Crab Hot Pot (Rou Xie Bao)
Cuisine: Chinese
Mud crab is what defines Crab Hot Pot (Rou Xie Bao), a home seafood dish.
Difficulty
4 / 5
★★★★☆
Estimated Calories
2111 kcal
Ingredients
- Mud crab (in order of preference: Myanmar black crab, green mud crab, swimming crab, hairy crab)
- Shrimp (optional)
- Potatoes
- Rice cakes (hard rice cakes recommended; fresh ones work too)
- Onion
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Dried chilies
- Green pepper
- Red pepper
- Oyster sauce
- Hoisin sauce (optional)
- Yellow soybean paste (optional)
- Sweet bean sauce (or barbecue sauce, optional)
- Ketchup (if you have none, crush half a tomato)
- Starch (corn or potato starch)
- Rock sugar
- Chicken bouillon powder
- White pepper
- Cooking wine (Shaoxing wine works too)
- Light soy sauce
- Dark soy sauce
- Beer
- Water
Steps
- Cut the potatoes into 3 cm cubes, the green/red peppers into 4 cm diamonds, the onion into 3 cm-wide wedges, and the rice cakes into 1 cm-thick slices.
- Cut the crab into 50-80 g pieces, dust with a thin coat of starch, and fry in 180 °C oil for 1 minute, then remove.
- Add oil to the wok, fry the garlic, ginger and dried chilies until fragrant, then add all the sauces + rock sugar and stir-fry over low heat until the oil turns red; don't let it scorch.
- Add the crab, potatoes, beer and water, bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 12 minutes.
- Add the rice cakes and peppers, turn up the heat and reduce until the sauce clings to the ingredients, then sprinkle with white pepper.
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Notes
This dish is rich and savory: the crab is sweet and slightly spicy, the potatoes soft, the rice cakes chewy, and the sauce is fantastic over rice—a hearty dish perfect for gatherings. It's rich in quality protein and trace elements. It's moderately difficult: you need to handle live crab and control heat and seasoning ratios, which is a bit challenging for beginners. Expect about 1 hour in total.
Estimated difficulty: ★★★★
Estimated calories: 2111 kcal
Calculation:
Before each cook, decide how many portions to make. One portion feeds 3-4 people.
Per portion:
- Mud crab 500 g
- Shrimp 200 g
- Potatoes 450 g
- Rice cakes 200 g
- Onion 100 g
- Garlic 20 g (add 10 g if using shrimp)
- Ginger 15 g
- Dried chilies 5 g
- Green pepper 30 g
- Red pepper 30 g
- Oyster sauce 20 g
- Cooking oil 30-50 ml (add 10 ml if using shrimp; another 500 mL for frying)
- Hoisin sauce 15 g (substitute: 12 g oyster sauce + 3 g sugar)
- Yellow soybean paste 15 g (substitute: 12 ml light soy + 2 ml dark soy + 1 g sugar)
- Sweet bean sauce 10 g (substitute: 5.5 g sugar + 4 ml light soy + 0.5 ml dark soy)
- Ketchup 10 g
- Starch 40 g
- Rock sugar 10 g
- Chicken bouillon powder 3 g
- White pepper 2 g (add 1 g if using shrimp)
- Cooking wine 15 ml
- Light soy sauce 20 ml
- Dark soy sauce 5 ml
- Beer 200 ml (add 50-100 ml if using shrimp)
- Water 800 ml (add 200 ml if using shrimp)
- Freeze the crab for 20 minutes to stun it (don't freeze it solid!), or insert a chopstick through the mouth to destroy the nerves
- If using frozen crab, fully thawed legs fall off easily and the meat loses moisture. Half-thaw, coat and fry, extending the frying time to 2 minutes
- If your stove is low-powered, the oil cools quickly when food goes in; preheat the oil to 200 °C and fry in several batches
- Be sure to remove the crab stomach (triangular sac), gills and heart (white hexagonal piece)
- Pat the starch-coated crab dry before frying; hot oil splatters on contact with water
- Never use dead crab (except crab bought frozen—but not if it was thawed and not used promptly)
- Don't eat with persimmons or strong tea
- People with gout should eat with caution
- Soak the sliced rice cakes in cold water and rinse before cooking so they don't stick; place them on top in the pot, since they scorch if they sink to the bottom
- If pinched by a crab or burned, rinse with cold water for 15 minutes; if serious, seek medical care promptly, and always see a doctor for deep wounds