Delicious crabs

Crabs are 10-legged animals that walk sideways. There are almost 5,000 different species of crabs; about 4,500 are true crabs, plus about 500 are hermit crabs (hermit crabs don't have a very hard shell and use other animals' old shells for protection). Most crabs live in the oceans, but many, like the robber crab, live on land.A growing list of king crab recipes including main dishes, appetizers, dips, salads, soups, and other crab recipes.

Butter Crabs

• 2kg crabs

• A little cornflour

• Enough oil for deep-frying

• 5 egg yolks

• 1 tbsp evaporated milk

• 6 tbsp butter

• 10 bird’s eye chillies, crushed

• 2 stalks curry leaves

• 1 tsp sugar

• ¾ tsp salt

Cut crabs into halves. Clean well and crack the claws. Sprinkle a little cornflour over the crabs and deep-fry in hot oil until the crabs turn red. Dish out and drain from oil.

Combine evaporated milk and egg yolks and mix well. Put butter in a wok and melt over medium heat. Pour the egg yolk mixture gradually into the melted butter at a height, allowing it to drip in a steady stream. Stir constantly to fry the egg yolk mixture until it forms fine shreds. Add the curry leaves and bird’s eye chillies. Stir-fry until fragrant.

Return the crabs to the egg mixture. Season with sugar and salt. Stir well to mix. Pour into a metal sieve to drain off excess melted butter or the oil. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

There are several reasons for this:

(a) Overcreaming of butter, sugar and eggs and too much baking powder.

(b) Too much liquid is used.

(c) The cake is removed from the oven before it is properly set and baked.

(d) The cake is cooked in an oven that is not hot enough.

(e) The oven door is slammed.

Tasty: Try making steamboat stock from the recipe given.

Here’s a simple steamboat stock.

Steamboat Stock

• 2kg chicken bones and carcasses, cleaned and chopped

• 30g dried sole of fish (peen yi

• 500g yam bean(sengkuang), chopped

• 2 thin slices ginger

• 1 tsp chicken stock granules

• 1 tsp white peppercorns

• 3 litres water

• Salt to taste

• ½-1 tsp chicken stock granules

Bring water to a boil, add chicken, dried sole of fish, yam bean, ginger and peppercorns. Simmer over low heat for 2-3 hours. Strain the stock and add salt to taste, and chicken stock granules.

Here’s the recipe.

Sesame Seed Muruku

• 300g rice flour

• 50g black gram flour

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp ajowan seeds (oman)

• 10-15g sesame seeds, pan-fried

• 30g butter or margarine, softened at room temperature

• 560ml coconut milk (from 1 grated coconut)

Sift rice flour and black gram flour into a non-stick frying-pan. Fry over a gentle low heat for 4-5 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent flours from burning or getting brown. Remove and leave overnight, preferably, to cool completely.

Put prepared flours into a mixing bowl and add salt, cumin, ajowan seeds and sesame seeds. Mix in butter or margarine and gradually pour in enough coconut milk to mix into a stiff dough.

Put enough dough into a muruku mould fitted with a star nozzle and pipe into spirals, starting from the centre, onto square pieces of greaseproof paper.

Lightly press the tail end of the dough against the side of the coil of dough (this is done to prevent the muruku from uncoiling or getting out of shape during frying.)

Once all the dough is used up, heat enough oil in a wok until just hot but not smoking. Slide in the muruku dough and fry over medium heat until golden brown and crispy.

Remove and drain muruku on several layers of kitchen paper.

Store in an airtight container when cool.