Watarigani for Chinese New Year. Little crabs, spicy marinade

That’s food to eat with your fingers so you can lick them after…

Watarigani. Japanese small soft-shell crabs. They are often just boiled in a hot pot, but prepared this way they become even more delicious.

The sauce, the seafood and veggies. The sauce is a personal arrangement of the Taiwanese sachajang (sacha sauce).
Today my marinade contained : mini shrimps in salty brine (ami ebi), garlic, onion, ginger, leek whites, negi leek greens, red chili, Okinawan sake, soy sauce and rice vinegar. I minced and mixed 30 minutes before using.

The crabs are coated with starch, then deep fried.

And covered with the marinade. Turned 2 or 2 times, about 10 minutes. They absorb a good amount of the sauce. Then transfer on the cabbage.

Red crab curry

Today, a South-East Asia style crab curry. That’s very easy to make using bought Thai red curry paste.

Watarigani. Japanese small soft-shell crabs.

Carrots.

Mushrooms, okra, onion, red curry paste, coconut milk… then powdered curry spices.

The crabs.

Bloop bloop bloop bloop…

Then enjoy the delicacy with a little lemon juice, hot rice…

Yukiguni nabe hot pot (via GiO)

It’s a meal that cooked itself on the table. A nabe (Japanese hot pot). Yukiguni (Snow Country)…

Tamago-dofu (egg tofu)

This is a pleasant Summer dish. Tamago dofu, egg tofu. It’s not really tofu as it doesn’t contain soy at all. It’s an egg custard.

It’s very easy :
-break eggs, add a similar volume of water, a little soy sauce and a little mirin.
-beat well, pour in a mold and cook in a steamer (about 20 minutes, check with a toothpick)
-un-mold and cut when it’s cooled. Serve chilled.

To get esthetic perfection (not like here), pour your eggs twice or more through a fine mesh skewer to eliminate the foam.

You can use stock or dashi as the liquid, substitute soy sauce by salt and mirin by honey.

My box didn’t fit in my steamer, so I took a wide pan, in the bottom, a layer of kitchen paper, a plate, a second layer of paper, my box, the lid… Don’t forget to put water in the bottom of the pan.

Chilled crab flesh (with lemon juice, a little awamori sweet sake and hot chili).

A flower of basil.

Kani champuru with Okinawan tofu

Today Okinawa is on the plate. A good old goya champuru with crab this time.

I already presented this dish :
Go~ya champloo~ and Okinawan soba

Even made a second version.

Goya, bitter squash is now easy to find in Osaka. It’s cultivated everywhere in Japan these days.

I found tofu “imported” from Okinawa. I don’t know if you see the difference, but it’s extremely firm. I had never seen tofu so firm. I wonder how they do that. Do they press it ?
Well, my champuru is more authentic now.