Detailed Recipe and Cooking Techniques for Crab with Fish Maw

Cuisine: Anhui cuisine

Ingredients

Live crab...750 g, soy sauce...5 g, mandarin fish meat...200 g, white pepper powder...5 g, oil-puffed fish maw...50 g, edible alkali...5 g, chopped scallions...5 g, dry starch...10 g, chopped ginger...5 g, wet starch...3 g, cilantro...50 g, chicken broth...100 g, refined salt...5 g, lard...15 g

Preparation:

1. Wash the crab, steam until cooked, rinse briefly, and pick out the crab meat (set the crab legs and crab roe aside). Chop the cilantro.

2. Mince the mandarin fish meat into a paste, add the scallions, chopped ginger, 3 g salt and 200 g water, and mix with the crab meat, stirring until it becomes a firm filling.

3. Soak the oil-puffed fish maw in warm water until soft, place in warm water with 5 g alkali, and while washing squeeze out the floating oil, then change to warm water and wash two or three times; after the alkali taste is washed away, squeeze out the water, slice each piece into two, cut into diamond-shaped pieces about 4 cm, lay flat on the work surface, and sprinkle evenly with dry starch.

4. Take 1 portion of the fish filling and place it on the fish maw, put the crab legs and crab roe on the filling, sprinkle 1 small pinch of chopped cilantro on each of the left and right tips of the diamond shape, then gently press once. Do this with each fish maw piece one by one and arrange on a plate, then steam over high heat for about 5 minutes and remove.

5. Place the wok over high heat, pour in the original broth from steaming the fish maw, add the chicken broth, soy sauce, vinegar and salt, thicken with wet starch diluted with water, drizzle with lard, remove from the heat and pour over the fish maw, then sprinkle with white pepper powder and serve.

Note:

Be sure to use catfish maw and Anhui hairy crab to bring out the distinctive Hui flavor. As the saying goes: when crab is served at the table, a hundred flavors seem bland; this dish is supreme in freshness under heaven.

Features:

The Anhui section of the Yangtze River produces catfish, whose flesh is mild and fine and whose swim bladder is thick and fat; dried into fish maw, it is pale yellow, thick with gelatin, and very tough, making it a precious aquatic ingredient. Paired with Anhui's famous large white hairy crab, it gathers the treasures of river freshness; crab meat and crab roe are placed on the fish maw, and with the added ingredients they combine into five colors: yellow, white, orange-red, black and green. The fish maw absorbs the flavors of crab and fish, and is extremely delicious; it is a traditional famous dish along the river.