Neil Perry

Stir fried spanner crab omelette

Serves 6 as part of a shared meal

Ingredients

Broth 150 ml chicken stock
3 tablespoons palm sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Combine all the ingredients except the sesame oil in a pot. Bring to the boil, pour in the sesame oil and keep warm
Omelette
5x 55 g eggs
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
200 g spanner crab meat
100 g beansprouts
50 g snowpea sprouts
15 Chinese yellow chives, washed and halved
150 ml peanut or vegetable oil 4 tablespoons oyster sauce

Method

Beat the eggs in a medium-sized bowl. In a small container dissolve the palm sugar in the fish sauce. Add to the eggs and whisk well.

Pick through the crabmeat for any cartilage and shell. Add the beansprouts, snowpea sprouts and chives and mix well

Place the oil in a wok and heat until it is smoking. Pour in the egg mixture (it should puff up). Cook for 3 minutes, then place the crab mixture in the middle. Cook for a further 3 minutes and remove from the heat.

Pour off the excess oil. Fold the omeletter, and place it back in the wok for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and rest it near a heat source for a further 2 minutes.

Remove the omelette from the wok with a fish lifter and place on a board. Trim off the ends and place in a large bowl. Pour over the hot broth and top with oyster sauce.

This is a Rockpool classic and is usually made in a single serve as an entrČe. Neil has given a recipe for a larger omelette that works well on a shared table. The texture of the crab, egg and beansprouts, and the perfume of the sesame oil make one of the greatest taste and texture treats imaginable. The crispy exterior, melting intrior, and the curnchiness of the beansprouts allwork so well together. Make sure the oil is very hot and smoking so that the egggs do not soak up the oil. This omelette can be cut into two or three little separate entrees if you like.

Neil described it as being a classic example of an omeletter thant even the French would be pleased to eat. He says " I greq up thinking hta the Fench invented omelettes, now I know better. I would be more than happy to have a stir-fried crab omelette with rice for lunch, and a truffled omeletter with a green salad and bread for dinner. That's the good thing about living in multicultural Australia ‚ one is not bound by any tradition other than a love of good food.