Recipe - Bakwan Kepiting (Crab Meatballs)

Bakwan kepiting or crab meatballs is a Peranakan dish. These meatballs pack a punch with the combination of mince pork, crab and crunchy bamboo shoots.

It is usually served on special occasions, such as Chinese New Year, as the crab meat is costly and the recipe is laborious if you follow the traditional method of using live crabs. The crabs have to be steamed or boiled first before the flesh can be extracted to ensure there are no odd bits of shell.

Crab meat is valued for its succulent and sweet taste. It is also high in nutritional value, like other seafood. It should be noted a kg of live crab yields only about 250 grams of meat (about 25%).

The original recipe uses egg to bind the pork and the crab. I use fish paste. Prawns can also be used. I also find that using water chestnuts to replace the bamboo shoots makes for nicer meatballs. Maybe it is just me.

flower crab

There are 2 processes which are tedious. The first one is to cook by steaming or boiling the crab and extract the meat. Frozen crab meat are available in the supermarket but they are not as sweet as meat extracted from the live crab.

The second is to prepare the soup or stock as the dish is usually served as a soup. You can also use ready made chicken stock to save time.

For making 1 litre of stock
Add the following ingredients into a pot and boil for 1 hour on low heat.

1.5 litres water.
100 gms of soya beans (soak for 1 hour first)
50 gms of ikan bilis(dried anchovies)
10 chicken feet (cut off the nails)
1 piece of dried squid.

I cook the crab in the 1.5 litres of water before adding the other ingredients to make the stock.

Ingredients
250 gm of mince pork
100 gm of bamboo shoots, julienned or 5 water chestnuts, chopped
Meat from one crab
100 gm of fish paste
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped for making crispy garlic.
Pot of stock, about 1 litre

Method
Put the garlic in a bowl
Add 1 tbs of oil to cover the garlic
Heat in microwave for about 2 minutes to make crispy garlic (link)

In a big bowl, mix pork, crab meat and fish paste
Add in half of bamboo shoots or water chestnut
Add in the crispy garlic and some garlic oil
(Add crispy shallots if you have)
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix well and shape into balls.

Bring the stock to a boil
Add in the meatballs and remaining bamboo shoots
Simmer until the meatballs floats
Serve and garnish with coriander leaves.

Enjoy
    

A 4 minute video on how to make bakwan kepiting (crab meatballs).



A 8 minute video on how to prepare live mud crabs for cooking