I LOVE crabs, cooked in any style. Chilli, black pepper, steamed, deep fried and cold crabs. And I love the nice soft creamy roe even more. Argh… I feel like having some right now.

When I was much younger, mum used to cook chilli crabs at home. The crabs were bought live, killed in the bathroom, chopped up into pieces and cooked immediately. As we grew older, mum didn’t cook live crabs anymore. She probably couldn’t bring herself to kill them. I won’t want to kill the crabs alive, thus I won’t attempt to make any chilli crabs or whatsoever at home. So when I spotted small tiny flower crabs in the market, I brought home half a kg for just $2. Yes, it’s that cheap cos they were small and already dead at the market. The intention was to steam them after dinner as a light supper.

Steamed Flower Crabs with Ginger and Wine
9 small flower crabs
1 to 2 tbsp hua teow wine (花雕酒)
4 to 5 slices of ginger, cut in thin strips

Wash and scrub the flower crabs clean. Prepare the wok for steaming. Bring water to boil. Meanwhile, place half the amount of ginger strips on a plate big enough to hold all the crabs. Then lay the flower crabs on the plate. Add the remaining ginger strips on top. Drizzle hua teow wine all over the crabs. When the water has boiled, put the plate of crabs into the wok and cover. Steam for 10 to 12 mins.

Add a splash of hua teow when you are feeling luxurious. In fact, I use them a lot in my cooking these days. I add some when I marinate my meat, or to add a more intense flavor to my eggs or prawns. You may have seen recipes calling for shaoxing wine(绍兴酒), which is in fact hua teow. Some get confused about which to buy without realizing that they are actually the same wine. Hua teow comes from a place in China, called Shao Xing. That’s precisely why people terms hua teow as shaoxing wine too.

While the flower crabs are steaming, I just stood by the wok, smelling the natural seafood sweetness that filled the whole kitchen. I couldn’t wait to dig in! Haha..

These crabs have thin shell and are easy to break them apart. Although they are small, with only tiny bit of flesh, I still enjoyed eating them cos they tasted really sweet. Other than the above method, you can also fry the flower crabs with chilli, just like the usual chilli crabs. They can also be cooked in soup. But just by simple steaming is really good cos you can taste the natural sweetness of the flesh. When I buy them again the next time, I will get the bigger ones. I’m sure they will have more flesh.