Try this tempting taste treat from Club Marine Magazine’s cookbook, Gourmet Delights.

This premium quality cookbook, on sale for just $13, features over 100 of the best recipes from acclaimed international chef Bart Beek, whose passion is not just cooking … it’s creating.

Acclaimed international chef Bart Beek.

Simple to prepare, Bart’s recipes are inspired by dishes from around the world and, in Gourmet Delights, Bart also shares handy tips for barbecuing, knife-sharpening and infusing herbs and spices into your cuisine.

“A good cookbook is a working tool that should feature food stains from regular use,” says Bart.

“All of us have the ability to give others pleasure through well-cooked food and the key word here is ‘technique’.

“I hope people derive as much pleasure cooking from Gourmet Delights as I did authoring it.”

Below, we share one of Bart’s favourites … Singapore Chilli Crab.

Bon appetite!

………

Singapore Chilli Crab

Singapore is famous for this dish, which was created in 1950 by female Chef Cher Yam Tian. It’s common to use mud crabs, which are stir-fried in a thick, fragrant, spicy sweet sauce. Other varieties of crab such as blue swimmer crab, sand crab, or spanner crab taste just as delicious when prepared this way.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

INGREDIENTS

• 1kg fresh mud crab, cleaned and portioned
• 1 medium brown onion, diced
• 3 bird’s-eye chillies, stem removed
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tblsp grated ginger
• 4 tblsps peanut oil
• 1 tsp shrimp paste
• 1 tblsp white wine vinegar
• 4 tblsps caster sugar
• 500ml tomato purée
• 1 tblsp tomato paste
• 4 tblsps light soy
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tblsps tomato sauce
• 180ml water
• ½ cup spring onions, chopped
• ½ lime, zest and juice
• ½ cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped

METHOD:

Place the diced onions, chillies, garlic and ginger into a blender and process for 30 seconds.

Heat the peanut oil in a hot wok and add the onion mix. Cook, stirring constantly, until the moisture has cooked out of the mixture.

Add the shrimp paste, vinegar, sugar, tomato purée, tomato paste, soy, salt, tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil then add the two largest cracked crab claws. Stir well, cover and cook for three minutes. Remove the lid and add the remainder of the crab portions. Cover and cook for a further six minutes until all the crab pieces have turned red.

Stir well, folding in the spring onions, lime zest and juice and the coriander leaves.

Serve on a large platter, with steaming hot rice and extra napkins.