Chilli and Pepper Crabs - The Best Mud Crabs - The Darwin Crab

It has been a good season for crabs this year.  They are big, good quality and cheaper.  $25.99 a kilo for live mud crabs, from Darwin, my favourite type of crabs.

I like blue swimmers, but mud crabs from Darwin have so much more to offer.  We had the crabs from restaurant, but children were not too keen so we decided that it's probably best to have them at home, we have more time to deal with the shells and all the work involved in eating...

We had the ginger and spring onion crab and the crab fried in egg yolks from the restaurant so this time, decided to do something slightly different.

We normally freeze the crab before taking them into parts, this time, no different.  Less suffering for the crab, easier job for us.

First of all, prepare the tapioca, salt and white pepper mix, for the 1.26kg crab, which has been cleaned and cut into chunks - with legs and craws attached.  Craws were cracked, easier to handle later on at the dinner table, and easier to get a bit of sauce in. 

Dip the crab chunks into the dry mix, seal the exposed parts of the flesh.  Prepare 2 dry chilli, cracked sichuan pepper corn, juvienned fresh ginger and crushed garlic, throw in the hot wok with heated oil, about 1/2 cup.   Put in the crab pieces, turn and let oil seal all tapioca dipped area.  Stir.  Once the crab start to turn a bit red, add light soy, shaoxin wine, and a bit of raw sugar.   Stir the crabs and let it coat with sauce.  When almost ready, put in the spring onion battens. 

A nice fresh Darwin mud crab, doesn't need a lot of cooking, the simpler the better.  The meat is sweet, and the fresh seafood always speaks for itself.