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Chilli crab spaghetti

• Shu Han Lee

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Serves 2 - 3

Easy

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 25 mins

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Make a glossy, umami-rich tomato sauce to coat spaghetti, uplifted with salty seafood depth from both white and brown cooked crab meat

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Try our recipe for chilli crab spaghetti, then try our coconut crab rice, crab salad with cucumber and grapefruit, Grenadian crab back and crab toasts. Now try more crab recipes and find out 10 things we love about Singaporean cuisine.

Recipe extracted from Agak agak: everyday recipes from Singapore by Shu Han Lee (£26, Hardie Grant). Photographs by Ola Smit.

Shu says, "Chilli crab is one of the most iconic dishes of Singapore. The original dish consists of whole mud crabs stir-fried in a sweet, spicy and savoury tomato sauce, then served with deep-fried mantou (Chinese steamed buns). But this dish has continued to evolve, beyond its first invention back in the 1950s. Young chefs have turned this explosive dish into a pasta sauce and you’ll find it served in many modern bistros. Here is my version, using cooked crab meat for ease. I use both white and brown meat – the latter adds a rich seafood depth to the sauce, akin to shrimp paste."

Chilli crab spaghetti recipe

Ingredients

Nutrition

• 4 tbsp olive oil

• 200g spaghetti

• 200g tin finely chopped tomatoes

• 2 tsp taucheo (fermed salted soy beans)

• 1 tsp light brown sugar

• 100g brown crab meat

• 100g white crab meat

• small handful coriander

  finely chopped

REMPAH (SPICE PASTE)

• 1 long shallot

  roughly chopped

• 2 garlic cloves

• thumb-sized piece ginger

  peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 large red chilli

  roughly chopped

• 1 lemongrass stalk

  roughly chopped

• 1 tsp tomato ketchup

Nutrition: per serving (3)

• kcal494
• fat18.7g
• saturates2.7g
• carbs56.3g
• sugars6.6g
• fibre4g
• protein23g
• salt1.8g

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Method

• step 1

  Pound all the rempah ingredients using a pestle and mortar or whizz in a small blender until you get a fine paste – if using a blender, you might need to add 1-2 tbsp of water. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry the paste for 10 mins until fragrant.

• step 2

  Cook the spaghetti in a pot of well-salted water according to the pack instructions until al dente.

• step 3

  Meanwhile, add the tomatoes, taucheo, sugar and ½ tsp of salt to the rempah, and bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, until it thickens. Add the brown crab meat and stir to mix through. Now turn off the heat and fold the white crab meat into the sauce.

• step 4

  Drain the spaghetti, reserving some of the cooking water. Tip the spaghetti into the crab sauce and toss through to make sure the strands are all well coated, adding a splash of pasta water to loosen if needed. Divide between warm bowls and finish with the coriander.

Try more spaghetti recipes.

Authors

Shu Han Lee

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