Singapore “Style” Chili crab with garlic bread

Ingredients

Real Crab (Canned from the Seafood Section) 

1 pound raw shrimp

Whole head of garlic – 

X3 red chilis or Thai chilis or Jalapeno (whatever you can find locally)

X1 Large red onion

X ½ a knob of ginger (Or a lot more! Can’t really go wrong bulking up the fresh ginger especially if chili’s aren’t your jam)

X2 Tablespoons Vegetable oil – but really as needed 

X4 Green Onions (scallions) Or loads more! They are a flavor and garish component 

X2 eggs

1 teaspoon of lime zest

Juice of a whole lime 

Can of crushed tomatoes (optional if you’re not using lot of chillis)

X3 tablespoons Ketchup ( A good squirt!)

X3 tablespoons Soy sauce (A good pour around the pan)

X3 Tablespoons Rice wine vinegar (I love this stuff so use more but keep it to 3 if you’re not a regular user)

X2 Tablespoons Sugar (again taste as you go, levels may need adjusting)

Sherry 

Corn flower

Fresh cilantro

Shrimp/seafood stock

Crusty Bread

Butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 and set a tray in the middle section.

So first off the key to making this meal easy and fun, is the Mise En Place i.e breaking down that pile of groceries on the counter and making it neat and ready to work with! 

Put a pot of about 3 cups of water on the stove to boil. Add salt and pepper a dash of soy sauce and some Sherry or Sherry vinegar if you have it. 

When I’m making broth I tend to throw in scraps of whatever I’m working with so if some garlic, ginger, scallion etc falls into the pot so much the better. A dash of butter never hurt either.

Peel and devein the shrimp and put the shells into this pot – we are now making out own seafood broth. Set it to simmer and forget about it until later or you find a bit of chili that wants to join the party.

One of my favorite kitchen utensils is my Cuisinart, almost everything in this dish goes into this bad boy saving time, but if you don’t have one rough chop will work too.

Peel all the garlic and throw in the Cuisinart.

Once finally chopped set a 1/3 of it away for the garlic bread.

Peel the ginger

Top and tail the chilis (remove as many seeds as you feel like)

Add the ginger and chilis to the Cuisinart and blend. I add a swig of rice wine vinegar or soy sauce to help loosen it up and blend.

When all the main ingredients have been diced and set aside, put your reserved garlic back in the blender with a stick of butter a squeeze or lime and a drizzle of soy sauce. I also add cilantro and fresh ginger to this step. Make yourself some Asian compound butter.

Slice your crusty bread, but only 2/3s of the way down you want the loaf to hold together. Slather the bread GENEROUSLY with the Asian compound butter in the sliced sections and all over the top and bottom. Loosely wrap in tin foil and place in preheated oven. Pull it when you smell it and it’s golden brown and soft to the touch,

Heat up a wok or good sauté pan with a couple of tablespoons of the vegetable oil. Your intention is to cook everything lightly, no need to hard sear or blacken.

You’ll know things are happy and ready when they become translucent and just gold in color.  

Add the garlic and chili ginger mix. It should all have a paste like consistency at this point.

Slowly sauté for about 10 minutes.

Turning in the hot oil don’t want to burn.

Add soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, lime zest and sugar.

If using the canned tomato’s throw them in now.

Taste your seafood broth add another swig of soy sauce if it’s still a little subtle in flavor. You can also bring it to a quick boil to get that concentrated flavor. When you’re happy strain it carefully – we want to keep that liquid and lose all solids to the trash!

Add in the seafood broth. 

Sauté for as long as it takes you to have a glass of wine. ;) You’ve earned it! 

Taste Taste Taste, it should be spicy but sweet and layered. 

Add a couple of teaspoons of corn starch to an inch of water and whisk with a fork.

Add the corn starch carefully to the chili mix, being sure to incorporate evenly (corn starch clump - bad monkey!)

Finally when the flavor profile is to your liking transfer the chili mix to a bowl and add another table spoon or two of vegetable oil to the pan.

Quickly cook the crab and shrimp no more than five minutes.

Add back in the chili mixture turn the heat down to low and let simmer.

Finally squirt in a couple of tablespoons of ketchup believe it or not this is what they really do in Singapore adds some final zip and authenticity (apparently;) 

While the mixture is still warm but not boiling crack in two eggs and gently swirl around to cook, should look like strands of golden egg ribbon.

Set to low, cut up the aforementioned shit tones of cilantro and scallions and throw over the top.

I also throw on pickled chilis and crushed peanuts if I’m feeling fancy! Which is always! 

Pull your garlic bread out of the oven and serve, should be thick pieces to sop up all that beautiful seafood broth.

Enjoy! And I highly recommend this dish for a date or a person you really want to impress but don’t want to put that much effort into ;) It’s easier than it looks!