A lil here, A lil there: Recipes: Chilli crab

My hubby has been hard at work so this dish cooked is my way of showing him my appreciation for all he has done for the family. There's nothing like home cooked food that's cook from the heart filled with love. As the saying goes, 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach'.

As usual, whenever I wanna cook something for the first time, I usually pick up the phone and dial 'Mummy'. Even though I surf for recipes, at the end of the day I will still rely on my mother for recipes that she knows how to cook. I can't say my mom is the world's best cook as there are definitely way better cooks out there but my mother is of course in my world, the best cook. Since I left home some 10 years ago, I appreciate what she cooks for me more and I'm always looking forward to her cooking when I go back home. Though once in a blue moon I'll be ungrateful and start critiquing her cooking. She always say with me calling her so often asking how to cook one thousand and one things, but not once have I cook for her. My excuse is why would I wanna bother to cook for somebody that is way better than me. Lol, the fact is I miss her cooking a lot and going back home is the only time I get to taste her cooking. But I made a vow that I'll start cooking for her in return when she's too old and tired to cook plus I still have a lot to learn. Occasionally I still screw up the recipes. So this is my mother's recipe of Chili Crab. My first attempt at cooking it. Pretty successful, however there's still room for improvement.

Chili Crab
Ingredients:

A (to blend)
5 big red chillies
1 bulb garlic
1 inch ginger

B
2 tablespoons soy bean or tau cheong paste (minced or smooth tau cheong)
1 big red onion (sliced)
2 tomatoes (cut into 6)
2 egg beaten
1 stalk spring onions
3 medium size flower or mud crab
Sugar
Light soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Oil
Water
Corn flour

Method:
1. Blend ingredients A. Add a little water to make the blending easier and smoother. If your tau cheong paste is the coarse tau cheong, blend together with chili paste. Otherwise, there's no need to blend it together.

2. Clean the crab. Peel the shell off, cut crab into half. Separate the pinchers. Set aside.

3. Heat oil, sauté the blend chili paste and the tau cheong paste till aromatic and the oil break. Add in the sliced onion and tomatoes. Stir fry for a few minutes, add in the crab. Stir fry for another 5 minutes to coat the crab.

4. Add about 2 (+/-) cups water. Add in taste like oyster sauce, sugar, salt or light soy sauce. Adjust accordingly. Beat in the egg. To thicken the sauce, mix water and corn flour and gradually pour in till preferred thicken consistency. If the egg has thicken the sauce, you may omit the corn flour. Simmer another 5-10 mins till crab is cooked. Scoop up, garnish with spring onions and salad and serve. Bon appétit.

* Asian cooking usually relies a lot on estimation. So a lot of the times when it comes to tasting, it depends a lot on the individual preferences. The recipe act only as a guideline.