Deep-Fried Mud Crab (Alimango) a la Marketman

I don’t think I have ever posted a recipe for deep-fried crab before… it seems like too much effort for the results, particularly if you are averse to deep frying and you don’t want to waste a lot of oil. But it just so happened we had fresh crabs when we had the wok filled with fat for another deep-fried dish, so I went ahead and fried these crabs to delicious results.

Simply clean your alimango, removing the gills and gunk, rinsing the shells well. Split the body in half and dismember the claws. Smash the claws a bit so hot fat can get to the meat within. Dry the shells with paper towels. Beat 1-2 egg whites until frothy and dip the crab pieces in the egg white and sprinkle liberally salt, freshly cracked black pepper and lots and lots of Wondra flour. Use all purpose flour or cornstarch if you don’t have Wondra. I didn’t use egg white in the crab photographed above, hence the lack of fried coating on the shells…

Carefully put the crab pieces and shells into HOT vegetable fat, and step back for a minute or so while it lets off an incredible amount of steam and splatter. We fry things like this outdoors, to prevent a pain in the #@!$ mess in the kitchen and reduce after smells. We removed the crab pieces after about 90 seconds or so and drained them on some paper towels.

Serve immediately with a butter lemon sauce or if you are like me, I love a good vinegar dip with my crab. This crab was incredibly tender and sweet, and still very moist despite the deep fry. I guess the bath in the hot oil was really just enough to crisp the shells and cartilage, but left most of the meat just barely cooked and succulent and tasty. A really easy and different option for preparing your crabs. If you want to make oodles of garlic butter on the side and just spoon this over the fried crabs, I bet that would be a nice variation as well.

Serve a whole crab on a platter for each guest for a truly memorable meal. :)