I dreamt up this dish on my morning walk to coffee. I wanted to create a dish that looks like a small crab peeking out of dark hard rocks using deep fried soft shell crab tempura. Then I started adding different components to complete it: charcoal sour dough as the dark hard rocks topped with a creamy soft just set scrambled eggs with crab meat, covered with seaweed powder to resemble the moss and to add that umami flavour to the whole dish. A bit of kick from the fresh chilli and chilli mayonnaise, the pops of acidity from the finger lime caviar pearls and a refreshing crunch from the beetroot and coriander salad on the side. It might need a bit of imagination to see the crab peeking out of the rocks, but the whole dish was so yummy and balanced that everything else is forgiven.
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 2 hrs
Serves: 2
Ingredients
Soft Shell Crabs
- 2 soft shell crabs cleaned
- 90g water
- 60g tempura flour
Crab Scrambled Eggs
- 100g crab meat
- 6 eggs
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- pinch of salt
- 4 tbsp butter
Chilli Mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 tbsp Sriracha chilli sauce
- pinch of salt
Seaweed Powder
- 1 sheet of seaweed
Beetroot and Coriander Salad
- 3 small beetroot thinly sliced (I used target beetroot)
- 1 cup of fresh coriander leaves only
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt
Charcoal Sour Dough
- 4 slices
Garnish
- 1 spur red chilli diagonally sliced
- 1 finger lime (can be replaced with lime or lemon juice if no finger lime is available)
Method
1. Make the chilli mayonnaise by mixing the mayonnaise with the chilli sauce and season to taste with salt.
2. Make the seaweed powder by gently toasting the seaweed sheet over a hot toaster (or in a pan) until crispy. Let it cool down before tearing it up into big pieces and blitz into a powder in a food processor.
3. Prepare the scrambled egg by mixing the eggs together with sugar, salt, milk and whisk well, add the crab meat and set aside.
4. Make the salad by adding salt, white wine vinegar, olive oil and beetroot into a small bowl. Mix well and set aside. Add the coriander before serving.
5. Dry the soft shell crabs well with a kitchen towel. Combine the water with the tempura flour, mix well ensuring there are no lumps. Heat up oil in a small frying pot, dip the soft shell crabs in the tempura batter ensuring it's well coated, deep fry until golden brown. Set aside on kitchen towels.
6. Heat 2 tbsp of butter over medium/low heat on a small non-stick pan, add half of the scrambled egg mixture into the pan and gently push the egg mixture towards the middle of the pan until the egg mixture is just set. Take it out of the pan and pour it over a slice of charcoal sour dough. Cook the other portion the same way.
7. Finish the plating by sprinkling the scrambled egg with seaweed powder, sliced chillies, finger lime caviar (or squeeze of lemon or lime juice) and some of the fresh coriander leaves. Top with soft shell crab. Add the chilli mayonnaise to the plate together with the beetroot and coriander salad. Enjoy!
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