In China, summer is not just the season for ice cream and cold drinks. We also eat a variety of cold dishes. For example, coleslaw, tofu, shredded chicken salad, shredded potato salad, etc., because it’s hot in June. But do you know what recipe is popular in China right now? That’s right, the spicy crayfish in our title! Crayfish live in swamps, ponds, wetlands, lakes, and small rivers where the water is relatively shallow and the aquatic grass is prolific. They prefer temperatures of 20°-32° C (68° to 90° F). So in the summer, the crayfish come out and get active, and people have new delicacies to eat.
Chinese really love crayfish, and this time of year, when you see a small party of people together, you’ll see that they’re sure to choose crayfish on the menu. Spicy crayfish, paired with a cold beer and good friends, makes for a wonderful summer night!
Safe handling and cleaning of crayfish
This page offers a recipe with cooking steps. Since most young people nowadays don’t know how to clean and prepare crayfish, I also wrote a separate article on how to clean crayfish, if you want to learn to handle crayfish, complete with photos and an instructional video.
Seasonings for Chinese-style spicy crayfish
The crayfish I made directly used a premixed seasoning mix for Chinese-style spicy crayfish. If you can’t buy a good seasoning mix in your location, you can use hot pot soup base instead. If you are in the US and have enjoyed a Cajun Crawfish Boil, you will note that the Chinese-style is spicier, and more complex in flavor.
Cajun seasoning is typically based on cayenne pepper with cloves, lemon, black pepper, and bay leaves and uses a pre-mixed seasoning packet called “crab boil” or “shrimp boil.” This seasoning mix is a combination of cayenne, dill, mustard seed, coriander seed, salt, allspice, black pepper, and red pepper. Allspice is a critical ingredient in Jamaican foods, such as Jerked Chicken, and it also used to make the brine for Corned Beef Brisket.
Chinese-style spicy crayfish seasoning is similar to a Chengdu hot pot broth. You can use a commercially prepared hot pot soup base, or if you want to make your own “Chinese Crayfish Boil” from scratch, then you can use doubanjiang bean paste and chili, with a combination of chili oil, Sichuan peppercorns and spices (star anise, bay leaves, cinnamon). If you are familiar with the Cajun version, and try the Chinese version, you will notice a difference, especially the “mala” mouth-tingling effect of the Sichuan peppercorn.
What is hot pot soup base?
A hot pot is the Chinese version of fondue. Thinly-sliced raw meat or vegetables are dipped in a steaming pot of the soup base to cook, then dipped in a sauce and eaten. Hot pot soup base uses many ingredients (ginger, scallion, mushrooms, beef tallow, cardamom, sugar, garlic, Shaoxing wine fermented soybeans or douchi, fennel, bay leaves, cloves, dried chili peppers, bell pepper, and cinnamon), and is quite complex to make. Typically, it is made in large batches, allowed to cool and form, then cut into solid chunks to be melted when making a hot pot or other dish. If you’d like to learn more about this, please see these excellent videos from Chef Wang and Liziqi.
Chinese-style Spicy Crayfish
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg live crayfish (3.3 pounds)
- 200 g crayfish seasoning pack (7 oz)
- 2 cucumbers
- 500 ml high alcohol beer (8% by volume) (18 oz)
- 300 ml water (11 oz)
- 50 ml salt (3 tbsp + 1 tsp)
- 20 ml vinegar (1 tbsp + 1 tsp)
- 100 ml oil (3.5 oz, or 6 tbsp + 2 tsp)https://youtu.be/aaNlxllTKpI
Instructions
Preparation
- Place the crayfish in the sink or large stainless steel pot and add 30ml of salt and 20ml of vinegar. Add enough water to cover the crayfish, stir and let the salt and vinegar mix in the water. Soak for 20-30 minutes.
- Clean the crayfish. Remove the head, internal organs, vein, and gills of the crayfish. Finally wash all the treated crayfish. Drain. Set aside.
- Cut the cucumber into chunks.
Cooking
- Add 100ml of oil to the pan, heat over medium heat for 10 seconds and then add the crayfish and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the seasoning packet and stir-fry well. Pour in 500ml of beer and 300ml of water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- After bringing to a boil, add salt. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Then add the cucumber and stir well. Cook for 10-13 minutes.
- You can garnish with some coriander or green onions to your liking.
Video
Notes
- Soaking crayfish with salt and vinegar is used to better clean the crayfish and kill any bacteria. Because crayfish live in silt, ordinary water may not be adequate.
- Cut the cucumber into your preferred shape, but be careful not to cut it too small. After a long time of cooking, small pieces of cucumbers will become very soft.
- If you have a lot of crayfish. It is better to use a large pot, you can see that the crayfish in my picture is almost overflowing my 14-inch wok, causing me to have to divide into 2 parts for cooking.
- Regarding the salt added, you can season it to your own taste, because the spice package itself is already salty.
- During a long medium-heat cooking, the beer flavor is almost completely evaporated, and if you like the beer flavor, you can swap the added water for beer. Or use a slightly higher alcohol concentration.
- During crayfish season in the US, you can find live crayfish in better groceries throughout the southern US, or have them shipped in ice overnight. Outside the season, you can find frozen crayfish tails in the seafood section of better groceries. Be sure, if you buy frozen crayfish, they are still raw and not cooked.
Nutrition
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