If you ever visit Singapore and you don’t eat chili crab, please, surrender your passport and forfeit your right to travel. This is one of the true treasures of world cuisine.
The first place (and one of the best, IMO) that I ever had chili crab in Singpaore was a ‘little bit of everything’ restaurant opposite my first flat on Orchard Road called Ali Meng Café. They’re also pretty renowned at a place called Mellben Seafood in Ang Mo Kio, which I can also vouch for.
Traditionally chili crab is made with freshly caught mud or blue crabs. The crabs are cracked and pan-fried in chili sauce, resulting in a deliciously flavored crab and a vat of delightful sauce that you later mop up with bread rolls or spoon over rice. Of course, out in the rest of the world, getting fresh crabs might be a little difficult, so I tried a version using a pound of crab legs instead.
Now there is one major secret ingredient to the chili crab: tomato sauce. As in ketchup. In Singapore it’s quite common to find bottles of tomato sauce that are quite similar to Western ketchup, however, it’s not quite as sweet. In the recipe below I use regular Heinz ketchup, so if you use you use the Singaporean kind or straight-up tomato sauce, add a couple teaspoons of sugar to it.
Oh yeah, and be warned: this is by far the messiest food I’ve ever seen (bbq ribs, step aside). I have been known to get chili all the way up to my elbows (and in my hair, and on my cheeks, and …) and have even had the owner at Ali Meng’s laugh at the sight of me. Singaporeans tout this 3-finger-only method that minimizes the mess, but I have yet to deduce how that works. However, my dad came up with a pretty nice set-up where he kept a wet washcloth nearby to help curb the mess as he went.
[Prep: 20min / Cook: 25min]
– 1 lb snow crab legs (basically, 2 ‘sets’)
– 1 can lump real crab meat (abt 6oz)
– 2 cloves of garlic
– a couple slices ginger (about 1/2 tsp ground)
– 3-4 sprigs of green onion
– 2 red chilis
– 1 Tbs vegetable oil
– 1/3 cup ketchup
– 2 Tbs sweet chili sauce
– 1 Tbs lime juice
– 1/2 cup water
– 1 tsp cornflour (optional)
– 1 tsp cilantro (a couple of leaves)
– 1 egg
- Chop the garlic, ginger and green onion. Seed and slice the chili peppers.
- Heat a wok or large pan over high heat and fry the garlic, ginger, onion and chili for about two minutes.
- Crack the crab legs a bit with a hammer or by hand, add to the pan and fry for about 2 minutes more.
- Meanwhile, mix the lump crab meat, tomato sauce, chili sauce, lime juice, water and cornflour in a bowl.
- Add the sauce to the pan and bring to a boil, turning the legs over once while you wait.
- Beat the egg and stir into mixture, cooking for a final minute to cook the egg.
- Remove from heat and transfer to a serving dish. Pour sauce over the legs and garnish with cilantro.
- Ready to eat!
[Serves 2]
Suggested Sides
- Steamed rice
- Soft, white bread rolls
- Asian veggies with oyster sauce (kailan, bok choy, etc)
- My personal secret here is the lump crab meat. My absolute favorite part of this dish is sopping up the sauce with bread, and adding the crab is a really fun way to really get the most out of this dish.
- Pre-cracking the shells with a hammer or by hand serves two really useful purposes: it allows some of the sauce to seep into the shell and makes it easier to eat later
- I wholeheartedly recommend snow crab. As a bit of a crab ‘expert’ (loved crab all my life, worked in a seafood restaurant), snow crab is by far the sweetest & tastiest and is fairly easy to shell. Dungeness has the softest, easiest shell and is decently flavored. And king crab, though the biggest pieces of meat, is rubbery and very hard to break through the shell (not to mention the jabby bits).
- I went all over town looking for raw (fresh or frozen) crab legs, without any luck. However, pre-cooked, these turned out wonderfully. If you find fresh legs or use whole fresh crabs, you will want to a) insure they are thoroughly thawed-out and b) increase the initial frying time until the shell has turned bright red.
- A great alternative would also be to use jumbo shrimp (prawn) instead of crab.