Crab claws with Chilli, Ginger, Garlic and Spring Onion

Fantastic starter or snack, or great served with a selection of Chinese dishes to share. Simple ingredients but absolutely delicious!

If you love crab, and you've seen crab claws and wondered what to do with them, then here's a delicious and really easy way to cook them, Chinese style!

This was inspired by the way my favourite Cantonese restaurant serves king prawns - with the exception that they also add a splash of ignited brandy from a metal ladle, to flambe the prawns! Feel free to add this touch for extra visual impressiveness if you want to!

Serves two, easily doubled or halved. 120 calories per serving. [Calories in square brackets]

Crab and Spinach Ohitashi with Mixed Mushrooms (Thermomix Method)

A deliciously light and tasty Japanese dish, perfect as lunch, or an elegant starter, or as part of a selection of Japanese dishes.

Although it is a beautiful looking dish, it's actually incredibly simple to cook and plate up. You just add the ingredients for the broth to the bowl, with the mushrooms and spinach in the varoma and press go! If you would like to cook this without using a Thermomix, see here for my original recipe with a method on the hob. This serves two to four people (timings for both in method, and if you're counting calories, it's a mere 121 calories per person!).

            

Feel free to tweak this dish to suit you. I've converted this version to Thermomix with a dashi broth substitute I came up with for Japanese soups, as I am aware that most people won't be making their own dashi broth, and the majority of 'instant dashi' powders and concentrates you can buy contain MSG as an additive. MSG does actually occur naturally - the white residue you find on seaweed, i.e. Kombu (kelp, one of the two ingredients dashi is made from) is naturally occurring MSG but I don't think most people want to add it to their food, or include it in chemical form, although opinions are mixed. Also, I thought it might make a nice use of a light bone broth, for those who make them.

Thai Crab Cakes or Fish Cakes with Sweet Chilli Sauce and Fresh Pickled Vegetable Relish - includes Thermomix method

One of my favourite Thai dishes, and so versatile - a dinner, a starter, a snack, a buffet dish...

Fish cakes are one of the iconic street food dishes of Thailand, and they're delicious dipped into a piquant sauce. I think my favourite thing about Thai fish cakes is the fact that there's no filler in there - no bread crumbs, or potato - they're just pure, delicious un-stodgy protein! Here I've given them a little twist, by replacing some of the raw fish with crab meat, and lightly pan frying them and finishing off for a few minutes in the oven rather than deep-frying them - but you're welcome to deep-fry them if you prefer... I think they're really good cooked this way though, and somewhat healthier.

This recipe makes around 20 to 25 fish cakes, and serves four to five as a main course (there are four of us including two children, 10 and 11 with hearty appetites - I made twenty, and we had five left over) - obviously it would serve far more as a starter (divide the mix into 24, and you'll have three each to serve eight people), and would make a great warm buffet dish. The secret is not to overcook them - you want a nice, light, dare-I-say-it almost slightly 'bouncy' texture. They really are deliciously tasty - no wonder they are so popular! They even freeze well, either raw or cooked (I prefer to freeze them lightly cooked, for ease) - just defrost and re-heat or cook lightly.

If you're counting calories, then the calories per serving if divided between five people are as follows:
Fish Cakes - 142; Pickled Vegetable Relish - 50; Sweet Chilli Sauce - 48; Total calories - 240. (You can take off 30 if you leave out the peanuts, and add on 76 for a 200g portion of cauliflower rice, or 149 calories per serving for a portion of Thai Jasmine rice (45g uncooked). 50g mixed leaves is around 10 calories). [Calories in square brackets next to ingredients]

Crab, Spinach and Japanese Mushroom Ohitashi

"What's an ohitashi?", I hear you cry (in my head, where else?)!

Well, gather round, and I will tell you. In just one sentence! It's a Japanese dish, consisting of a broth (e.g. dashi stock) containing seasonal ingredients, usually green-leafed vegetables. We don't really have a word or equivalent for it - it's that infamous soup/salad hybrid I spoke of in my welcome - but for most people this probably counts as a soup.

I'm quite proud of my version. I'm a creative soul, and spend far too much time making all kinds of pretties, and thinking of things to do with food to make it look even more appetising, and this is what I did to poor old ohitashi. Don't worry, the ingredients are authentic, but I don't think they're usually constructed within a food ring, with the broth and mushrooms poured around it... but... look how pretty it is, I love how you can see the little assortment of mushrooms, laying in the transluscent broth... but anyway, I digress. The recipe...

Crab, Spinach and Japanese Mushroom Ohitashi

Serves two, 111 calories per serving.

Ohitashi is a kind of seasonal broth incorporating salad-like ingredients, which we don’t have a Western equivalent to. It is served anywhere between warm in winter and chilled in the summer, when the ingredients are almost like having a spinach salad in a broth.  You could choose to serve it hot, which is also delicious, as lukewarm soup is not to everyone’s taste! I must admit, I serve the broth and spinach hot, with the crab meat at room temperature on top of the spinach, then when you stir it all together it is nice and hot all the way through.

Vegetarians could substitute diced tofu for the crabmeat, with an extra splash of soy sauce to season it.

For the Thermomix recipe and method, go here.