Singapore Chilli Crab

A free Saturday, a longing to cook and a free bike was all I needed to head out that paradise in Bangalore-Russel Market. Over the years, small, crowded places in old Bangalore have been a favourite haunt. The other place that comes to my mind is the City Market-Avenue Road area. These places are treasure troves for street photography along with anything you may ever need.
Russel Market to me represents bits of old Bangalore, sandwiched between the cantonment areas of MG Road and Frazer Town.


I headed out to the vegetable market at around 10 in the morning – very late if you want super fresh produce. First sights were fresh looking gherkins, French beans and okra. In addition, the alsande looked tender and fresh too.
A half kilo of each and I was off to the seafood stalls. The plan for lunch was to try my version of Singapore Chilli Crab. Thoughts of this dish on a huge platter served in the Jumbo Seafood restaurant on the EC Parkway are still fresh in memory. The only problem ? great big crabs. The ones I had in S’pore were easily about a half kilo each. The ones in the market for the most part didn’t look like they’d cross 250-300gms. The thought of fighting the long departed crab for its innards wasn’t very appealing.



Further along, I spied what I wanted. Decent sized crab. Got a kilo cleaned and packed.



One caveat to walking around in the market---no slippers. The meat market, especially the outside stinks. You need a super strong constitution to be able to review all the produce available rather than casting your eye on the first sign of sea meat and whisking it away.






Okay, now for the recipe.

1-2 medium sized onions
Chillies – quantity based on how hot you want your dish to be. I used 3 normal green chillies
2-4 cloves garlic
2-3 diced tomato’s, preferably the ones that are over ripe
1 cup tomato ketchup
1 tsp curry powder –my twist
3 heaped tsp seeni sambol – since I didn’t have the belacan, thought this would substitute ok
Salt to taste
2-3tbsp Oil

Blend the raw onion with all the chillies to get a fine paste. Taste to check heat. Mine eventually turned out a wee bit under ‘hot’.
Cook the paste in the oil for 5mts till it changes to a pale white/light brown colour. I feel carmelizing the onions add the necessary sweet taste to the dish
Add the diced tomato’s with the skins on. I don’t believe in a concasse all the time. (Roughage in any form is great for the morning job :-PP)
Allow the tomato’s to cook well, stirring occasionally and mashing them in when fully done
Add the ketchup to the mix and stir well
I added about a cup of water since I didn’t think I’d get volume with what I had. I complemented this with the sambal that we had at home (expiry date is this month. Looking at finishing as much as possible). Sambal on its own is quite addictive, even more so with hot rice.
Once I had a good broth bubbling, I added a teaspoon of some super hot Sri Lankan curry powder. At this time, I had to innovate since the chilli was getting overwhelmed with all the sweet ingredients that had gone into the mix.
I added the crabs in the end, cooked for about 15mts. Realized that I overcooked this by a few minutes so some of the flesh was not very firm.
Served this with hot rice, no garnish (maybe just plain cilantro would have been nice).

Lessons learnt:
1. Cook crab for not more than 10mts. Once shells turn red, stop cooking
2. Use belacan to get a richer flavour of the seafood
3. Figure out how to make those superb soft dumplings they served in S’pore
4. Invest in a steamer

All in all, a very satisfying time in the kitchen. Total prep + cook time <30mts which I thought was great. Shantala completed this meal with some thai stir fried veggies and some Chinese style greens with pine nuts

Da first post

I got started on this to try and put some recipe's that I fool around with. What I will try to do is to write down what I make, regardless of what it eventually turns into. I will definitely put photos in to make it more appealing.
I believe in spending quite a bit of time in my kitchen, so recipe's are likely to be drawn out, but I believe the fun in cooking is spending as little time as possible in the kitchen to turn out simple and great tasting dishes.