Image by avlxyz Tuna with Avocado and ShreddedCrab Sushi Roll AUD6.20 – SakuraKaiten Sushi
—
Peter suggested that we go to this sushi place near his office. It turns out that this was a sushi place that sounded a bit too trendy for my liking, especially after traditionl Japanese sushi like anago (sea eel), whitebait and tobiko and even natto and okra sushi!
As it turned out, it wasn’t bad. Not great, but not bad. I even tried the sundried tomato and avocado sushi roll (black plate), but I could not bring myself to try the wrong-ness that was air cured ham and cream cheese sushi (black plate)!
There were also things like fried wontons (black plate), fried soft shell crab (red plate). For dessert, they had dorayaki, ice-cream mochi and various cakes, most like straight from box to plate
The two of us spent AUD45.80 including green tea. A bit pricey for the quality.
Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that I was forbidden from taking photos. It’s a good thing I got away with 4! Surely you can’t run a restaurant based on how your food presentation alone? They should have more faith in the taste.
… and it’s obvious, Peter likes his avocado! So did I!
Sakura Kaiten Sushi
Shop 1, 59 Little Collins St Melbourne 3000
(03) 9663 08ɂ
Sushi plates and hot food at:
- pink plates .20
- black plates .20
- white plates .20
- red plates .20
Want to use this photo in a publication? Please Read This First!
Monkeys on a Banana
Image by Furryscaly
I drew monkeys on a banana at work today. That’s the short story anyway. They seemed the most fitting subject to draw on such a fruit.
Preheat oven to ᐞºF. Prepare cake batter and bake as directed on package for two 9-inch round baking pans. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 min. Loosen cakes from sides of pans. Invert onto racks; gently remove pans. Cool completely. Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. (Mixture will be thick.) Gently stir in whipped topping. Place one cake layer on serving plate; spread with jam. Top with layers of half each of the pudding mixture and strawberries; cover with remaining cake layer. Top with remaining pudding mixture. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Top with remaining strawberries and sprinkle with sugar just before serving. Store in refrigerator.
When I was growing up in Malaysia, my favorite times were the many festivities that we observed. With every festivity, my late grandmother would prepare lots of food. Sometimes her younger brother’s wife—my grand aunt—would come and cook together, then exchange or share the dishes they made.
I loved the idea of exchanging food, because we got to try out new dishes, dishes that are not commonly served in our family. Plus, grand aunt was a great cook who seemed to have endless new recipes to share. One of the creations was stuffed crab, a profoundly delicious concoction that never appeared on our family’s dining table. I was a happy soul whenever grand aunt made stuffed crab. I love crab and was fascinated by the presentation of the stuffed crab…but above all, I just couldn’t resist the scrumptious filling stuffed inside the beautiful crab shells…
I don’t really know the true origin of this dish. In Penang, I have had stuffed crab at Chinese seafood restaurants. In Thailand, this dish is called poo cha. In some Chinese buffet restaurants, you can find something similar. Never mind the source of this wonderful dish, for now, it’s my favorite stuffed crab that brings back a lot of childhood memories—my late grandmother’s smiley (and contended) face after tasting the goods; my grand-aunt’s generosity in sharing her new dish; and the young and excited me when I spotted the bright red crab shells with luscious filling, sitting pretty on the dining table.
Fillings:
8 oz ground pork
4 oz crab meat
2 oz peeled shrimp, minced
1 egg
3 shallots, minced
6 coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
3 heavy dashes ground black pepper
Coating:
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Method:
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients in the Filling and blend well. The texture of the Filling should be sticky.
Stuff the Filling into the empty crab shells using a spoon. Smooth out the surface with the back of the spoon. Steam the stuffed crab for 5 minutes. Discard the water that seeps out.
Cool the stuffed crab to room temperature after steaming. Heat up a wok with some oil. When the oil is heated, dip each crab shell into the beaten eggs. Make sure the filling is well coated with the beaten eggs. Transfer the stuffed crabs into the wok and fry them. As soon as the surface turns light to golden brown, dish out and serve immediately.
Cook’s Notes:
For the best result, please use freshly picked crab meat. You can use any crab of your choice. However, frozen crab meat will work just fine.
If you don’t have empty crab shells, you can still make the dish. Just divide the Filling into 6-8 portions. Flatten the Filling into a patty instead of stuffing inside the crab shell. (Next time when you eat blue crab, you can save the shell for this Recipe.)
I love serving this stuffed crab with my favorite chili sauce, Lingham Hot Sauce.
January 30th, 썛 | Chinese, Chinese Recipes, Malaysian recipes, Singaporean Recipes | 6 Comments
We will be leaving for Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year tomorrow morning. Before I leave, I feel obliged to share a very delicious Recipe with you, so here is my crab in sour and spicy sauce (…¸è蟹), or known as “chili crab” in Singapore. The timing couldn’t be better as Chinese (Lunar) New Year is just a few days away and I am sure many of you are scouring the web for a great recipe to share with the family.
