[Music]
Hi, I am Rich Harris, and welcome back to my Asian Bites
Series.
In this episode I am showing you what, arguably, one
of my favorite dishes in the world is: crispy soft shell crab
with chili salt and a fiery dipping sauce.
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To start off with, we use a bird's eye chili.
They are really hot, really spicy, full of flavor.
If you can not take your heat, remove the seeds first.
A good little tip is to give it a squeeze, and a roll and the seeds will start
to fall out.
I am not about that, so we are just going to chop
it straight up, seeds and all.
I want a nice, big, fiery kick from this just to
remind you that there is chili in there.
Straight in to the pestle and mortar, 1 clove of garlic.
I am going to start to gradually add the salt.
The salt is going to act as an abrasive and really help to pound
this all together and then we are going to keep adding salt
to dry it out.
It is a really nice thing just to have in the cupboard
at home.
It lasts for ages because the salt preserves the chili
and the garlic.
It is great on steaks, chicken, salad, anything really.
Anything that needs a nice fiery kick.
For a full list of ingredients for this recipe, check out the
description books.
I want to keep adding salt, and we are going to get a nice rough paste.
Just keep on adding, keep grinding down.
It is forcing flavor into the salt.
That is what we are looking for.
A nice, kind of light pink salt.
All the garlic has been pounded in, all the chili has been
pounded in, and that is going to be packed full of flavor.
Yeah, that is hot.
That has got a real kick to it.
I am just going to spoon that into a little dish and set that aside for later.
My fiery chili salt is now made an now it is time to make the
dipping sauce.
We need some green bird's eye chili.
These have got a much fresher flavor, really, really
fiery, but that is what we are all about here.
To that, I am just going to add the juice of a lime.
Next in, some garlic.
It is fairly roughly chopped.
I quite like having some nice big bits of garlic in there, just
to remind you it is there, so you do not need to worry about mincing
it to a paste.
Kecap manis is basically, like a sweetened, thickened soy
sauce.
It tastes amazing, adds loads and loads of flavor to
dishes and it is now quite widely available in supermarkets.
Keep an eye out for it.
A good glug of that in there.
So then, have a little taste.
That tastes phenomenal, full of chili, loads of garlic, really sweet.
That has got quite a kick, but that is exactly how I like it.
It should be fiery.
Because we want to eat these as soon as they are fried
when they are nice and hot and crispy, you want to get all
the garnishes out of the way first.
So some spring onions, really finely shredded.
This is going to add some freshness to the end of the dish, as well.
Stick those in a dish, out of the way.
We do not need any kind of a batter for these.
We just want to keep it nice and light, really crispy and
let the flavor of the crab sing.
So I am just doing a mixture of half plain flour, half
rice flour.
Give that a bit of a stir around and then take your
crab.
These are soft shell crabs.
They are a type of swimmer crab and they are harvested just at the time
when they have molted their shells and they are nice and
soft, so you can eat the entire crab.
Really, really nice and crunchy.
The legs get crispy and everything is edible.
You want to dredge these lightly in flour so they get a good coating.
Shake off any excess and give them all a good toss to coat.
That is all of them.
They have got a nice light coating of flour.
It is not like we want a batter or anything like that.
Just a really nice light coating that is going to add some crunch.
They, literally, take 1 or 2 minutes to fry.
Do not over crowd the pan, otherwise they are not going to get up to temperature
and get really crispy.
So just a couple at a time.
This funky little utensil is used quite widely in Southeast
Asian cooking.
It is basically known as a spider.
Just used for pulling things out of pot fat.
It means you can pick things out quite nicely without breaking them.
A lot of this stuff can be quite delicate.
You can easily pick these up in a Chinese supermarket.
This cost me 3 pounds.
They are not expensive and quite a nice little bit of kit
to have.
OK, so they are ready.
They have gone a deep orange color, really crispy on the outside.
Just need to transfer those to a bit of kitchen roll and just let them drain.
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While the crabs are still warm, they have just come out of
the oil, let them drain a bit.
Take a pinch of your chili salt and sprinkle it over the top.
Because there is still a little bit of oil on there it will stick to it slightly as well.
It is going to add loads of flavor.
A sprinkle of our spring onion, and finally, some of this.
My favorite sauce in the world.
It is fiery chili sauce, from Thailand and it tastes incredible.
Full of garlic, loads of chili and goes with everything, particularly
these crabs.
A good dollop in there, serve it on the side and we are
ready to go.
All that is left to do now is to have a little taste.
The moment of truth.
That is it for me.
It is amazing.
Really spicy, really crunchy.
The sauce is incredible and it brings back so many great
memories.
I have a mouthful, but I do not care.
I am so happy.
There you have it.
My crispy soft shell crab with chili salt and spicy
dipping sauce.
Enjoy.
If you enjoyed this, I hope to see you back in the kitchen again soon for another episode
of my Asian Bites Series.
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