Salt and pepper crab

This classic Chinese crab dish is all about simplicity and contrast — crisp, dry, and deeply savoury with the subtle heat of five spice, white pepper, and Szechuan pepper. It’s best eaten with your hands, which is really the only way to enjoy crab like this properly. The dish is perfectly balanced with a side of tender, juicy bok choy that soaks up all the flavour.

Salt and pepper crab. Credit: Rick Stein's Australia

• serves

  4-6

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying + 1 tbsp extra
• 2 x 400 g cooked blue swimmer crabs (or brown crab, see Note)
• 200 g cornflour
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 shallots, peeled and sliced
• 4 garlic cloves peeled and sliced
• 5 cm piece ginger, peeled and chopped
• 3 spring onions cut into 2cm lengths
• 3 long red chillies (Cayenne), thinly sliced diagonally

Salt and pepper seasoning

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white peppercorns
• ½ tsp Szechuan peppercorns
• ½ tsp five spice powder
• ¼ tsp msg
• ½ tsp white sugar

Blanched bok choy with oyster sauce

• 2 bunches bok choy, halved lengthways and washed well
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil

Serves: 4-6 as part of a yum cha menu

Instructions

1. Put 1 litre of vegetable oil in a 24 cm heavy based pan and heat to 180°C.
2. Put a large pan of water onto boil for the bok choy .
3. Put the salt and pepper ingredients in a mortar and crush using a pestle or use a spice grinder.
4. Meanwhile, to prepare the blue swimmer crab (or brown crab) you'll need to remove the top shell, stick your thumb under the shell, pull it up and off or prize it off with a knife. Discard.
5. Remove the gills (they look like feathers) and the stomach (a small sac just behind the eyes). You can then cut each crab into four sections and crack the claws for easier access to the meat.
6. Put the cornflour in a large shallow bowl and thoroughly coat the pieces of crab in cornflour, pressing in well.
7. Deep fry the crab in the hot oil, in batches for 2-3 mins or until crisp.
8. Put 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a hot wok and stir fry the shallots, garlic, ginger, spring onion and chillies with the salt and pepper seasoning until just beginning to colour. Add the fried crab and toss well. Transfer to a large serving platter.
9. Blanch the bok choy in the pan of boiling water for 2-3 mins or until almost tender. Remove to paper towel then transfer to a large serving platter and drizzle with oyster sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Note

If you're making this dish in the UK, swap out blue swimmer crabs for local brown crabs.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.