Shrimp with Crab Sauce (Haai5 Zap1 Haa1, 蟹汁蝦)

Shrimp in Lobster Sauce is a standard dish that you’ll find at Cantonese restaurants. Since I was fresh out of lobster, I substituted Dungeness crab in its place. You make this dish backwards. By that I mean for most stir fry dishes, the meat is cooked first, then the vegetables, and finally the sauce. Since this dish only requires the vegetables to be stir fried, the baby bok choy gets cooked first, then the sauce, and finally the meat. The shrimp is cooked by the heat of the sauce, so a thick sauce is made using the crab and eggs after the vegetables are cooked. The sauce can be made using chicken stock, but since I had lobster stock, I used that. The lobster stock was made using the Lobster Noodles (Lung⁴ Haa¹ Min⁶, 龍蝦麵) recipe.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

¾ lb.	375 g.	Shrimp (haa1, 蝦), shelled and deveined
½ lb.	250 g.	Meat from a whole cooked Dungeness crab (haai5, 蟹), shelled
1½ lb.	750 g.	Baby bok choy (siu2 baak6 coi3, 小白菜), quartered lengthwise
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (goeng1, 薑), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (syun3, 蒜), crushed in a garlic press
		Oil for cooking

 

Sauce Ingredients

1 tsp.	5 ml.	Salt (jim4, 鹽)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sugar (baak6 tong4, 白糖)
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (baak6 wu4 ziu1, 白胡椒)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Corn starch (suk1 fan2, 粟粉)
4 Tbs.	60 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (siu6 hing1 zau2, 紹興酒) or dry sherry
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sesame oil (maa4 jau4, 麻油)
1 cup	250 ml.	Lobster or chicken stock
2	2	Eggs (gai1 daan6, 雞蛋)

 

Equipment

14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

 

Preparation Instructions

1. If using frozen shrimp, thaw the shrimp in the refrigerator overnight. Remove the shrimp from the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking. Shell and devein the shrimp, and place the shrimp into a bowl.
2. Remove the meat from a whole cooked Dungeness crab and place into a bowl.
3. Wash and cut the baby bok choy into quarters lengthwise.
4. Crush the ginger and garlic in a garlic press, and place into a small bowl.
5. Prepare and mix the sauce in a small bowl: add the salt, sugar, ground white pepper, corn starch, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, and sesame oil.
6. Put the chicken or lobster stock into a small bowl. The lobster stock was made using the Lobster Noodles (Lung⁴ Haa¹ Min⁶, 龍蝦麵) recipe.
7. Crack and scramble the eggs in a small bowl.

Cooking Instructions

1. Heat a wok or pan over high heat and before adding oil. Add and stir fry the baby bok choy to brown the outside. Set the baby bok choy aside in a bowl.
2. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding the lobster or chicken stock, and then the bowl with the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring constantly while thickening. Just before the sauce boils, add the crab meat and continue stirring. Once the sauce has thickened, add the bowl with the scrambled eggs to the wok. Just as the egg starts to set, stir to make strands of egg in the sauce. Taste the sauce and add more salt if necessary.
3. Add the shrimp to the wok, stir the contents, and then add the baby bok choy back into the wok. Mix the ingredients together until the shrimp just turn pink. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish and serve with steamed rice or over noodles.