The abundance of fresh chillies and garlic makes this a very spicy and full-bodied dish. Chilli crabs/lobster bears testimony to the great love Chinese have for spicy Malay food.
The real way to eat this dish is with a serving of large square chuncks of bread to dip into the delicious sauce.
Ingredients
- Lobster or crabs weighing about 450 grammes (1 lb)
- 6 fresh red chillies
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 stalks spring onions
- One coriander (cilantro) plant
- 3 Tbs vegetable oil
Sauce
- 3 Tbs tomato ketchup
- One-and-a-half Tbs sugar, according to taste
- Quarter tsp salt
- One tsp pounded salted brown soya bean paste
- One cup water
- One-and-a-half tsp cornflour
- Half tsp rice or malt vinegar of freshly squeezed lime juice
- Quarter tsp dark soya sauce
How To Make :
- Wash uncooked shellfish well, break off the claws and crack the shell by gently hitting it with a pestle. When preparing crabs, chop the bodies in half and then each half into 3 pieces. Wash and retain the shells. When using lobsters, chop off the tail and head, and chop the body, with shell still on, into thumb length pieces.
- Plunge head and tail of lobster into boiling water and cook till the shell turns red. Remove from water and set aside for decoration.
- Peel garlic and pound coarsely. Pound chillies coarsely too. Or grind in a food processor.
- Wash spring onions, discard roots, cut into finger lengths. Cut coriander into one-inch lengths.
- Mix sauce ingredients except for the vinegar or lime juice.
- Heat wok, add oil and when hot, add the garlic, stir fry for one minute, add chillies, stir fry for another minute and add crab or lobster pieces.
- Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes till shells turn slightly red. Stir sauce, add to the crabs or lobster and stir well for 2 minutes. Cover with a lid and simmer over high heat for 5 to 7 minutes till shells turn a bright red.
- Remove cover, squeeze the lime juice over or add the vinegar, stir well and add spring onions. Turn heat off, stir well and serve, garnish with coriander leaves.