I have an equally tasty home-style chili crab recipe (my late mother’s recipe) but this rendition with the eggy, sweet, sour, and spicy sauce is perfect for entertaining guests or simply when you want to have a crab feast. The sauce pairs beautifully with Chinese mantou—steamed or fried—as the bun sops up the scrumptious and addictive spicy and sour sauce. I prefer the soft and puffy steamed buns…
I made this for my good friends E and N last weekend and they practically begged me to share the recipe. I took them to the Asian market and got them the “starter kit” or ingredients to prepare this dish. For the crab, we are lucky as Dungeness crab is in season and the market will clean and cut it up for you. Save the shell and pick out the tamale or mustard inside the shell. Add them in the sauce and you will be rewarded with a richly flavorful sauce that you just can’t stop eating. You can also prepare this dish with mud crab, blue swimmer crab, or stone crab but I just love the fleshy Dungeness crab.
5 tablespoons ketchup
5 tablespoons Lingham’s Hot Sauce
1 heaping tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1/2 teaspoon Chinese rice vinegar or lime juice to taste
1 cup water
Method:
Clean the crab and cut into 6 pieces, drain the crab and discard the water seeping out of the crab. Pick out the tamale (or mustard) inside the crab shell, set aside. Discard the shell.
Mix all the ingredients in the Sour and SpicySauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
Heat up a wok and add the oil. When the oil is heated, add the minced garlic and ginger and stir fry until aromatic or when they turn slightly brown. Add the crab and the tamale into the wok, stirring for about 10 seconds. Add the Sour and Spicy Sauce, stir to blend well with the crab. Cover the wok with its lid and let cook for about 4-5 minutes.
Uncover the wok and slowly add the cornstarch mixture into the sauce. Stir the sauce until it thickens. Add the egg into the sauce and stir a few times so the egg is distributed evenly in the sauce. Cook for another 30 seconds or so, add salt to taste if needed. Dish out and serve immediately with the steaming hot buns.
Cook’s Notes:
If you can’t find Chinese steamed buns where you are, you can try out this recipe by Almost Bourdain.
I strongly recommend Lingham’s Hot Sauce for the best result. You can purchase it online at AsianSupermarket365.com.
If you can€™t find Lingham’s Hot Sauce, you can make this dish with Sriracha but do adjust the quantity according to your taste as Sriracha is very spicy. If you use Sriracha, do add sugar into the sauce.
(This chili crab recipe is from my archive but I have just made it these days and updated with new photos, shot with Canon T1i. The new Canon 5D Mark II is reserved for my cookbook.)
My mother was a fantastic cook. Coming from a little fishing village in the state of Kedah, she produced killer dishes with seafood, specially chili crab. With this post, I give my utmost tribute and applause to my late mother for her cooking skills and this quite special family Recipe.
Growing up, I would usually look forward to visiting my mother’s hometown; as a matter of fact, I would ask my parents to take me there. My intentions were not completely pure, I should confess; other than being able to play on the beach and dig siput (a type of clams), my bigger motivation was that she would bring back the freshest, meatiest, and juiciest catch of green mud crabs from my uncle who was a fisherman. I was constantly brimming with excitement at the thought of devouring this dishâ€(get chili crab recipe after the jump)
Eating home-cooked chili crab was a celebration in my family”the preparation (imagine “capturing” those feisty crabs that “escaped” the nets and roamed freely within the kitchen!), the cooking, and of course, the eating. It was sheer fun; lots of fun.
While this dish is traditionally prepared with green mud crab in Malaysia, I applied a 2-lb Dungeness crab. In case you can’t locate green mud crab or Dungeness crab in your area, you’ll be able to often use one more crab—stone crab or blue crab. If you are in New York City, call yourself lucky as it is possible to just hop straight to Fatty Crab from the meat packing district and order this dish. Chef Zak Pelaccio’s serves a Malaysian-style chili crab at his restaurant.
Feast your eyes now with my pictures, but I hope you get a chance to try this chili crab recipe. Please take note that this chili crab recipe is not Singaporean-style chili crab which is produced with a tomato-based sauce; this is adapted from my family’s chili crab recipe.
What is the easiest—and the most delicious—way to eat crab?
Baked. With a wok.
Plain old and easy wok-baked crab with nothing other than the crab, a little bit of water, and a smoking hot wok— just like my mother applied to make them…(get baked crab recipe after the jump)
I love the simplicity as well as the extravagant wonderful taste of baked crab; the vibrant color of cooked crab, the intense aroma, plus the succulent and natural sweetness of the firm flesh are merely irresistible.
