
3 blue swimmer crabs, scrubbed
corn flour for coating
oil for frying
5 cm piece of ginger, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 tbs of oyster sauce
3 tbs of light soy
dash of sesame oil
dash of Chinese cooking wine
1.5 cups of stock
6 spring onions, cut into 5 cm lengths
corn flour solution for thickening
fresh egg noodles (1.5/person)
homemade chili oil or condiments of your choice to serve

Prepare ginger, garlic and spring onions.

Scrub crabs clean then remove the carapace (hard shell), abdominal flab and the gills (also known as dead man's fingers). Cut each crabs into 4 pieces and crack the claws with a kitchen mallet.

Lightly coat the crab sections avoiding the legs and claws and set aside.

Fry crab sections and the canapace in batches with plenty of hot oil til golden (~ 5 to 8 minutes), remove and drain well.

Heat up a wok and saute ginger and garlic with a little oil before returning the crabs to the wok. Add seasonings and stir on high heat for 5 minutes.

Add stock and cook for a further minute before adding the spring onions. When it returns to a boil, push all solids to aside and thicken the sauce with some corn flour solution. To  prepare the noodles - first loosen each bundle then cook noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 15 seconds, remove and rinse in a big pot of cold water. When the pot of water returns to a boil, return the noodles to the pot and cook for a further 15 seconds or until al dente. Drain and mix in a dash of sesame oil and place on a large platter.

Pour everything onto the awaiting platter with the noodles.