Hong Kong Typhoon Shelter Crab (Bifengtang Chao Xie, 避風塘炒蟹 )

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typhoon shelter crab

A Cantonese Classic Worthy of a Feast

Typhoon shelter crab (bìfēngtáng chǎo xiè, 避風塘炒蟹 ), a Hong Kong classic, is  a consummate party centerpiece, perfect for Chinese New Year. The dish is made up of a crab that has been butchered into shaggy pieces, tossed in starch, deep fried and, finally, stir-fried with a deluge of fried garlic. Yes, there is a lot of frying here (four frying steps in total), so this is truly a special occasion dish.

All that frying, however, does NOT mean you end up with a grease bomb. In fact, excavating spicy-savory pieces of cracked crab from a mountain of crispy garlic is an experience not unlike digging into really great Lazi Ji 辣子鸡 (Chongqing Chicken with Chilies), in which chicken and dried chilies are both traditionally deep fried before stir-fried together. Both dishes are a balance of smoky wok hei, umami and spice. Both dishes are meant to stretch a dear protein and give the diner an irresistible fried condiment to 下饭 (xiàfàn), “send the rice down.” And both dishes, done well, have an addictive lightness.

The Origins of Typhoon Shelter Crab

At Hong Kong’s two keepers of the typhoon shelter flame, Under Bridge Spicy Crab in Wan Chai and the wondrous floating sampan restaurant Shun Kee in Causeway Bay, the waiters bring you disposable plastic gloves before any food hits the table, because no one is there to mess around. These restaurants represent the remnants of the city’s boat culture, which once saw a whole population of people living on and by the rhythms of the South China Sea—making a living fishing, and tying up together in protected nooks of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (so-called typhoon shelters) when storms set in.

Many of the best dishes anywhere in the world come from workers cooking for other workers, and so it is with typhoon shelter cooking, which is its own genre within Cantonese cuisine. Some boats served as restaurants to this poor population, which had access to seafood but perhaps not a lot of fresh terrestrial ingredients. Indeed, there are elements to this dish—dried chilies, fermented black beans, ample spice—that hint at a reliance on preservation. It’s a marked contrast from the delicate, savory notes typical to Cantonese dishes. 

Typhoon season in Hong Kong is summer, but typhoon shelter crab works whenever one has occasion to feast, messily. It’s hunker-down food, rub elbows food, cover-the-table-with-shells-and-throw-away-the-tablecloth food.

Dungeness crab, caught off the west coast of the US, is ideal for this dish

Why Use Dungeness Crab?

Like ginger scallion lobster, I firmly believe that typhoon shelter crab—which is made with mud crabs in Hong Kong (Scylla serrata)—is much improved by the flavor of North America’s cold-water crustaceans, and Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister), is unbeatable. Besides, there is something so dramatic about a whole Dungeness carapace crowning a plate. That said, feel free to use any crab you like, since even the more humble species are greatly improved by all the seasonings in this dish. Another great substitution: shell-on prawns. And please, use live shellfish if you can find it—Cantonese seafood cookery is characterized by freshness above all else. (That said, even chicken wings would work in this recipe for the seafood averse.) One Dungeness crab, plus rice, will feed two people.

Butchering the Crab

If you do use live Dungeness crab for this recipe you will have to butcher it live. Don’t worry, it’s straightforward (and easy compared to lobster!):

  • Store live crabs in the crisper unencumbered by any packaging until you are ready. They can live a few days this way, and the cold makes them less active. 
  • Set up your butchering station: a sturdy cutting board with a towel underneath, a sharp Western-style chef’s knife, and heavy duty kitchen scissors.
  • Slip your knife into the seam at the bottom edge of the crab where its top shell meets its body, and pry off the top shell; you may find it easier to use your hands once you get an opening. This kills the crab quickly and decisively. 
  • Use your scissors to snip off the feathery exposed gills.
  • Using your hands, remove the tail flap—that’s the part curling up the underside of the crab’s abdomen.
  • Cut the crab lengthwise down the middle of its body, so that you have two halves, then cut each half in half again, cutting crosswise.
  • Next, twist off the claws and use the scissors to cut off the sharp points of each leg. You should be left with four sections of crab body, each with two legs attached. 
  • For this recipe, you’ll use all parts: body and legs, claws, and the top shell with its tomalley. The only parts you’re discarding are the gills, the leg points, and the tail flap.
Discard only the gills, leg tips, and tail flap—everything else goes into the dish

Typhoon Shelter Crab the Restaurant Way—Tips & Tricks

This recipe is written in two components, “prep” and “pickup,” in keeping with how a restaurant would approach this dish. Prep is everything up until the final stir-fry, which is the pickup. Prep can be done up to a day in advance, and pickup should take no more than 10 minutes. Separating the steps this way makes the process more approachable and gives you time to get your other party dishes on the table.

  • When butchering the crab, remove the leg tips so that flavor can penetrate through both ends of the legs.
  • I recommend using a food processor to mince the garlic. It’s the fastest option, and using a garlic crusher expels too much juice. If you don’t have a food processor, don’t sweat it; a restaurant cook in China would just use a cleaver and the rocking technique
  • The amount of garlic and breadcrumbs given here are MINIMUMS. Feel free to use a whole tub of garlic, which comes out to about two cups once minced and fried. There are no limits here. 
  • The order of frying the ingredients helps build the flavors: the crab goes first, infusing the oil, then the garlic goes next, picking up some of the flavor of the crab. Breadcrumbs come last, so they can soak up all the flavors that came before.
  • Do not skip the sugar when seasoning the garlic and breadcrumb mixture. Fried garlic will have a slightly bitter note even if you don’t burn it, and the sugar is essential in countering that bitterness.
  • If you’re doubling the recipe, make it in batches; two Dungeness crabs will likely be too big for even the biggest home wok. If you’re finding it difficult to stir-fry everything at once, leave the top shell out.
  • Make a huge pot of rice. Trust me.

