Crab hunting and fiesta!

Sunday, my hubby suddenly crazed for crabs, after our afternoon nap, the whole family went out for crab hunting, we went to all the Malay kampung we knew of, from Sungai Batu, Gertak Sanggul to Teluk Tempoyak the effort was futile. Hubby was quite disappointed, so were the kids and myself, we kind of given up hope and actually had planned dinner else where. We took another route back, for Penangnites (from Batu Maung, at the traffic light, turn left where Robert Bosch plant Phase 4 is situated, drive along, at ASE junction turn left, drive along and guess what???

We saw some crabs hanging from a tree branch, with two men chatting lazily near a navy blue Proton Saga and with two big ice boxes. We stopped at the side of the road, could not believe what we saw, quickly crossed over the other side of the road and were delighted by the many crabs choices in front of us (me and hubby, the kids and mom in-law were in the car due to drizzling outside). Our saliva were coming out, I can imagine hot and sour red crabs in front of me……. am I dreaming?? The man introduced us to the crabs, one box were the males and the other were the females, according to him female crabs were nicer, we bought 2 pairs which equivalent to a kilo and cost us RM27.00 nia…. Last week we went to Batu Kawan for seafood with our friends and the crab cost us RM60.00 (6 small size ones!)

Reached home, operasi membunuh ketam (crabs killing session) starts! My mom in-law took a chopstick, pierced at the center of the crab and the crab was restless and “mati”, I took my big chopping knife, aimed at the center and mom in-law knocked it with a wooden “penggelek”, the crab was chopped into half, remove the shells and cleaned them. I decided to steam two (for the kids) and stir fried the other (with hot and sour sauce!).

Hmm….. delicious simply electrifying and satisfying………….. the kids love them but mom in-law don’t actually fancy crabs, very “mah fan”… we “wallop” everything…



Steam crabs
a) 2 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine or XO
b) A few slices of ginger
c) 3 small cloves of garlic
d) The crab of course!
e) Dash of soya sause and some pepper when served

Pour (a) – (c) onto (d) and steam for 10 minutes, removed and put in (e),serve immediately



Hot and sour crabs
f) 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
g) 3 tablespoon of chili sause and 3 tablespoon of tomato sauce
h) 1 tablespoon of sugar, dash of soya sauce
i) The crabs
j) 1 egg beaten
k) Mix (g) to (h)

Put 3 tablespoon of oil in a wok, fry (f) until fragrant, put in (i), stir until crab turn into reddish color, put in (k), stir well, lastly put in (j), stir well, dish our and serve immediately. I cooked both dishes together and we ate with “yau choy” (boiled lettuce in garlic oil). Talked about high cholesterol, I'm guilty!! that's why yesterday (Monday) went gym with a friend. He he he.