15-Minute Flower Crab Dry Curry

If you like crab but can't stomach the idea of being a crab killer, flower crab would be right up your alley. The blue crustaceans are mostly sold dead; live ones caught by local kelongs are available only once in a blue, blue moon, when you're extremely lucky. Or maybe unlucky if you're not into buying food that's still moving.

The taste of flower crab is quite different from that of the ubiquitous mud crab. Because flower crabs live in the sea, the meat tastes cleaner and sweeter than their muddy cousins which live in river estuaries. There's also a difference in texture. Flower crab is smooth, delicate and moist whereas mud crab, if it's big, can be quite coarse, overly firm and a bit dry. Both types of crab are the same though when they're not fresh – mushy and gross!

Do I prefer mud or flower crab? Hmm . . . they're different, as different as, say, mud crab and prawns. I like 'em both but if I really had to choose, I'd say fresh, good quality flower crab is actually nicer than live mud crab.

Most flower and mud crab recipes are interchangeable, but there're a few that aren't if you're a fusspot like me. Chilli Crab, for instance, should be made with mud crab. Curry powder, on the other hand, goes with flower crab. If flower crab isn't available, I think prawns would make a better substitute than mud crab. Mind you, if you put a plate of mud crab curry in front of me, I'd still eat it and enjoy it. I never say no to crab, and I've never met any crab I don't like so long as it's fresh.

With the help of a pack of readymade curry powder, making Flower Crab Dry Curry takes no more than 15 minutes from start to finish: four minutes to clean and chop four crabs, and three minutes to peel and chop some shallots and garlic, leaving eight minutes to stir-fry. Do you have 15 minutes to make a delicious crab dish? Of course you do! Do you have time to eat it though? Of course you do! What could be better than picking out the meat bit by bit from the nooks and crannies?

Some people like to stop and smell the roses but me, I prefer to stop and eat crab.

FLOWER CRAB DRY CURRY (Recipe for 4 persons) 2½ tbsp vegetable oil 60 g shallots peel, rinse and mince finely 40 g garlic peel and mince roughly 30 g curry powder for chicken (I use Nonya brand) add 3 tbsp water and stir to make a thick paste 4 flower crabs (aka blue crabs) weighing about 1 kg discard abdominal flap; separate shell from body; discard gills, and stomach in shell; rinse thoroughly and drain; twist off pincers and crack slightly with side or back of cleaver; chop and discard last joint of small claws; chop each crab into 4 quarters 40 ml light soya sauce 2 eggs, beaten Heat well-seasoned wok till just smoking. Add vegetable oil and heat till very hot. Add shallots and stir-fry over high heat till translucent. Add garlic and stir-fry till slightly golden. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add curry paste and stir-fry till fragrant, drizzling with 2-3 tsp water at a time if spices stick to wok. Do not add too much water in one go or you'd be simmering instead of frying. If you like, you could fry with more oil instead so that curry paste doesn't stick. Increase heat to high. Add crab. Stir-fry till thoroughly mixed and heated through, again drizzling with 2-3 tsp water at a time to deglaze spices that stick to wok. Drizzle with light soya sauce. Stir till absorbed. Add enough water to cover half of crab, about ⅓ cup. Bring to a boil, stirring to mix well. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 3 minutes. Stir, then cover and simmer another 3 minutes. Crab should be cooked now. To check, pick a piece which has a pinky and ring claw and snip between the two claws with a pair of scissors. Meat is cooked if firm and opaque. Increase heat to medium-high. Stir to mix crab and curry sauce thoroughly. Turn shells upside down, i.e. cavity facing up. Drizzle a bit of curry sauce into shells, and then a bit of egg. Drizzle remaining egg on crab. Let egg set slightly, about 5 seconds. Stir to mix through. Sauce should now be just thick enough to coat crab. Adjust if necessary by adding a bit of water if too dry, or cooking a bit longer if too watery. Taste sauce and adjust seasoning if necessary. Plate and serve. Pssst! I'll let you in on a little secret. The eggy curry sauce is more yummy than the crab!

