Singaporean Black Pepper Crabs

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons kecap manis
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons caster sugar
2 kg mud crabs
1 1/2 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 -2 red chilli, finely chopped, optional
1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
2 spring onions, finely chopped, optional
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander, optional

1.  Clean, put the crabs to sleep and cook.  Follow steps 1 to 10 here.
2.  Prepare sauce mixture: mix kecap manis, oyster sauce, sugar and 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl, stir, then set aside.  
3.  Heat oil in wok, add the butter, ginger, garlic, chilli, black and white peppers and coriander; stir fry for 30 seconds.
4.  Add the sauce mixture and stir; bring to a boil, then simmer 2 minutes.
5.  Add in the cooked crabs, toss to coat the sauce for 2 minutes.
6.  Remove from fire and transfer to a serving plate.  Garnish with spring onions and coriander.  

Crab and Sotanghon

Ingredients:

1 package of Sotanghon (clear vermicelli/mung beans noodles )
4 mud crabs cut in 4
4 cups of chicken stock (with 2 chicken bouillon)
1/2 cup of green onions
1 head of garlic chopped (1tbsp)
1 thumb size of ginger chopped (2-3 tbsp)

3 tbsp sliced shallots
3 tbsp oyster sauce
4 tbsp kikoman soy sauce

1 tsp sugar
1 package of spinach
1 cup of dry black chinese mushroom (cut very thin)

2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp regular oil
Salt

Pepper

1.  Soak dry sotanghon in warm water until soft, then drain. 

2.  Put crabs to sleep, clean crabs and cut into 4 large pieces.  See this link how to put crabs into sleep.

3.  Heat up a pan and oil and when it is smoking, saute ginger, garlic, shallots and mushroom and stir briskly. 

4.  Add the crab pieces and toss for a minute or two, on high heat.

5.  Add stock 

6.  Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar.  

7.  Add the noodles and cook until soft and liquid has been sucked into the noodle and brings flavor, for about 10 minutes. 

8.  Add some chopped spinach and cook a minute longer.

9.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  

10. Add sesame oil.

Lemon Butter Garlic Shrimp

A trip to El Nido won't be complete without a serving of lemon butter garlic shrimp from local seafood restaurants.  How do they make it sweet and tangy?  I bumped into this recipe from panlasangpinoy.com  tweaked it to taste and voila!  It was a finger licking, shrimp sucking feast.

Ingredients:

1 kg medium sized shrimps

200ml lemon soda (sprite)

1/2c butter

2 bulbs of garlic, finely chopped

Salt

Pepper

Chopped parsely

1. Clean shrimps, devein.

2. Soak in lemon soda for about 10 minutes.

3. Heat pan, melt butter, add a tsp of oil to avoid burning.

4. Saute chopped garlic until light brown.

5. Add the shrimps, avoid mixing too frequently, let it cook one side at a time until light orange in color.

6. Add the used lemon soda, simmer to reduce to desired consistency.

7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

8. Add chopped parsely.

9. Remive from fire and transfer to a serving plate.