Ginger and Scallion Crab with Noodles (薑蔥炒蟹)

I reckon this dish is the most delicious Cantonese stir-fried noodle dish. It’s very popular in Chinese restaurants, yet you might find it quite expensive if the seasonal price of mud crabs is up. If you’re lucky, you can find some at a budget price and cook it yourself at home. How lucky I was the other day and found a giant mud crab at a bargain price. I cooked this dish for my family. Everything in the dish including the sauce was addictively delicious that I didn’t want to waste a bit by licking every finger. You can skip the noodle cooking parts if you only want a stir fried crab dish. It's equally delicious.

Ginger and Scallion Crab with Noodles (Printable recipe)
By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Yield: 2 to 3 serves

Ingredients:

• 1.2 kg mud crab
• 3 Tbsp potato starch
• 1 tsp chicken powder
• 20 gm ginger, shredded
• 3 to 4 spring onion, roughly chopped
• 165 gm e-fu noodles (伊麵)
• 2 tsp Shaoxing wine
• 150 ml chicken stock

Sauce:

• 2 Tbsp water
• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• ½ tsp sugar

Method:

1. Mix potato starch with chicken powder well. Set aside.
2. Rinse the crab well and chop into pieces. Wipe dry with kitchen papers. Lightly coat with potato starch mixture.
3. Heat oil, about ½ inch depth in a wok over medium heat. Test the oil with a pair of wet chopsticks. If many bubbles arise, it means the oil is hot enough. Carefully place the crab pieces in batches and shallow fry until the outside turn orange (Remark: You don’t need to cook through the crab at this stage.) Drain well on kitchen papers to absorb excess oil. Set aside.
4. Blanch the noodles in boiling water, according to the instructions on packaging. Stir to loosen the noodles. Drain out and rinse in cold water. Drain well and set aside.
5. Drain and discard the oil leaving about 2 tablespoons of oil in the wok. Saute half of the ginger and spring onion. Add the noodles and stir to combine and evenly heat. Transfer onto a plate, cover to keep warm.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to sauté the rest of the ginger and spring onion until aromatic. Toss back the crab pieces in the wok. Sprinkle wine. Quickly stir to combine. Add chicken stock and sauce. Cook until the crab pieces are cooked through. Place on top of the noodles. Serve immediately.

Notes：

• The chefs at Chinese restaurants use to deep fry crab briefly before stir-frying with other ingredients. As a home cook, I’d like to use less oil and use shallow frying instead. By doing this, the flavour of the crab will be enhanced and won’t lease too much water in the process of stir frying as a result of thinning the sauce.
• Potato starch can help holding all the delicious sauce on the surface of crab, available at Asian stores.
• Mud crabs are meaty and often used to make this noodle dish traditionally. If you can’t find any live mud crabs, you might like to use other kinds of crabs instead, like blue swimmer crabs.
• To get the best results, stir fry the e-fu noodles beforehand as the noodles will take up the aroma of ginger and spring onion.