The holiday season is just around the corner and I wanted to share a special recipe with you: creamy butter crab. Last Christmas, I served creamy butter crab to my friends and family and they couldn’t get enough of it.
Everyone was asking for the secret recipe. Creamy butter crab is a fairly new Malaysian creation and has gotten popular these past few years.
Made popular by King Crab restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, the basic ingredients consist of butter, evaporated milk, bird’s eye chilies, and curry leaves. The curry leaves lend a distinct and exotic flavor and complement the richness of butter and evaporated milk. The bird’s eye chilies add an extra kick to the dish.
I used mud crab for my recipe as they are widely available in Asia and Australia. However, dungeness crab or stone crab would work very well, too.
This holiday season, do try preparing something foreign, exotic and new. Creamy butter crab is served with fried Chinese buns or mantou, so everyone will have a great time sopping up the creamy butter sauce with the fried buns while devouring the crab. I am sure your family, friends and guests will be in for a delicious treat!
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Creamy Butter Crab Recipe
Creamy Butter Crab recipe - The basic ingredients consist of butter, evaporated milk, bird’s eye chilies, and curry leaves.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. mud crab, dungeness crab or stone crab is a great substitute
- 1 1/2 cup evaporated milk
- 1 stick butter
- 1 teaspoon sugar or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 2 stalks curry leaves, you can get the curry leaves at Indian grocery stores
- 5 bird's eye chilies, lightly pounded
- 10 Chinese buns, mantou/馒头
Instructions
-
Clean the crab and cut into pieces. Use paper towels to pat dry the crab. Deep-frying the Chinese buns or mantou to golden brown and set aside. Lay them over paper towels to soak up excess oil. Mix the corn starch with water and set aside. Heat up a wok to medium heat. Melt the butter in the wok before adding the curry leaves and bird's eyes chilies. As soon as you smell the aroma from the curry leaves and bird's eye chilies, add in the crab and stir continuously until the crab starts to turn color. Add the evaporated milk and cover the wok and turn the heat to low. Simmer for about 5 minutes, and then add in corn starch to thicken the creamy butter sauce. Dish out and serve hot and the fried mantou.
Recipe Notes
This recipe is an adaptation of Amy Beh's recipe, courtesy of by my flogger friend Babe in the City KL .
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Rachel
Hello Bee,
Thanks for this lovely recipe – tried it for dinner earlier & it was a hit ! Definitely making this a regular dish for our family meals. Super easy to make too ;-)
Looking forward to trying out your other recipes, especially the coconut shrimp….
Florence
Can I use Sri Lankan crab? which is better mud or Sri Lankan crab?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, you can use Sri Lankan crab.
Gourmet Secrets
Great recipe, also the colors looks amazing and it seems tasty..
Sharon Adelman
I do wish there’s an option to print out these recipes.
Dewi
Tried this out on mum and aunt for lunch today, and it was delicious! I just added more chillies, smashed 2 garlic cloves and some halved shallots to the frying process. Served it with angel hair pasta tossed in evoo with chopped parsley on the side. Thank you for sharing this superb recipe. So easy to cook, but impresses the guests!!
PY
Will it be ok if I’m using King crab instead?
Lala
Hi so i don’t need any oil to cook this? i am thinking of using prawns instead.
Rasa Malaysia
Yeah, just follow the recipe. The butter is already greasy enough so you don’t need oil. Prawn will work just fine but not as great tasting compared to crab.
Sone
You mean got to use up whole piece of butter (taking a regular butter is abt 10cm x 5cm x 5cm)? Isn’t that going to be alot? Will it be too oily?
Rasa Malaysia
Sone – in the US, butter is sold in sticks.
1 stick of butter = 1/4 pound
1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup
1 stick of butter = 8 tablespoons
1 stick of butter = 4 ounces
1 stick of butter = 113 grams
Yvonne
Thanks for specifying! Came here to read comments to see if the weight of butter is specified. My regular stick of butter is 250g.
kenny
I’m a big fan of your web site. Tried several recipes so far and just got done cooking this crab dish while my wife was asleep. She’ll be up in less than an hour for her morning shift and i’m packing her lunch of creamy butter crab…..this ought to get me plenty from the wife. Thank you so much.
Rasa Malaysia
Wow Kenny, your wife is so lucky!
jun
i would like to ask whats the best substitute for curry leaves if its not available. tnx
wm1
Birds eye chilies are way to hot for this recipe. Most are 100,000 plus S units hot. Regular cayenne is about 35,000. Think about it.