Black Pepper Crab

Rule number one of crab handling: Make sure it's dead before cutting the string! Ask the crab politely, whilst tapping its legs with a knife or chopstick, 'Hello? Hello? Are you dead?' If it nods its head or says, 'Yes, I'm dead,' beware of the crafty crab! If there's no response and the legs aren't moving, then and only then should the string be cut. I never forget the rule so no, I wasn't bitten. I was just kidding!

Of course, before you check whether the crab is dead, you have to kill it first. The easiest way to do this is to chuck it in the freezer. 15-20 minutes should do the trick, or 30 for the stronger ones.

When buying crabs, choose those that are heavy for their size, and tap the legs to make sure they're alive and kicking. If you like female crabs, go for the ones that have round 'aprons'. The pointy ones are boys – makes sense, right?

The bright orange roe is what eating crabs is all about for many people. Hence, 'roe crabs' are treasured and more expensive than 'meat crabs' and 'milt crabs'.

Cleaning crabs is quite easy. First, trim and discard the abdominal flap, aka apron. Next, grab the bottom end of the shell in one hand, the body in the other, and pull them apart. If the shell seems stuck, that's a good sign that the crab had been fighting fit until it met you and its destiny. Or maybe it was in the freezer a bit too long. If the latter, wait for it to thaw. If the former, insert your kitchen scissors between the bottom end of the shell and the body, then lever off the shell.

Once the shell is removed, you'll see some spongy brown stuff on the body. These are the gills which should be trimmed and discarded. Next, give the crab a good scrub – don't forget the crevices inbetween the legs – followed by a thorough rinse. Turn the shell upside down so that it drains properly. Looks like a car, doesn't it? (I'm thinking along the lines of the Batmobile.) Hey, that must be why its proper name is 'caraspace'!

After cleaning the crab, twist off the pinchers and give 'em a few good whacks with the back of the cleaver. The shell should be cracked and the meat, ideally, intact. Lastly, chop the body into four or six pieces, depending on the size. And that's all – done! Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I like to trim the last joint on the smaller legs to make them a bit shorter, but that's optional. I also like to trim the two small flaps at the top end of the body, in the middle. These are the manibles, which are part of the crab's mouth. But it's no big deal if you leave 'em. The crab is ready for the wok; all you have to do now is cook it. May I suggest Black Pepper Crab?

BLACK PEPPER CRAB (Recipe for 4 persons) 1.6 kg crab, cleaned, drained, and chopped (see instructions above) ¼ cup cornflour, optional vegetable oil for deep-frying, optional 1 tbsp vegetable oil for stir-frying 1 tbsp butter 4 shallots, finely minced 4 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 tbsp black peppercorns, or 1 tbsp if you like it mild, coarsely ground/pounded 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine 2 tbsp light soya sauce 2 tsp dark soya sauce ½ tsp salt Deep-frying helps the roe/milt stick to the crab and not fall off during the stir-fry step, but the oil splatters because of moisture under the shell. If the crab doesn't have much roe/milt, or you don't mind picking up the roe/milt in the sauce, skip the deep-frying. Or deep-fry only the parts with roe/milt, leaving out the legs. If deep-frying, sprinkle cornflour on crab where there's roe/milt. Rest for 5 minutes so that the flour sticks well. Drop crab into just smoking vegetable oil, roe/milt side down. Fry just that side of the crab till set and lightly brown. Remove from oil and drain. In a clean wok, stir-fry shallots in oil and butter over high heat till translucent. Add garlic and stir-fry till lightly golden. Add black peppercorns (which burn easily, so lower the heat if necessary) and stir-fry till fragrant. Add wine and stir through. Add crab, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, salt and ¼ cup water. Stir to mix well. Cover and simmer till cooked, about 10 minutes depending on size and whether crab has been deep-fried. Stir again to mix thoroughly. Sauce should be just thick enough to stick to the crab. Poor quality crabs release a lot of liquid when they're cooked but good ones don't. Increase heat and reduce sauce, or add a bit more water as necessary. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Plate and serve. Adding water together with the crab deglazes the wok, i.e. loosen the peppercorns that are stuck to the bottom and sides. This is done to prevent the peppercorns from burning. It's different from a classic stir-fry which has water added (if any) at a later stage so that the cooking temperature is kept at the highest possible when the main ingredient is added to the wok.