SINGAPORE CHILLI CRAB

      Title: SINGAPORE CHILLI CRAB
  Categories: Fish
       Yield: 4 Servings
  
            Stephen Ceideburg
       4    Blue crabs
       3 ts Tamarind pulp
     3/4 c  Boiling water
       2    Chopped onions
       1    Piece fresh ginger, 5 cm
       2    To 3 birdseye chillies
       3    Green onions, chopped
       2 ts Cornflour
       3 tb Oil
       3 ts Sugar
       2 ts Tomato paste
  
   This Singapore dish is a classic and, like all classics, it is superb.
   Serve it with plain rice.
   
   Boil a large pot of water and drop in 4 green blue swimmers. Boil them
   rapidly for 4 minutes then tip the contents of the pot into a
   colander to drain. When cool enough to handle, chop crabs into
   quarters with a cleaver or large knife, leaving legs at- tached to
   body. With a hammer. gently crack the claws and areas of harder shell.
   
   Put 3 teaspoons tamarind pulp to soak in 3/4 cup boiling water.
   Finely chop 2 onions, grate 5 cm piece fresh ginger, finely slice 2-3
   birdseye chillies (or to taste) and chop 3 green (spring) onions. Mix
   2 teaspoons cornflour with a little water.
   
   In a large wok or pan, heat 3 tablespoons of oil and stir- fry onion,
   ginger and 2/3 of the chopped chillies for a couple of minutes. Add
   crab pieces and strained tamarind water, lower heat and simmer for
   3-4 minutes. Lift the crab out onto a serving dish and to the mixture
   in the wok add 3 teaspoons sugar and 2 of tomato paste. Stir, add
   dissolved cornflour and stir again until the mixture thickens. Pour
   over the crab, garnish with the rest of the chillies and the spring
   onions and serve.
   
   From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney Morning Herald,
   5/18/93. Courtesy Mark Herron.
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