Regards, Bill
Juliet Mae Spices
Rasa Malaysia
Bill – this recipe is traditionally made with bird’s eye chilies. If you like it less spicy, you can add in less.
Cima
let me think about it..
oh..um… i think most asians can tolerate bird’s eyes chillies.. i myself can tolerate jalapeno pepper.
ok
what type of crab could i use as a substitute in southern spain?
Rasa Malaysia
Hi there, I am not sure what kind of crab you have in Spain but a bigger crab should work.
Jellz
Whar’s evaporated milk?
Rasa Malaysia
Usually the manufacturers that make sweetened condensed milk also make evaporated milk. You should be able them in any grocery stores.
Zas
hey i just wanna know what is stick butter and bird’s eye chilies
Rasa Malaysia
Zas – stick butter is just regular butter. Bird’s eye chilies are also known as chili padi in Malaysia, just one of the many variation of fresh hot pepper available. You can always substitute with what’s available in your local grocery store. Hottest preferred :)
jin
how much is 1 stick of butter?
Jas
I hv tried this ages ago in Shanghai restaurant in Vancouver..they opt d curry leave & used lots of onion instead..
heidi
omg this looks amazingly good. I’m gonna cook this really, really soon.
allenooi
i like crab but i am not really good at eating it. so i eat less most of the time.
Lori Lynn
Wow. Wonderful. I never use evaporated milk, anxious to try…Photos are so engaging!
Jescel
wow, i can already picture myself licking my fingers after wiping up the whole serving…. looks so yum’o!
xin
wow the crabs look gorgeous! i am drooling like crazy
Joanne
I am the lucky one, I tasted it, yes, the one Rasa Malaysia cooked. I can tell you that it is very tasty, go and try out the recipe now!!!
daphne
I love how red and fresh these crabs looked..and with butter? A sure winner.
Foodista
This looks very easy to make. We’ve done some easy crab recipes at Foodista before and this looks right up our alley! Thanks for posting!
Manger La Ville
This sounds like a new fabulous way to prepare my Dungeness crab. Crab is my favorite and this recipe looks great.
veron
I love mud crabs…they are the tastiest!
Tummythoz
Sadly if I'm to buy live crabs I may just put them on leash & keep as pets. =(
Lucky this dish is easily available around KL. =D
Anonymous
Hi, this is a great new idea for the holidays. My family is always in for a new treat and often experiment new recipes for the holidays. (Yes, turkey and meatloaf are quite boring compared to this!). Last year, we tried some Asian-themed dishes and everyone in the family loved it. Gotta bookmark this. Thank you for this wonderful dish.
Helen @ Seattle
Rasa Malaysia
DocChuck – yes, blue crabs will work fine too, but they are not that meaty. But yes, you can try it out and let me know the results. :)
Janet
Hi, were you able to find the recipe for “crab and mayonnaise” hot dish? This dish is so good and I can’t seem to find it anywhere. There is also this dish made and its called “coconut shrimp”. It uses a small shrimp and they are fried and made crispy. Then they make this thick, white coconut sauce over the shrimp and slightly mix this is another that is so very good. Can you please help me out with these. No one at the buffet speaks English well enough to understand what I want.
Thank you so much
Janet
Rasa Malaysia
I have crab Rangoon recipe here: https://rasamalaysia.com/crab-rangoon/
Coconut Shrimp here: https://rasamalaysia.com/coconut-shrimp/
Not sure if they are what you are looking for. You can use the search bar at the top right of my page to look for recipes.
Marc @ NoRecipes
Oh man those look good! I haven’t had good crab since moving out east, but I may have to make a run to one of the fish markets in Chinatown to look for some now!
babe_kl
hahaha guess what? i havent try the recipe yet, tend to eat this at restaurants :p
DocChuck
Do you think that our Maryland
Chesapeake Blue Crab would work as well?
Food For Tots
This creamy butter sauce goes well with prawn and chicken too. It is my favourite! Can’t wait to grab the crab in KL. Luvly dish!
Salt N Turmeric
The photos are amazing! Loved the color of the crabs.
Manggy
Wowie!!! Just dish out the crab with anything chili and I am THERE! :)
Chocolate Shavings
That looks delicious! I am bookmarking this for the next time I can get my hands on some fresh crab!
ChichaJo
This looks scrumptious! I love these crab dishes but I’m always to scared to make them and I have no idea why! You make it look so simple! :)