Recipe & Pairing | Steamed Mud Crab With Sichuan Yuzu Mayo - Yugen Dining

Featuring 80 all-new recipes from the city’s leading restaurants, The Broadsheet Melbourne Cookbook: The New Classics is a gourmand’s absolute dream. Yugen Dining’s steamed mud crab is a signature dish for a reason - and if you’ve eaten there, you’ll know why. If you haven’t? Here’s the recipe for you to recreate it at home, along with our hot pick wine pairing.

Pairing tip: “Yugen Dining’s Stephen Nairn notes that you can pair this with “anything from the cellar”, and you won’t find wine slingers like us disagreeing with that advice. Ultimately you can always trust your gut and your palate, and if it works for you, don’t let anyone yuck your yum. For me though, we’re in clean, acid-driven white wine territory here, so I’m opting for chardonnay from Chablis or Adelaide Hills, or a riesling from just about anywhere. Don’t be afraid of pairing a lil’ residual sugar against that spice either - chill something off-dry and it’s game on.” Nick

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Steamed Mud Crab With Sichuan Yuzu Mayo - Yugen Dining

"Mud crabs are a beautiful ingredient that really highlight Australia’s special shellfish. Often seen as intimidating or troublesome to cook, the below is a simple recipe to get the most from your crab without the stress – great for sharing and drinking with anything from your cellar.

The real key with cooking shellfish is having everything at hand, ready to go. Crabs are messy to eat, sure, but that’s part of the fun. To get the full satisfaction you need to get your hands dirty, so don’t serve a whole crab in the shell to friends who won’t play along. The juice is worth the squeeze."

– Stephen Nairn, culinary director

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 800g live mud crab (ask your fishmonger for a mud crab that has been scrubbed clean otherwise you will be fighting a very active grumpy muddy)

• 3 tbsp Sichuan chilli oil (from Asian grocers), or to taste

• Salt flakes, to taste

• Vinegar powder (from gourmet food shops or online), to taste

• Lime wedges, to serve

Poaching Stock

• 100ml peanut oil

• 1 carrot, sliced

• 1 onion, sliced

• 25g coriander seeds

• 25g fennel seeds

• 2 star anise

• 500ml (2 cups) Shaoxing wine

• 5L water

• 100g fine salt

• 1 sheet of kombu (soaked in cold water to soften)

Sichuan Yuzu Mayo

• 60g LKK Sichuan Hot and Spicy Sauce

• 200g Japanese mayo

• 1 tbsp yuzu juice

Method

Place the mud crab in the freezer until insensible. Place the crab on its back on a chopping board. Lift the abdominal flap and quickly insert the point of a large, sharp knife all the way through the rear nerve centre. Repeat this process through the front nerve centre through the shallow depression at the front of the body.

For the poaching stock, heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften. Add the coriander, fennel and star anise and stir for 1–2 minutes, then add the Shaoxing and simmer to reduce by half. Add the water and salt and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to very low, drain the kombu, then add it to the pot. Simmer for 10 minutes, then taste it: the stock should be nicely seasoned and flavourful, despite being aggressive.

Place the mud crab into the stock and very gently simmer for 11 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare a large ice bath.

Once the crab is cooked, immediately transfer it to the ice bath to chill. Once chilled, drain, then refrigerate until required. Strain the poaching liquid through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan and reserve until you’re ready to serve.

If you’re planning to serve this soon, keep it at room temperature; otherwise keep it refrigerated.

For the Sichuan yuzu mayo, place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine.

When you’re ready to serve, return the poaching liquor to the boil, reduce it to a simmer and place your whole crab into the stock for 8 minutes until heated through. Drain, then transfer to a tray or chopping board. Pull away the top shell of the crab, discard the gills and reserve the yellow-brown coral inside (we’ll add this to the dressing). Crack the claws with the back of a knife and gently bash the legs, then chop the body section into 4 pieces.

Do not break or clean the crab too much – we want our friends to do some work on the crab claws and legs for fun.

Meanwhile, gently warm a few tbsp of Sichuan chilli oil in a small saucepan.

Collect the crab – shells, juices, coral and all – in one large bowl, season with salt and give it a good sprinkle of vinegar powder. Pour in the Sichuan chilli oil, tossing to coat. If you like things spicy, go hard on the oil.

Arrange all the crab pieces on a large tray or platter, pour some sauce from the mixing bowl over the top, then serve with a ramekin of more sauce, another of Sichuan yuzu mayo, and plenty of lime wedges for squeezing.

Recipe & images taken from The Broadsheet Melbourne Cookbook: The New Classics, available now.