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It’s that time of year again! No, not the holidays. It’s crab season! I have searched high and low for the best price for live crab in the Bay Area, and the cheapest has been $2.99/lb this year. That means I’ll be eating crab for some time until that price starts etching upward again.

Here’s my recipe for salt and pepper crab. You will find this dish in many Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants. It’s a popular yet a very simple dish.

Ingredients

• 2 live crabs
• 1 cup tapioca starch (or all purpose flour)
• Oil for deep frying
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 jalapenos (sliced; de-seed first if you don’t like heat)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon MSG (optional)
• 1 tablespoon cooking wine

Recipe

Prepare the crab by removing the outer shell and the membranes underneath (those spongy looking things). Hack up the crab into small pieces. Also, remove the sharp ends of the claws. We don’t want any puncture wounds while eating, now would we?

Rinse and pat dry.

Lightly coat with tapioca starch.Tap off excess.

Deep fry the crab in batches until the outside shell turns bright red (about one minute). If unsure, it’s always good to undercook than overcook. The rest of the cooking can take place in the wok, if needed.

Remove the deep fried crab on a plate lined with paper towels. This will absorb the excess oil.

Heat up a wok and generously coat the bottom with oil. Sautee the garlic and jalapenos until fragrant. Toss in the deep fried crab.

Now, a little at a time, sprinkle in the salt, pepper and MSG. Toss the crab around so the seasoning, garlic and jalapenos evenly coat the crab. Stop. Sprinkle more salt, pepper and MSG. Toss. Stop. Sprinkle. Toss. You get the picture.

One last step that I learned from an expert. Before serving, take the cooking wine and slowly drizzle it on the inside rim of the hot wok. The wine hitting the hot wok creates a fantastic aroma. Now enjoy!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.