Ginger Scallion Crab with Ficus Chan of Crab Bellingham
Why this specific dish?:
Growing up in a Chinese family in Vancouver, Canada, on occasion, we would get to go out for a fancy Chinese feast at one of the many high-quality Chinese restaurants in town. One of my favorite foods growing up was crab. The first dish I always think of with crab is Ginger Scallion Crab. It’s a classic Chinese dish; many other types of seafood can be used in substitution of crab including rock fish, shrimp, or lobster.
What’s your background?
I entered my post-secondary studies with the hopes of getting paid to play with fish; I studied renewable resource management. After many years of working in fisheries management and environmental education, I moved to Bellingham to work as a commercial fisherman with my father-in-law who has been a commercial fisherman since the 80’s. I’ve grown the business to include, buying and selling crabs as well as participating in the development of Bellingham’s waterfront and seafood initiatives.
Why do you do what you do for a living?
I work with fish because it has always been a passion of mine to catch, cook and share. I believe in the diverse local resources that can be harvested from the Salish Sea Basin. My hope is to continue developing and providing this resource to our local community.
Why does it matter?
It matters for food security, regional culture development and identity, raised awareness that leads to better stewardship of our immediate land and waters. We have diverse, natural food diversity available to us which most are unaware of, let alone know what to do with. Education and awareness is essential.
What would you like everyone to know about you?
I am continually learning more and new things about the things I work with every day. What I learn, I love to share with anyone who’d like to listen.
CHINESE FOOD FACT: Chinese food is cooked to share and eat family style. It is not normal for a Chinese person to buy or order a whole crab meal to eat for oneself. A Chinese meal is made up of a dish or more served with rice. The word for side dish or food eaten with rice is 餸 which is a Chinese character made up of 2 characters: 食 (eat) and 送 (goes with).
Ginger Scallion Crab
Recipe from Ficus Chan of Crab Bellingham
Ingredients
Frying the crab:
1 large Dungeness crab; cleaned, butchered, washed, cracked
3 tablespoons corn (or potato) starch for dusting the crab (add more liberally as required to coat the crab)
1 cup of frying oil of your choice
Sauce:
2 tablespoons cooking oil (use reserved oil from frying the crab)
6 slices of ginger
1 bunch of green onion - cut cross-wise into 4ths. Separate white from green
3 cloves of garlic - smashed, skins removed
1 shallot – julienned thick
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 cups hot water
Corn slurry – 1 tablespoon corn starch : 2 tablespoons water
Directions:
Butcher crab and break down into manageable segments
Dust crab with corn starch until full coated
Place wok or small pot on high heat, add 1 cup of oil and bring heat up to about 370F or when the bubbles form around a chopstick placed in the oil.
Add crab to hot oil (~370F) and fry in batches for about 40 to 50 seconds, or until golden brown.
Strain and remove crab from oil and set aside. Reserve oil for other dishes.
Heat a clean wok and add about 2 tablespoons of reserved oil for 20 to 30 seconds
Add ginger slices, stir for 20 seconds
Add smashed garlic and the scallion whites and stir fry for about 30 seconds
Return fried crab to wok and stir fry for about 20 seconds.
Drizzle 2 tablespoons of cooking wine and stir
Add 1.5 cups of boiling water and the sauce mixture and stir to mix
Cover with lid and let cook for 1 minute
Stir in starch slurry
Toss in scallion greens
Add a tablespoon of sesame oil and 1 more tablespoon of reserved cooking oil
Plate on noodles. Best noodles to sue for this dish is Yee Mein 伊面 , but if you can’t find that, fresh wonton noodles can be used.