This year’s Teachers’ Day was on 4 September 2015 (Friday). To reward the hubby for his hardwork, I decided to cook him a dish which we love but rarely indulge in – Crab Bee Hoon. Ever since we started using the Le Creuset Dutch Ovens, I have gained much confidence in trying out new dishes and this Crab Bee Hoon was one of those recipes which had seemed impossible before. The Le Creuset pots allow me to control the cooking temperature and they seal-in the essence and freshness of the ingredients, hence I know it would be perfect for cooking this one-pot dish. Guess what? My maiden attempt at cooking the Crab Bee Hoon turned out very well and we had a most enjoyable, home-cooked crab feast in the comfort of our home, at half the price of what we would have to fork out if we ate this at a restaurant.
Our family loves seafood but crabs are expensive so we reserve it only for special occasions or celebrations. Here’s the recipe for you to pamper the family this September school holiday:
Savory Crab Bee Hoon Soup
Ingredients:
1 kg Mud Crabs, cleaned and cut into pieces
5oog Thick Bee Hoon (Laksa Noodles)
4 tbs Unsalted Butter
6-10 Slices of Peeled Ginger
4 cups Fish Stock
1/2 cup Carnation Evaporated Milk
Baby Bok Choy (or ChyeSim)
2 tbs Shaoxing Wine
1 tbs Fish Sauce
Fresh crabs from the wet market. I asked the fish monger to help me clean and chop them into pieces.
Seasonings for the broth…
Method:
1. Blanch the bee hoon then rinse them under cold water to prevent sticking together. Drain and set aside. Rinse the baby bok choy.
Versatile thick bee hoon and healthy baby bok choy
2. In a Le Creuset Dutch Oven, add butter and stir to melt. Add the sliced ginger and fry till fragrant.
3. Add the fish stock and bring it to a boil. Add the evaporated milk followed by the crab.
4. Cook for a few minutes until the crab turns red and is cooked. Add the baby bok choy, shaoxing wine and fish sauce.
5. Add the bee hoon. Bring to a quick boil and serve.
For the kids, we used the same broth (sans the wine) but swopped the crab with fresh sliced fish. Dana took her first mouthful and declared that she ‘love, love, love the soup!’ before slurping them all up. That makes me so very pleased. Daddy enjoyed the crab too. I hardly cook crabs at home as I always thought it would be very messy affair but the Le Creuset pot made it so manageable! Washing up after the meal was also easy peasy. No grease, no scrubbing!
Kids’ version – with fish instead of crab!
If you’re a lover of Crab Bee Hoon or Sliced Fish Bee Hoon, you gotta try cooking this at home!
- 1 kg Mud Crabs, cleaned and cut into pieces
- 5oog Thick Bee Hoon (Laksa Noodles)
- 4 tbs Unsalted Butter
- 6-10 Slices of Peeled Ginger
- 4 cups Fish Stock
- 1/2 cup Carnation Evaporated Milk
- Baby Bok Choy (or ChyeSim)
- 2 tbs Shaoxing Wine
- 1 tbs Fish Sauce
- Blanch the bee hoon then rinse them under cold water to prevent sticking together. Drain and set aside. Rinse the baby bok choy.
- In a Le Creuset Dutch Oven, add butter and stir to melt. Add the sliced ginger and fry till fragrant.
- Add the fish stock and bring it to a boil. Add the evaporated milk followed by the crab.
- Cook for a few minutes until the crab turns red and is cooked. Add the baby bok choy, shaoxing wine and fish sauce.
- Add the bee hoon. Bring to a quick boil and serve immediately.
- We bought the LIVE crab from the fish monger in the wet market and asked them to help us clean and cut into pieces. It costs about SGD28-35/kg.
- To prepare the fish broth, pan fry some fish bones. When it's brown, add in ginger, garlic, carrot, spring onion and 500ml to 1L of water and let it simmer for an hour. Sieve before use. There is a very detailed Homemade Fish Stock Recipe from http://food-4tots.com/2012/02/22/how-to-make-fish-stock/2/
- Alternatively, you can substitute the homemade fish stock with store-bought chicken stock.
- You can add more evaporated milk if you prefer a creamier broth.
- You can also add fried shallots or white pepper before serving to make the soup even more savory.
- For younger kids, substitute the crab with sliced fish. They are equally nutritious and tasty!
Home-cooked Crab Bee Hoon Soup – another local dish done using a Le Creuset!
For other simple but yummy recipes which you can cook with a Le Creuset, please check out:
- https://www.lifestinymiracles.com/2015/07/le-creuset-recipe-red-wine-chicken/
- https://www.lifestinymiracles.com/2015/08/baby-risotto-with-le-creuset/
- http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2015/07/easy-chicken-stew-a-giveaway-of-a-le-creuset-22m-round-french-oven-in-kiwi/
- http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2015/07/guinness-beef-stew/
- http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2015/08/one-pot-spaghetti-with-chicken-parmesan/
Love the pictures! And the dish looks fantastic! 🙂
Hi Edmund….best of all it’s real easy to cook and super YUMMY! Try it and see!
Oh getting the fishmonger to chop up the crab is a good idea! I should do that! The thing preventing me from cooking crab is killing it. 😛 This looks so yummy!
It is Mummybean….with a capital ‘Y’!
I love this post. Makes me smile every time I see that crab peeking out of the broth. I can just imagine how sweet the broth was!!
Yes Diana. In fact, leave the ingredients to soak inside for a while and the beauty of the well-made pot is that as it retains the heat, the essence of the ingredients continue to percolated. Finally when it is time to serve…YUM!
May I ask What’s the size of of your le Creuset pot to cook the crab mee hoon. Thoughts of cooking for hubby. Thks
Hi Suzie, thanks for visiting our blog. The big Le Creuset Pot is 22cm. The small one is 16cm. Hope you’ll enjoy the crab mee hoon! 😀
This looks fabulous, Angie!
For the fish broth, would you have the exact amount of ingredients to use? Thank you.
Hi Cheryl
good day! You can follow the detailed homemade fish broth recipe here: http://food-4tots.com/2012/02/22/how-to-make-fish-stock/2/ Hope it helps! 😀
I’m so glad to find your page and am so going to try your local receipes with my new LC pot! Thanks!