This Chinese Crab Sauce Noodle is a dish to impress, no doubt about it, and it's perfect both to amaze with its gorgeous sexy looks as well as its sublime knock it out of the ball park taste explosion of ultimate crabbiness. Luckily for us the ones we most like to impress with good food is ourselves...meaning me... because we're making this for my birthday! (I'm a summer baby.)
It's the Chinese custom, for those of you who don't know, to have a bowl of noodles to celebrate a birthday and what better celebration of my wonderful self (hehe) and our love of pure foody goodness than this bowl of sinfully decadent Crab Sauce Noodles 蟹肉醬麵, slippery chewy noodles smothered with a generous golden dollop of rich umami packed crab meat and roe sauce.
We used hairy crabs大閘蟹* though you can use any kind of crab you like as long as those crabs got the roe cuz it's the roe that is the magic in this sauce. Hairy crabs have a lot of decadently delicious roe which, seriously, is to die for.
My very strange sister discards the roe of the hairy crab which, OMG, makes me pull my hair out! I mean, why eat hairy crab at all if you're not going to enjoy the best part! Okay, got that off my chest, back to the crabs.
We discovered frozen hairy crabs and decided to try them. Gotta to say, they were kind of small but, we were pleased to discover, packed to the brim with roe! Which is more than I can say for some the live hairy crab we have bought in recent years.
*Check out our Steamed Hairy Crab 清蒸大閘蟹 post!
The hairy crab is steamed first. Then opened up. Here you can see the crab roe in all it's glory. Look at how much roe and fat this wee crab is packing! Oh tears of joy!
This part is the tedious part. Which means, in my family, that it's my part. I'm the only one with the patience and the drive for tedium to complete the kind of tasks that have me bent over the table for hours on end...just joking! It didn't take that long but it did take a bit of time to pick out all the crab meat.
Be sure to have a crab meat pick handy to pick the meat out, or you can use a slim pointed chopstick to the same effect. Also a seafood scissor is super useful, just cut right through the shell and get at the meat inside.
Look at this sauce! It's half the magic right there, the fact that it looks so scrumptious and sexy. The other equal half is the divine taste of all that crabby goodness.
It's a pretty simple dish to make, once you've got the crab meat all picked out. Finely minced ginger is gently fried with the crab over a low heat, until fragrant and dry, then a bit of stock is added along with a splash of wine, sugar and oil. We subbed in a bit of our homemade lard to add to the sauce's deliciousness. The crab paste is cooked down over a low, low heat to avoid any burning until reduced.
Simple but so yummilicious, amiright?
That's all there is to this sexy and sublime Chinese Crab Sauce Noodles. Serve it for a party or a celebration or a birthday like we did, or just because you love crab and all the crabbilicious things crabs can do!
Chinese Crab Sauce Noodles 蟹肉醬麵
(enough for 4 bowls of noodles) Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 25 mins
Ingredients:
- 2 crabs, weighing approx 7 oz (200g) each or 3 oz (80g) crab meat
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1/2 cup ginger, finely minced, 57g
- 2 1/2 tbsp chicken stock, 38g
- 2 1/2 tbsp shao hsing rice wine, 38g
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 5 1/2 tbsp oil, 76g
- noodles, enough for 4 servings
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 2 tbsp spring onion, chopped to rounds
Directions:
Wash and scrub crabs with a toothbrush. Put on plate that will fit in steamer. Steam over high heat for 15 mins for small crabs and 20 mins for large crabs. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
Remove all legs by twisting and pulling. Remove the apron like tab on the body and discard. Stick fingers in between body and shell and pull shell off. Remove the white-grey gills and discard. Chop the body in half along the indentation in the middle of the body.
Pick out all the meat and roe in the body, legs and shell. Shred any large pieces of meat.
Heat wok over low heat til hot, add 2 tbsp oil, add minced ginger, stir for 15 secs. Add in crab meat, stir until fragrant. Add in stock, stir til stock absorbed. Add in wine and sugar. Add oil and stir fry 3 mins or until oil turns a golden color, being careful not to let it burn.
Cook noodles according to package. Separately heat up stock.Twirl noodles into each serving bowl. Add scoop of crab sauce on top of noodles, then add in 2 tbsp of hot stock to each bowl. Enjoy!
Tip: Can store in fridge for up to 2 days or if frozen keeps for a week.
Crabbilicious Hits at The Hong Kong Cookery:
Soy Sauce Pickled Crab 醬油醃蟹
Steamed Hairy Crab 清蒸大閘蟹
Drunken Crab w/ Rose Wine 玫瑰露醉蟹
Yummiliciousness of Mud Crab 清蒸奄仔蟹
