Steamed mud crabs with ginger, chilli & shallot sauce

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 Tin Can Bay mud crab, about 1 kg, chopped*
• Coriander leaves, to serve
• Ginger, chilli & shallot sauce
• 2–3 long red chillies, coarsely chopped
• 2 cm knob ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
• ½ bunch coriander, including roots, well rinsed
• 250 ml (1 cup) light soy sauce
• 250 ml (1 cups) mirin
• 125 ml (½ cup) white wine
• 75 ml sesame oil
• 190 ml sweet chilli sauce
• 2–3 garlic cloves
• 4 spring onions, coarsely chopped

Method

To make the sauce, place all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
Place the crab pieces in a large, heavy-based saucepan and pour the sauce over the top. Cover and cook over high heat until the sauce comes to the boil. Once the sauce reaches the boil, cook for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for another 5 minutes, keeping the pan covered. To see if the crab is cooked, remove the lid and look for the tell-tale white droplets of protein being squeezed out of the shell, especially the claws.

Plate immediately scattered with coriander, with crab crackers, pickers and finger bowls of warm water with lemon.
*To ensure you get a full mud crab, choose a live, heavy crab. I find the ones with brown bellies are always full. Please ensure they are killed humanely, and the best way to do that is to place them in the freezer for 30 minutes and then dissect them. To do this, remove the head, clean the gills and guts, without washing them in water – simply shake it out. Cut the body of the crab into 6 pieces, 3 each half and gently crack all the claws. If you can’t find Tin Can Bay mud crabs, just use the freshest mud crabs you can find.

For Kuruvita's handy seafood tips and Christmas favourites, grab the December 2016 edition of nourish magazine.