This baked crab Recipe is finest for blue crab or mud crab. Appreciate!
One appetizer that remains popular year after year is CrabRangoon. (In my 1999 poll asking people to name their favorite appetizer, it came in a close second behind Egg Rolls). The sweet, delicate flavor of crab and the crunchy texture of deep-fried wonton make for an intriguing combination.
Many people don’t realize that, despite having the capital city of Burma in its name, crab rangoon isn’t an Asian recipe. While its exact origins are difficult to trace, it may be the creation of a chef at Trader Vic’s, a restaurant chain started by “Trader Vic” Bergeron that became famous for its Polynesian cuisine in the 1950′s. In any event, today Crab Rangoon (occasionally misspelled as Crab Ragoon) is very popular, particularly in eastern states and the Midwest.
Basic Crab Rangoon Ingredients:
The four basic ingredients in Crab Rangoon are crab, cream cheese, green/spring onions, and wonton wrappers. From there, the only limit is your imagination. Even these four ingredients aren’t cast in stone – for example, you could use egg roll wrappers in place of wonton, or substitute cilantro for the green onion.
Seasonings :
Worcestershire sauce, a popular seafood enhancer with its unique mix of tamarind, dark soy sauce, and vinegar, is found in many Crab Rangoon recipes. Another popular flavor combination is sesame oil and dark soy sauce. Many recipes call for fresh garlic, or more rarely, fresh ginger.
How to Cook Crab Rangoon :
When it comes time to cook, traditionally Crab Rangoon is deep-fried. However, if the thought of being near large quantities of hot oil makes you nervous, another option is to bake the filled wonton. Personally, I haven’t had a great deal of success with this method. For baking, I would be tempted to forego the wonton altogether and use a different type of wrapping, such as fillo dough, or even bake the crabmeat filling separately and serve it as a dip with baked wonton chips.
Of course, you’re moving away from the idea of Crab Rangoon by that point – but here is a Recipe for “baked” crab rangoon – the filling is heated and served as a dip on wonton “chips.”
If you do decide to try baking filled wonton wrappers instead of deep-frying, use a nonstick baking sheet and brush the tops of the wontons with sesame oil. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12 minutes or until the Rangoon is golden brown.
Sauces to Accompany Crab Rangoon:
Finally, there is the matter of a dipping sauce. The sharp bite of Chinese hot mustard works well with Crab Rangoon. Sweet and Sour Sauce is good as well.
Crab Rangoon Cooking Tips:
Use fresh cooked crabmeat if possible. If using canned crabmeat, drain and flake first. Also, remember to work with the drained weight of the crabmeat when figuring out the amount to use.
Most recipes have a slightly higher ratio of cream cheese to crabmeat, but it all comes down to how “cheesy” you like your Crab Rangoon. In the recipe below I use a 1:1 ratio – feel free to adjust the proportions.
Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature before using.
If the filling is leaking out of the wrapper, try sealing the wonton with egg white or a water/cornstarch mixture instead of plain water.
Some Crab Rangoon recipes include Chinese vegetables such as bok choy and water chestnuts. I would go sparingly on the extras – this is one of those recipes where “less is more.”
Crab Rangoon Recipe:
Crab Rangoon Recipe
Yield: 44 – 48 Crab Rangoon
Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces fresh crab meat or canned crab meat, drained and flaked
1/2 teaspoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper, to taste
1 – 1 1/2 green onions, finely sliced
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon red onion, chopped
1 package wonton wrappers
1 small bowl filled with water for wetting wontons
Oil for deep-frying
Directions:
Combine the crab and the cream cheese. Mix in the remaining filling ingredients one at a time.
On a flat surface, lay out a wonton wrapper in front of you so that it forms a diamond shape. Wet the edges of the wonton.
Add a heaping teaspoon of filling to the middle, and spread it out toward the left and right points of the diamond so that it forms a log or rectangular shape (otherwise the wrapper may break in the middle during deep-frying).
Fold over the edges of the wrapper so that it forms a triangle shape. Seal the edges, adding more water if needed.
Cover the completed Crab Rangoon with a damp towel to prevent them from drying out while preparing the rest.
Heat wok and add oil for deep-frying. When oil is ready (the temperature should be between 360 – 375 degrees), carefully slide in the Crab Rangoon, taking care not to overcrowd the wok. Deep-fry until they are golden brown, about 3 minutes, turning once. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Cool and serve.
(To make ahead: The filling can be prepared up to a day ahead of time and stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator, or the wontons can be filled and refrigerated up to one day ahead of time before cooking. The wontons can also be prepared up to the deep-frying stage and frozen for up to 3 months. Cook the frozen wonton according to the instructions above, adding a few minutes to the cooking time).
