Ingredients

• 1kg fresh green (uncooked) blue swimmer crabs

• ½ medium red capsicum, seeds and membranes removed
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 small red onion, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons ginger, julienned (cut into thin sticks)
• 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons salted black beans
• 6 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons malt vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 4 spring onion stems, cut into 6cm lengths
• 3large red chillies cut lengthways, seeds removed
• 2/3 cup chicken stock or water
• 2 bird’s eye chillies, sliced

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Method

1. Place crab on chopping board, top-shell side down, and using a large chef’s knife or cleaver chop entire crab in half, vertically. Cut each half into 4 pieces. Remove and discard hairy bits around shell.

2. Place crab in a shallow heatproof bowl that will fit inside a steamer basket. Place bowl inside steamer and position over a deep saucepan or wok of boiling water; steam, covered, for 7-8 minutes or until cooked (the flesh should be white rather than translucent).

3. For black bean & chilli sauce, cut capsicum into 1.5cm strips, then cut each strip into squares. Heat a wok over high heat until hot. Add peanut oil to the hot wok and stir-fry onion, capsicum, ginger, garlic and black beans for 30 seconds, stirring constantly to ensure the beans do not burn.

4. Add shao hsing wine or sherry and stir-fry 1 minute; add sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil, and stir-fry for a further minute.

5. Lastly, add spring onions, red chillies, stock or water and bird’s eye chillies and stir-fry a further 2 minutes. Combine cooked crab with black bean & chilli sauce, mix thoroughly and serve immediately.