Red Dirt Roaming: Chilli Mud Crabs

Pardoo station delivered once again & we managed to get a feed of 3 mud crabs, enough to do Chilli Crabs, yum!! We have caught a few over the years in Rockhampton but usually just boil them up & have them with some lemon & fresh bread & butter. I am a bit of a cooking show fan so had seen quiet a few versions of chilli mud crab cooked. But as we are camping we had to make do with what we had in the food box. So here's what I came up with & it was delicious. The sauce was a nice balance of sweet, salty, sour & hot. It definitely needed a beer with the finished product as it was spicy.

Chill Mud Crab

Ingredients

Sauce

- 1 condensed tomato soup liquid cup of soup satchet (I had Heinz big red)

- 1 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce

- 2 tablespoons of white vinegar

- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

- 3/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes

- 1/2 teaspoon of all purpose seasoning

- 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

- 1/4 of a finely diced red onion

- 1 garlic clove finely minced

- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

- 1-2 cups of water

Other

- mud crabs

- rice to serve

- flat bread to serve

Directions

Sauce

- in a saucepan heat up the oil on a medium heat.

- fry off the onion & garlic until soft

- add the spices & fry until aromatic

- add in all the sauces, vinegar & soup mix & bring to the boil

- pour in 1 cup of water, allow to thicken & reduce down over a low heat. You might need to add more water as you go. You want the sauce thickened slightly but still runny enough to coat the crab.

- I allowed my sauce to simmer away for about half an hour & added nearly the whole 2 cups of water.

For the crab

- we cleaned the crab & broke it into pieces (the claws off & the head & leg piece in half) & then cracked the claws with pliers so the sauce could penetrate.

- heat a large pot over high heat with a little oil & fry off the crab pieces until they start to turn red.