Name: Ginger and Scallion Crab
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 2 live or very fresh crabs, about 800 g each; 4 tbsp cornflour; 5 tbsp vegetable oil; 80 g ginger, in fine shreds; 8 garlic cloves, sliced; 10 spring onions, in 4 cm lengths, white and green separated; 2 red chillies, sliced; 3 tbsp Shaoxing wine; 2 tbsp light soy sauce; 1 tbsp oyster sauce; 1 tsp caster sugar; ½ tsp white pepper; 150 ml water; 1 tbsp cornflour, slaked in 2 tbsp water; 1 tsp sesame oil

Ginger and Scallion Crab

Whole crab chopped through the shell, dusted in cornflour, flash-fried and tossed with a mountain of ginger and spring onion. Eaten with fingers and a lot of napkins.

50 min total Serves 4 servings Medium

Don't Make These Mistakes

Cornflour on every cut face or the meat leaks out.

Fry the ginger a full minute before anything else joins it.

The shells go in the wok. That is where the sauce comes from.

Making Ginger and Scallion Crab

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Clean the crabs, remove the top shells and the gills, and chop each body into 4 pieces through the shell. Crack the claws.
Dust all the cut faces in the cornflour.
Heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a large wok until it shimmers and fry the crab pieces, cut side down first, 3 minutes, until the shells turn red. Lift them out.
Add the last tablespoon of oil and fry the ginger 1 minute, until pale and fragrant.
Add the garlic, the white parts of the spring onions and the chilli for 30 seconds.
Return the crab, pour in the wine around the edge of the wok and let it steam for 20 seconds.
Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper and water, cover and cook 4 minutes.
Stir in the slaked cornflour to thicken, add the green parts of the spring onions and the sesame oil, and toss once.
Tip onto a warm platter and serve with finger bowls.

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Why It Works

Dust the cut faces of the crab in cornflour before frying. The exposed meat at each cut would otherwise leak straight into the wok and be lost, and the cornflour seals it in and browns into a light crust. Fry the ginger long enough to lose its raw edge — a full minute, until the shreds go pale and fragrant — and add the spring onion at the very end, because it only needs to wilt. The shells go into the wok too, since most of the flavour in the sauce comes from them.

Storage and Reheating

None. Cook and eat.

If You're Missing Something

Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the red chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.

What to Serve Alongside

Steamed rice
A cold beer
Plenty of napkins

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Vegan Fried Rice.