Malaysian Style Chili Crab

An early morning market shopping to the seafood section yields some surprising finds.  There was a stall selling all kinds of seafood in season.  Yearning for crabs, we head straight to the big buckets containing crabs tied up in bundles.  They were big crabs with fat meat.

Ingredients:

4-5 pieces crabs
1 sprig cilantro or scallions (chopped for garnishing)
1/2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 egg beaten
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/4 cup water

Spice paste:

8 dried red chilies (soaked in hot water and deseeded)
1 tablespoon taucheo (soy bean paste/sauce)
3 gloves garlic crushed and sliced
2-3 shallots
1 inch fresh ginger sliced

Method:

1. Clean the crab and chop into pieces.
2. Pound the spice paste or grind with food processor.
3. Heat wok and add cooking oil
5. Stir fry spice paste until fragrant and spicy
6. Add chopped crabs and 1/4 cup water and stir fry quickly. Cover wok for 3 minutes
7. Add sugar, beaten egg and soy sauce, salt and continue stirring until crab pieces turn red
8. Dish up, garnish with scallions and serve hot