Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

One of my very favorite appetizer is the deep fried soft shell crab. Outside China, this dish can be found in some Chinese/Shanghai restaurants in New York, Toronto and Vancouver. I love so much this appetizer that when I am not in those cities, I even sometimes dream about the crispiness of the shells of the crabs combined with the creamy & soft meat that just melt in my mouth.
Recently I have had the occasion to visit some Chinese restaurants that offer this dish. However I have been quite disappointed with the outcome: it was either too oily or oversauced. It was not anymore like the one I tasted the very first time. At some restaurants, there was a clear disporportion between the batter and the soft shell crab: I could not even see any piece of soft shell crabs !
So I guess that if I want to eat a good crispy soft shell crab, I would need to cook myself. After researching and doing some experiments by combining a few recipes that I have found for this dish, here is the best recipe for deep fried soft shell crabs, crispy from outside and melting in the mouth from inside ! The soft shell crab in itself tastes so good that I find it really pity to cover this wonderful flavor with some heavy sauces.
What I like about this recipe is the simplicity of the ingredients & spices that just help to lift up & balance the flavor of the deep fried soft shell crabs, without covering its true taste ! So there is no need for any sauce to savor this appetizer !

Ingredients:
 - 4 Soft shell crabs
- Half onion cut in small cubic pieces
- 1/4 of Green Peper cut in small cubic pieces
- 1/4 of Red Peper cut in small cubic pieces
- 1 small red chili cut in pieces
- 1.5 teaspoon Pepper Salt powder (more if you like more salty)
- Oil

To make the batter

-  2/3 cup rice flour

- 1/3 cup cornstarch

- 1 teaspoon salt (a bit less if you don't want less salty)

- 1.5 teaspoons baking soda

Procedure:

1) Clean the four soft shell crabs. In case you don't know how to clean it, you can find the steps on this site: link to teach how to clean soft shell crabs

2) Pat them dry with a kitchen towel.

3) This step #3 depends on your taste. Cut each crab in 2 pieces or 4 pieces or leave it as a whole. Sometimes I do not even cut the crab in pieces and I just deep fry the whole soft shell crab. In the picture, the crabs are cut in 4 pieces. (If you have more guests, cut them in pieces, then you don't need to buy so many soft shell crabs).

4)  Prepare the batter: Mix all the ingredients (as stated in green color above) together then whisk in just enough water to make the batter. The texture of the batter should be like a stirred sour cream.

5) Heat up veggetavle oil (I usually use Olive oil) in a wok over medium high temperature. The oil is about 5 centimeter in depth.

6) When the oil is ready, dip the crabs in the batter. Make sure that all the parts of the crabs are covered. Then gently drop them into the oil. Deep fry about 2 to 4 minutes per side (this really depends on the heat you are using).

7) Remove the crabs from the wok and put them on a paper towel to remove as much oil as possible from the deep fried soft shell crabs.

8) When you have finished to deep fry every pieces of the soft shell crabs, take another wok. Heat medium-high this wok. When the wok is warm, add just a bit of oil. When the oil is also warm, drop the onion, green peper, red peper, and red chili into the wok. Stir fry until you see that the pieces of onion start to be brown, then put the deep fried soft shell crabs into this wok. Stir fry everything then add about 1.5 teaspoon of "Pepper Salt Powder". Sometimes I add more than 1 teaspoon as I like to eat it salty. Stir all well for 1 to 2 minutes then it is ready to serve. It is very important to add this "Pepper Salt Powder", otherwise it would not taste much.

In case you do not know what is the "Pepper Salt Powder", here is a picture of the one I use:

Enjoy it !