Prep Steps

Pickup Steps

For more flavorful, celebration-worthy seafood feasts, try my Cantonese Ginger Scallion Lobster (Cong Jiang Chao Longxia, 葱姜炒龙虾), or Taylor’s Dry-Braised Shrimp ft. Crispy Pork (Ganshaoxia, 干烧虾) or Mala Crawfish Boil (Mala Xiaolongxia, 麻辣小龙虾).

Typhoon Shelter Crab (Bifengtang Chao Xie, 避風塘炒蟹 )

By: Zoe Yang and Iris Zhao

Ingredients 

For Frying the Crab

  • 1 whole Dungeness crab
  • ½ cup potato starch or cornstarch for coating
  • 3 cups neutral oil for frying

For the Garlic Topping

  • 1 cup minced garlic
  • 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon white sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper

For Pickup

  • 2 scallion whites, minced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5–15 dried Tianjin or zi dan tou chilies (depending on how spicy you want the dish), chopped
  • 2 teaspoons fermented black beans, chopped
  • A few slices of red or green chili peppers, such as jalapenos, for garnish
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ teaspoon white sugar
  • teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
  • ½ teaspoon light soy sauce

Instructions 

Prep

  • Butcher the live crab: Pry open its carapace by inserting a chef’s knife through the slit at the bottom of its body. Set the top shell aside. Use scissors to snip off the feathery gills, and the rubber bands around its claws, and discard them. Remove and discard the abdominal flap, also known as the tail flap, found curling up the underside of its body. Once this piece is removed, you can use your knife to easily section the body lengthwise down the middle. Next, section it again crosswise, so that you have four pieces of meaty crab, each with two legs attached. Finally, twist off the claws and cut off the leg pointy tips with scissors (this will allow the seasoning to penetrate the legs).
  • Spread the potato starch or cornstarch onto a plate, then dust each piece of crab with the starch, focusing on the soft, exposed parts. I like to do this to the top shell as well, because someone will want to suck all the jus out of it.
  • Heat the oil to 375℉ in a wok or a deep pot. Fry the crab, one or two pieces at a time, for one minute on each side, then remove and set it on a rack to drain. Skim off any debris from the oil. Refrigerate the crab until ready for pickup.
  • Let the oil temperature drop to 250℉, then put the minced garlic into a fine mesh strainer and set the strainer in the oil. Since the garlic has so much liquid, the oil temperature will drop and will stay low until nearly all the water is gone. Slowly fry the garlic, stirring gently with a spatula, for about five minutes, until the garlic is foamy and light golden. You’ll know it’s almost done when the temperature of the oil begins climbing again. Remove the garlic from the wok and pour it onto a paper towel to drain; it will keep cooking if you leave it in the strainer.
  • Let the oil come back up to 350℉, then fry the panko breadcrumbs, using the same strainer-in-pot method you used with the garlic, until the breadcrumbs are golden, about two minutes. Remove them from the wok, drain them on paper towels, and mix them with the garlic in a medium bowl.
  • Season your garlicky breadcrumb mixture with the salt, sugar, cayenne pepper and ground Sichuan pepper, using a spoon to toss everything together. Set the mixture aside until ready for pickup.

Pickup

  • Mince the scallion whites and garlic cloves. Chop the dried chilies and the fermented black beans.
  • Heat up 1 tablespoon of neutral oil in a wok on medium heat, then stir-fry scallions and garlic until fragrant and soft, about a minute. Next add dried chilies and black beans and continue stir-frying for another minute to coax out their aromas.
  • Add the crab pieces and continue stir-frying to thoroughly reheat the crab. Add the salt, sugar and ground Sichuan pepper. Lastly, sprinkle the soy sauce around the edge of the wok; the idea is to add just a hint of soy sauce aroma and depth without the liquid soaking into the fried coating. Give everything another minute in the wok for the flavors to meld.
  • Lastly, add the garlic breadcrumb mixture and pepper slices, give the mixture a few quick tosses in the wok, then transfer the crab and the fried garlic mixture to a plate and serve. I like to pile the crab limbs akimbo onto a platter, crown the whole thing with the top shell, then rain the breadcrumbs down on top. Plastic gloves not optional when eating.

Notes

The fastest way to mince the garlic for this recipe is to pulse it in a food processor. (A garlic crusher expels too much juice.) If you don’t have a food processor, don’t sweat it; a restaurant cook in China would just use a cleaver and the rocking technique

Tried this recipe?

About Zoe Yang and Iris Zhao

Zoe Yang is a Brooklyn-based writer and recipe developer. She was born, raised and culinarily trained in Nanjing, China. Iris Zhao, her mother, is a retired schoolteacher living in Boston who immigrated from Nanjing in the ’90s. Iris taught herself how to make a lot of Jiangnan classics—even the difficult ones—from scratch when she landed Stateside, and she passed that love of culinary discovery on to Zoe. Together they are sharing mother-daughter recipes from southeast China for The Mala Market. Zoe’s recipes and writing can also be found on Bon Appetit, TheKitchn.com and her personal site: www.zoeyijingyang.com.

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