Ngapali beach chilli crab

Name: Ngapali beach chilli crab
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Burmese
Ingredients: 4 uncooked tropical water crabs, or 8 big cooked crab claws; 3 cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped; 4 kaffir lime leaves; 3 cloves garlic; 6 small shallots, chopped; 8 small green or red chillies, left whole; 4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped; salt; ¼ tsp ground turmeric; 2 tsp each dried chilli flakes and paprika; 1 tsp dried shrimp or 1 tbsp fish sauce; 3-4 tbsp peanut oil; ½ tsp shrimp paste

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

About

White-fleshed crab is wanted here, but if you’re in the wrong place for such tropical water delicacies (blue swimmer crabs or mud crabs, say), use nice fat whole claws instead. I scoffed this nightly on Ngapali Beach, far away in time. Gorgeous.

Ingredients

4 uncooked tropical water crabs, or 8 big cooked crab claws
3 cm piece fresh root ginger, p

Asia
Myanmar (Burma)
Ngapali
Starter
Fish course
Pescatarian
South East Asia
Spicy
Gluten-free

Method

Ask your fishmonger to split the crabs into quarters, and to lightly bash the claws to crack their shells, yet leave the shell intact and on the meat (easily done with a rolling pin at home). In a processor, blast the ginger, garlic and shallots to make a coarse paste. Gently fry the dried chilli flakes, paprika and dried shrimp in the oil until the oil reddens a little. Stir-fry the crabs in t