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Remember that scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts was trying to devour her escargot and it flew across the table?
I had that exact “Pretty Woman” moment–a disgraceful and embarrassing one I must say–at a Chinese restaurant recently. It was a plate of mouth-watering ginger and scallion crab, and the character in play was a succulent crab claw, the last one remaining.
The culprit was a crab cracker. Being my clumsy self, coupled with the sin of gluttony, my crab claw flew across the table and landed on the carpet at a sad and dark corner of the restaurant. And there was no waiter to catch it for me!
Throughout the dinner, I kept looking down at the poor crab claw that I almost had in my mouth. It was a huge and beautiful crab claw. The shell was perfectly cracked and revealed the juicy meat inside. Drool…mmmm….I was this close to eating that crab claw. Darn it.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Enjoy Dungeness crab with these crab recipes on Rasa Malaysia:
- Roasted crab with butter and black pepper
- My mom’s famous chili crab
- Black Pepper Crab – A Malaysian and Singaporean favorite
Chinese Ginger and Scallion Crab
When I was grocery shopping today and saw that Dungeness crab was on sale for $3.99 per pound, I knew exactly what I was going to make–ginger and scallion crab.
If you’ve been to a real Chinese restaurants in the United States, I am sure you are familiar with ginger and scallion crab (姜葱蟹).
Crabs are mostly prepared two ways in these Chinese restaurants: ginger and scallion or salt and pepper crab. Personally, I love the wok-hei infused ginger and scallion crab.
In my opinion, ginger and scallion are perfect matches made for Chinese stir-fry dishes–be it seafood or meat. (Previously on Rasa Malaysia, I had dished up ginger and scallion chicken.)
Ingredients for Ginger and Scallion Crab Sauce
This easy recipe requires just a few simple ingredients to create the sauce:
- Oyster Sauce
- White Pepper Powder
- Sesame Oil
- Sugar
- Water
- Corn Starch
- Fish Sauce
That’s it!
Eating out, ginger and scallion crab is rather pricey but I spend less than $6 making it at home. If you think that ginger and scallion crab is one of those dishes that is better served at Chinese restaurants, think twice. The recipe is very easy and takes only a few basic ingredients.
As for me, not only did I have my fix of ginger and scallion crab, I had two crab claws all to myself. And no, they didn’t fly across the table this time. ;)
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 68 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Ginger and Scallion Crab
Ingredients
- 1 crab (about 1 1/2 - 2 pounds (0.6 kg-1 kg))
- 2 inches ginger (peeled and sliced into 10-12 pieces)
- 3 stalks scallion (cut into 2-inch length (5 cm))
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch for frying
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- oil for deep frying
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 2 dashes white pepper powder
- 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 6 tablespoons water
- 3/4 teaspoon corn starch
- 1/8 teaspoon fish sauce
Instructions
- Mix the sauce and set aside.
- Clean the crab and cut into pieces. Pat dry with paper towels and put into a big bowl. Add the corn starch to the bowl and lightly coat the crab pieces with it. Heat up a wok and add cooking oil.
- When the oil is heated, drop the crab pieces and deep fry. As soon as they turn red, dish out, strain the excess oil and set aside.
- Heat up a wok and add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Add the ginger and stir-fry until aromatic. Put the crab pieces into the wok and quickly stir a few times before adding the sauce.
- Add the chopped scallions, toss the crab in the wok a few times until well coated with the sauce, dish out and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
I’ve made this so many times now!! My boyfriend loves it. He helps me clean, cut, and fry the crab now. Now we make it for our family and they all love it. I add extra ginger and green scallion because we love it. Now I also add regular onion and jalepeno as well. Thank you for this easy and delicious recipe!! Better than crabs served at restaurants and cheaper too!! :)
Corn starch is mentioned in two different places for the ingredients and the sauce, yet corn flour is mentioned in Paragraph 2 of the recipe. Is it supposed to be both corn starch and corn flour, or just corn starch?
Corn starch.
Can you use steamed crabs?
Yes you can but won’t be as good. You should use raw crab.
Wondering if the recipe can be adapted to use frozen crab claws instead? Thank you!
Yes.
Really good. Changes I made were adding sherry 50/50 for sauce water. Plus 3 cloves sliced garlic cloves. No need for deep fryer. I used two woks.
Yummy!