QUICK & SIMPLE CHILLI CRAB PASTA – SINGAPORE NATIONAL DAY INSPIRED DISHES

Hi there

After making the Singapore National Flag inspired cheesecake, I was itching to cook up something savory too, so brainstorming among all the famous dishes, there are this quinessential dish which all tourist must try, and it is Chilli Crab. 🙂

You know how we are guilty to indulge in these tangy spicy sauce with deep fried mantou, it just literally means we can’t get enough of these really tasty sauce. So I decided to cook up this Chilli Crab spaghetti and in a quickest painless way as I have to dedicate more time to play with my little one at home, so this dish can only take me at most 20mins. 🙂

I was comtemplating if I should cook it from scratch, hmm.. I know there is this really simple recipe which just call for half bottle ketchup and half bottle of sweet chilli sauce, some flour and eggs and its done, but I got quite a few bottles in the fridge so I do not want to add in more bottles to leave some room for other sauces. 🙂

So browsing in the supermarket, I found this Hai’s Chilli Crab sauce which looks quite promising, $3 (actually on promotion right now, so only $2.65)  for a pack and you only need spring onions, and one egg. Easy Peasy. You wouldn’t want to slave yourself on National Day right? 😀

 

Next come the crab, as I am cooking pasta, I need not use fresh crabs, I have been eyeing this frozen crab meat from Fairprice for ages, planning to make crab cakes with it as it cost only $3.50 for a pack, cheaper than the tin can versions which can set you back like near $10 to $40 for the same portion. So frozen crab as it is, save all the trouble 😀

I was planning to use my Happycall pan to cook this, but I used it to cook my scrambled eggs for breakfast so I have not washed it, and I choosed a new non stick pan instead, this dish actually is good to use Happycall because you will need to fry the packet sauce in some oil, so closing it will be better. 🙂

Ingredients :

• Hai’s Chilli Crab paste x 1 pack
• Okeanoss frozen crab meat x 1 pack defrost in the fridge
• Garlic x 1 clove finely chopped (optional)
• Vermercilli or Spaghetti x 3 pax portions (penne is good too)
• Spring Onions x 1 stalk, chopped
• Corriander x 1 stalk (optional), chopped
• Tomatoes x 6 if mini tomatoes, if large one, just 1 will be fine, cut halved
• Chillis (optional, if you want it to be fiery, but to me the taste is just fine so I opt it out :))
• Water x 200ml, as the tomatoes will give out quite a bit of juices, I reduced the water used
• Egg x 1 beaten

* please take note I didn’t follow the cooking instructions from the packet sauce, by now you should know I am horrendous in following exactly from the recipes haha… so just a little here and a little there revision. 🙂

Directions :

1. Pour pasta and sieve out the crab meat from the packet, after pasta is boiled, use the same water to dunk the crab meat in it for 2 secs, and sieve it. I dunked the whole small sieve in it, hassle free. 🙂
2. Heat pan with 2 tablespoon of oil and fry the Hans Chilli sauce with garlic  till fragrant, you can see it will darkened and the smell is quite pungent
3. Pour in 100ml of water, and all the tomatoes, covered and let it simmered under low fire until bubbles
4. Scoop in the crab meat and mix it.
5. Pour in the egg mixture, and with a pair of chopsticks, loosen the egg mixture in the chilli crab sauce, sort of slowly twirling it round and round, so that you can get a soft consistency egg mixture.
6. Sprinkle all the chopped spring onions, mixed it with some hot pasta.

I squeeze in a splash of lemon juice before serving, to give it a refreshing twist too. 🙂

And now for the taste test! Wheeee! 🙂

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the Hai’s packet sauce as my mum has tried another product under this brand in the past, but boy was my perception changed after trying it, this is really as close & simple as it gets, the only additional ingredients I added was just 1 clove of garlic, but this sauce has this well balance of robust chilli flavour and tangy ketchup sweetness.

I like it a lot, I kept some of the sauce aside before I put in the pasta, so I will use it to either cook some prawns or squid in it, or even just get myself some mantou to dip & tuck in.

For the Okeanoss frozen crab meat, for $3.50 a pack, the meat comes in various chunks of flower crabs, for sure you won’t get the king crab or Sri lanka crabs, I made a comparison in the supermarket, if I were to use a tin can of king crabs, it will cost a whopping $39.90, compared to this $3.50 pack.

wow, that’s a whole lot of damage done to my wallet if I stick to king crab, besides, this dish has such strong flavoured, it will be waste to use very good crab meat chunks with it, you kind of want the flavour not technically the texture of it. 🙂 All things all, I do find small pieces of crab shell in it, but who am I kidding, even if I were to eat fresh crab, I will still be jamming some crab shells in my teeth, so this is nothing to me. 🙂 Next time I will still get this to make my crab cakes.

This is one dish which is so easy to cook and require so little time so that you can truly enjoy your National Day parade with your plate of Chilli Crab pasta on the side. 🙂 All it takes is just 20 mins or less, isn’t this something you can try it out now. 🙂

Happy National Day Celebration!

QUICK & SIMPLE PASTA RECEIPES : CHILLI CRAB PASTA NATIONAL DAY INSPIRED RECIPES

PRODUCT REVIEWS : HAI’S CHILLI CRAB SAUCE MIX

Price : $3 per pack from Fairprice supermarket

PRODUCT REVIEWS : OKEANOSS FROZEN FLOWER CRAB MEAT

Price : $3.50 per pack from Fairprice supermarket

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Cheers,

Dawn