Mala Long Xia (Chinese Spicy Crayfish) is a traditional Chinese recipe, for a dark sauce of soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar thickened with wheat or bean flour that acts as a flavouring and thickening agent for stir-fries and stews. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Chinese version of: Chinese Spicy Crayfish (Mala Long Xia).
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Mala Long Xia (麻辣小龙虾) is a home-cook version of the street food popular throughout China, indeed this dish is considered one of the national dishes of China. This crayfish dish is a perfect match for beer.
Ingredients:
500g fresh crayfish you can buy it on local market
½ onion, peeled and finely shredded
1 leek, sliced into small pieces
5 slices of ginger, minced
5 tbsp hotpot paste (I used spicy mala paste)
450ml corn oil to fry the Crayfish
40ml corn oil for the stir-fry
5g Sichuan peppercorns (green Sichuan peppercorns are best, if available)
15g dried chillies
300ml lager-type beer
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground white pepper
¼ tsp sugar
½ tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour
Method:
Begin by scrubbing the crayfish all over with a toothbrush, paying particular attention to the heat and belly. Once cleaned you can prepare the crayfish.
Screw off the heads and set these in a separate bowl. Then, holding the middle tail of the crayfish, turn it around and devein. After that, separate the yellow crayfish paste from the head. Finally, discard the gill hairs of crayfish.
Place a wok over high heat. Add the 450ml corn oil and when the oil is hot (this is when you add a small piece of onion to the pan and it fries and crisps up quickly) add in the crayfish (be wary of oil splashes). Fry the crayfish until the tail is obviously curled (about 3 minutes). Remove with a spider, drain then save for later.
Remove all but about 3 tbsp of the oil from the wok. Return to high heat then add the ginger and onion. Reduce the heat to medium and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Remove the ginger and onion with a slotted spoon and discard (here you're just using them to flavour the oil).
Increase the heat to high again then add the Sichuan peppercorns, dry chillies and hotpot paste to the wok. Stir-fry until the hotpot paste has melted into the oil. Now add the yellow crayfish paste you extracted from the heads and stir-fry until cooked.
Pour in the beer along with 100ml water. Bring to a boil then return the fried crayfish to the wok. Reduce the heat to low before adding salt, white pepper, sugar and the light soy sauce. Stir to combine with the other ingredients then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Blend together the cornflour and 2 tbsp water to form a smooth slurry. Pour this evenly over the wok then stir to combine with the other ingredients. Increase the heat and return the contents of the wok to a boil. Stir to ensure everything is combined then add the leek pieces and stir into the other ingredients.
Finally add 1 tsp corn oil to the wok (this will help the cornflour thicken). Continue stir-frying until the sauce has thickened to your liking.
Turn the spicy crayfish into a warmed serving bowl. This can be served as a snack, accompanied by beer, or it can be served as part of a larger meal.
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