A whole box of mud crabs was sent to my dad by one of his friends and we couldn't be happier having them the whole day! Pinoys usually just steam them, with a dipping sauce of vinegar with crushed garlic. I really would not eat it this way as I hate raw vinegar and I really think this does not do justice to the sweetness of the crab.
I really think the Pinoy way of steaming crabs is nothing but "lutong tamad" (lazy cooking). Fresh live crabs are put straight into a steamer or a pot with some boiling salted water. No cleaning. No seasonings. If they crabs then taste fishy, you deserve it! You didn't even bother to scrub off the grit and mud from the shells, at the very least!
And so I normally just pass up the opportunity to eat crabs if they are plain steamed the local way. And I certainly would turn down requests to stir-fry crabs that have been previously cooked. For sure the meat has taken on whatever flavor the mud and dirt had!
I know the thought of scrubbing and shelling live crabs sound bloody, but there is a way around it. Throw in the crabs in a deep pot of ice water and weigh down for about an hour or so. The crabs will go to 'sleep' and will be immobile (and dead) by the time you are ready to scrub them. This will not only appease whoever will be cleaning the crabs but the tree-huggers and animal lovers as well.
Scrub all the mud off the shell of the crabs, especially those in the joints. Lift the flap on the belly of the crab, then insert a knife into the cavity at the base to remove the top shell. Reserve all the fat/ tamales that falls off. Remove the gills/ dead man's fingers, and scrub at the part as it is likely to have plenty of mud and dirt. remove the mouth area as well. Cut the crab in half, then each into three segments. You can find a step-by-step instruction on how to clean and prepare crabs here, which is more or less similar to what I had enumerated.
Sprinkle the crab pieces with some salt and pepper (and some chicken powder, if you like), then with about a tablespoon or two of cornstarch (preferrably sweet potato flour) for every whole crab. Fry in oil until lightly browned. The crabs will continue cooking in the sauce later on.
The crabs we got were a bit fatty, so i scooped out all the tamales, dredged them in cornstarch and fried them lightly as well. This will become the thickener for the sauce.
The crab pictured above is the Vietnamese Tamarind Crabs (Cua Rang Voi Sot Me). Think sweet and sour sauce, only that tamarind was used to sour the sauce.
It is important to mix and taste the sauce ahead of the stri fry. For two pieces of medium crabs, mix together one tablespoon of tamarind paste, three tablespoons fish sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine and about one teaspoon each of brown sugar and crushed white pepper. Adjust the proportions according to your taste. You may need to add more sugar, depending on how sour the tamarind is. Again, this should taste sweet and sour, with the fruity acidity of the tamarind being a bit more predominant. Set aside the mixture.
In a hot wok with about three tablespoons of oil, saute three spring onions cut into segments, four cloves crushed garlic and one thumb-size piece of sliced ginger. You may add in about four lemon grass roots as well, as I did. Add in the crabs as the mixture becomes fragrant. Pour in the sauce and the fried crab fat pieces. You may need to add an additional 1/4 cup water and increase the heat to high to boil off the excess liquid as the crabs stew.
Serve with rice.
I had a few more prepared fried crabs left and decided to do a Malaysian-style dish. I saw it prepared on Discover Travel and Living. I did not have any ginger torch, so I used plain ginger root. I did not have sambal as well, so I made use of the regular chili garlic sauce.
This Ketam Sri Wangi is much more flavorful than the tamarind crabs, but less fruity. I still prefer the Vietnamese version, but I like this one as well.
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