mud crabs from
ntuc supermarket



when i cook black or white pepper crabs, i normally buy the crabs from ntuc supermarket. i find the meat of the crabs fresher, firmer and bulkier than the ones that i buy from sheng siong. each time, i would buy two $13.90/kg mud crabs. you can call them mud crabs, swamp crabs or mangrove crabs. they are all land crabs as opposed to flower crabs.

choose crabs that are lively and move about. they should smell fresh and salty, without any smell of fish and especially not ammonia. never buy crabs that are dead, as the meat goes off really quickly and will most definitely be bad when you cook it.

if you are planning on preparing a crab dish following a recipe, check to see whether it specifies a male or female crab, as some recipes do. it is quite simple to differentiate between a male and female crab. the female crab has a triangle shaped area on the underneath part of the shell.

you are advised to kill the crabs by placing them in the freezer compartment of your fridge or soak them in ice cold water; i do not do that. i murder the crabs. i turn each over and plunge the knife into its body. i will ascertain that they are really dead before i clean the crabs. after cleaning it, i will remove the shell and cut the crab into two parts.

i will smash the pincers before deep frying the crabs in very hot oil.

to cook the sauce, i use oyster sauce, light soya sauce, black soya sauce, sugar, chopped chilli, garlic and ginger. the black pepper is added last.