Make your own flower crab curry
Mother's Day may be over, but there's no reason why you shouldn't cook up this flower crab curry dish for your mum.
You can fry up the rempah and keep it refrigerated until you are ready to use it. Best to freeze it if you intend to store the rempah longer than a week.
I like flower crabs because they are easy to handle and to clean. You can also use mud crabs or prawns.
Don't fret if you cannot get hold of turmeric leaves. They add a lovely fragrance to the dish but it will still be tasty without the turmeric leaves.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 flower crabs
- 8 red finger chillies
- 3 chilli padi
- 250g shallots
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 lemongrass stalks, use only 7cm of the white root part (sliced finely)
- 20g fresh turmeric root
- 30g galangal
- 20g old ginger
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 2 tsp belacan powder
- 1 turmeric leaf, torn
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, torn
- 3 pandan leaves, knotted
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 300ml water
- 350g coconut cream
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
METHOD
1. Clean the crabs. Remove the gills and halve the crabs. Keep chilled until ready to cook.
2. Cut the turmeric, galangal and old ginger into small pieces. Blitz them with the lemongrass. Add a little water into the blender to help the blades rotate smoothly.
3. Add the red finger chillies, chilli padi, shallots, garlic cloves, curry powder, belacan, one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of sugar. Continue to blitz into smooth paste.
4. Heat the cooking oil in a non-stick wok or pan.
5. Fry the spice paste. Lower the heat to medium-low and continue to fry for 15 minutes until the paste is thick and the oil is visible on the surface. (A)
6. Place crab pieces into the wok. Add the 300ml water. Add the diced tomato.
7. Add the turmeric leaf, kaffir lime leaves and pandan leaves. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes. (B)
8. Add the coconut cream and fish sauce. Season with salt. (C)
9. Cover and continue to cook for several minutes until the shells turn a bright orange.
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