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Mala Crawfish Boil (Mala Xiaolongxia, 麻辣小龙虾)

Author: Taylor Holliday | The Mala Market | Inspiration & Ingredients for Sichuan Cooking

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup peanut or canola oil
  • 1 ½ cups dried Sichuan chili peppers 40 grams
  • 1 tablespoon whole red or green Sichuan pepper
  • ½ cup Pixian doubanjiang (chili bean paste)
  • 8 scallions, cut in sections
  • 2 tablespoons ginger, sliced
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Optional additional spices such as caoguo (black cardamom), cassia bark, fennel
  • 2 tablespoons Sichuan preserved mustard greens (yacai)
  • 2 tablespoons douchi (fermented black soybeans)
  • 2 tablespoons Sichuan ground chilies
  • 10 cups chicken stock and/or water
  • 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground Sichuan pepper (see note)
  • salt to taste
  • 4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
  • 2-3 stalks celery including leaves, cut in sections
  • 3 pounds live crawfish

Instructions

  • Add ¼ cup oil to a large soup/stock pot and heat over a low flame. Add chili peppers and whole Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry until fragrant. Add chili bean paste, scallions, ginger, star anise, bay leaf and any additional spices and cook briefly to bring out their aroma. Stir in yacai, preserved black beans and ground chilies.
  • Add the 10 cups stock (or water or combination of the two), turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Add Shaoxing wine, sugar, ground Sichuan pepper and salt and mix well. Add the garlic cloves and celery and, finally, the live crawfish.
  • Boil crawfish for about 3 minutes (or more if they are large). Turn off heat, cover pot and let crawfish soak up the spicy seasoning for about 30 minutes. Fish crawfish out of the water to a serving platter and dig in!

Notes

Ground Sichuan pepper: Sort Sichuan peppercorns and discard any black seeds or twigs. Toast in a dry skillet or toaster oven until pods start to smell very fragrant, but do not brown them. Let peppercorns cool, then grind in a spice grinder or in a mortar & pestle to your desired coarseness. Sift out any yellow husks that don't break down. Sichuan pepper powder will retain its potent flavor and numbing punch for only a few weeks.