To get my mind off things that might trigger another ''I-have-to-have-that-lust''.( No ,I'm not talking about shoes anymore!) I deliberately stayed out of the kitchen and end up cleaning the house instead . Hurrah! FF's going to be happy when he gets home, for once .I spent the rest of the aftenoon rearranging photo albums and looking at pictures . Then, I found the album of our previous Singapore holiday and guess what, the sudden creeping, conniving craving takes over! I gave in and started digging out our pantry for things I need for a recipe. Damn! I have to have Singapore Chilli Crab today! Off I went to the biggest shop and pray to Poseidon to grant me some must needed crustaceans. Oho! The god of the marine world showed no mercy, no fresh crabs for you Emily, I could almost hear him bubble merrily under the sea. Sometimes when it rains, it pours. I went to three different grocery shops driving like a woman possessed but I could not find any chillies too. Singapore Chilli Crab without crabs and worst without chillies! Blasphemy!
Along with Hainanese chicken, chili crab is one of Singapore's signature dish. Knowing how much pride and devotion Singaporeans have to these dish, I am a bit apprehensive to show this crabless, chilli-less version . I don't want to bastardize this national dish so please excuse me. Here's my poor imitation of Singapore's much revered specialty, using prawns. I simply have to have this dish today.
Step 1: Make the Chilli sauce
Mix together 1 cup of tomato sauce or tomato ketchup , 3 tbsp. sweet thai chilli sauce ( there goes my chillies!), 1 cup water, lemon juice from 1 lemon, 1 tbsp. brown sugar, few drops of sesame oil and 1 finely chopped seeded chillie peppers if you have. I added 1 tsp. of chili flakes instead. Mix everything together, if you want more fire in it, add more spicy agents. Chillies or chilli flakes. Set aside if you have achieved your preferred taste. It has to be sweet, soury and spicy.
Step 2. Cook everything
Sweat the aromatics. Heat few tbsp. or oil in a wok, sautee 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped until translucent.Add in 3 finely chopped garlic cloves a 1 thumbsized ginger root, also finely chopped. Add in 1 seeded and chopped chilli or 1 tsp. of chilli flakes.
Stir in fresh shrimps. Season with salt and pepper. Stir until prawn turns paprika red. Takes only few minutes.
Add in the chilli sauce. Bring to a boil, covered. The sauce thickens as it cooks. If sauce appears too watery or runny , dissolve 1 tsp. of cornstarch in 3 tbsp. of water and stir in until you achieve the consistency that you want. Season again with salt and pepper if necessary.
Turn the heat off. Beat one egg and the add beaten egg into the pan. Let it set for 30 seconds without stirring then gently fold everything together and tadaaaaah!
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Singapore Chilli Prawn in 10 minutes!
Singapore Chilli Crab is usually eaten with fried Mantou buns. A dough that could be steamed and fried which is used an err utensil for scooping up the sauces and cleaning up one's plate from savory greases. Since finding fried mantou in our local grocery is a common as finding a mud crab in the stream beside our house. I end up buying pretzel bun instead.
Well, what do yah know, it's perfect for scooping too!
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