Crab Noodles
February 2nd, 2010 | Chinese New Year, Chinese, Chinese Recipes | 17 Comments
Noodles are commonly served at Chinese New Year dinner, after all, Chinese live on rice and noodles. If not steamed rice, there is always a noodle dish to go with all the fabulous dishes prepared for Chinese New Year. In Malaysia, whenever my family celebrates Chinese festivities, we would always make a big serving of noodle dish—either egg noodles or fried vermicelli—as one of the prayer offerings to our ancestors. Other noodle dishes which are popular at restaurants are lobster yee mein and chow mein.
For the upcoming Chinese/Lunar New Year, I thought I would share a new recipe—crab noodles made of cellophane noodles (also known as mung bean threads, bean threads, glass noodles, or 冬粉 /tanghoon) and crab meat, with bean sprouts, sliced onions, eggs, and chopped scallions. The great thing about this crab noodles recipe is that you can serve it for Chinese New Year or Vietnamese Tet. It’s always good to try out something new for a change. I love the taste and presentation, and it’s sure to impress your family and guests…(get crab noodles recipe after the jump)
I got some frozen crab meat, which is very convenient but the downside is that the crab meat lacks the natural sweet taste. If you have time, you should get fresh crab and pick the flesh yourself. If you have a great seafood market, by all means get lump crab meat. Trust me, it’s worth it to splurge on this recipe.
My crab noodles photos were shot with my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II. As you can see, I am experimenting different food photography styles (mostly because I am practicing for my cookbook). I am really loving the rustic aged wood background—which is the preferred background for many gorgeous food blogs. I even got myself some reclaimed wood boards with different colors and background, I am very excited as I will be using them for my cookbook food photography. Enjoy and don’t forget to check out my other Chinese New Year recipes: ginger and scallion fish, soy sauce chicken, pineapple tarts, and pineapple rolls.
Please stay tuned as I continue to share more Chinese New Year recipes!
Ingredients:
8 oz. mung bean noodles (mung bean threads or cellophane noodles)
4 oz. mung bean sprouts (roots removed if you like)
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
3 oz. picked crab meat
3 stalks scallions (cut into 2-inch lengths)
2 garlic (finely chopped)
1/2 onion (thinly sliced)
4 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
3 dashes white pepper powder
Salt to taste
Method:
Soak the mung bean noodles in warm water for 20 minutes or so until they become soft. Drain with a colander and set aside.
Heat up a wok with 3 tablespoons of cooking oil. When the oil is very hot, add in garlic and onions and stir fry until aromatic. Add the crab meat and stir well. (If you use frozen crab meat, add 1 teaspoon of fish sauce to season the crab meat because frozen crab meat tends to be less flavorful. Skip this step if you use fresh crab meat.)
Add the mung bean noodles into the wok and follow by oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper powder. Stir continuously to blend well. Add mung bean sprouts and do a few quick stirs. Push the noodles to the side of the wok and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil into the wok. Add the beaten eggs and let is cook for about 10 seconds before you push the mung bean noodles to cover the top of the eggs. Let it cook for another few seconds before you flip the noodles over. Gently break the eggs into pieces and blend well with the noodles. Add chopped scallions into the noodles, stir a few times, dish out and serve immediately.
Cook’s Note:
Cellophane noodles have the tendency to clump together if not fried well. Make sure you stir vigorously when cooking. If need to, add a little water to help with the stir-frying process.
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Wow, this crab noodles look absolutely delicious. YUM!
Yay for more Chinese New Year’s ideas! It’s coming up so fast, and I’m trying to think of other creative dishes to make. These look wonderful!
These look fantastic, simple but flavourful.
*Slurp*
Very nice photo, Bee. Yes, the rustic wood coupled with the beautiful, ornate plate is fabulous.
Been scratching my head for a CNY dish. Will shortlist this dish for sure :P
Yes, I like this crab noodles, too. Good luck for CNY cooking. :)
Iam totally loving this Chinese New Years series and this is a new one to me,thanks for sharing.
This reminds me of the shark’s fin fried with crab meat dish that they usually serve as part of a cold platter :) Yummy.
Aiya, was kinda hoping it’ll b a soup dish. M real bad at frying noodles.
What a great idea! Everyone loves crab, especially chinese people! With the cellophane or mung bean noodles though, do you think this will keep (e.g. for an open house type party?)
What do you mean by keep? Like keeping overnight?
Love this recipe Bee!! Keep them coming :)
I am back on Friday :)
Brian
I love crab. I just wish that someone will just do all the dirty work for me
LOL, I know what you mean!
I’m going to try to make this tonight!! Hopefully will be able to find crab meat of some sort…
Good luck!
These are my favorite. I’m doing your previous recipe tomorrow. This will be next, I hope.
Thanks!!