King crab with red butter and cured yolk

"Due to their enormous size, Alaskan king crab yields some very large pieces of meat. The leg meat is the most sought after, and you can’t find a species of crab which can compare. Alaskan king crab tends to have a unique “sweet” taste." Adam Liaw, Destination Flavour Singapore

• serves

  10

• prep

  45 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Ace

Ingredients

• 10 Alaskan king crab legs
• 1 punnet coriander cress, leaves picked
• ¼ cup shio kombu, finely chopped (see Note)

Cured yolk

• 300 g gochujang (fermented Korean chilli paste)
• 300 g brown miso
• 10 quail eggs

Red butter

• 250 g unsalted cow’s milk butter
• 2 long red chillies, seeded and thinly sliced
• 6 red Asian shallots, thinly sliced
• 100 g goat’s milk butter
• 2 tbsp Korean chilli powder

You will have to begin this recipe 1 day prior.

Curing time overnight

Instructions

To make the cured yolk, mix the gochujang and miso in a bowl. Spread half the mixture into a small tray. Cover with muslin. Using your thumb, make 10 small indentations in the paste. Carefully separate the eggs and place the yolks in the indentations. Spread the remaining miso mixture over another piece of muslin large enough to cover the yolks, then carefully place on top of the yolks.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove the yolks from the curing mixture and coarsely chop.

To make the red butter, place 50 g of the cow’s butter in a saucepan. Add the chilli and shallot and cook over medium heat for 6 minutes or until soft and just starting to brown. Add the remaining butters and the chilli powder, reduce the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and season lightly, then strain through a fine sieve.

Break the crab legs apart and use a cleaver or large sharp knife, to cut the larger pieces in half lengthways. Place the crab legs in the top of a steamer basket and steam for 3-4 minutes or until just cooked. Using a crab picker, carefully remove the meat from the shell, keeping the meat from each leg separate. Trim the edges of the crab meat and divide among plates.

Brush the crab with the red butter, scatter with a little shio kombu, coriander cress and yolk pieces.

Note

• Shio kombu is salty fine seaweed. Sold in packets in Japanese supermarkets.  

Image by Tan Zexun.

Destination Flavour Singapore airs Thursdays at 8pm on SBS. Visit the program page for more details, recipes and guides.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.