spicy high

[whynotkay]

Spicy Sichuan/Hunan-ish Crab (Xiang La Xie 香辣蟹) how-to:

1. kill, chop, and clean crab (or convince local market to do it for you)
2. make batter - pancake batter consistency, dry crab before dipping, dip in rice flour after
3. deep fry 2-4 minutes, remove
4. stir fry (in a little bit of oil): ginger, garlic, then add many sichuan peppercorns, then add ridiculous numbers of dried red chili peppers, and optionally a little sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil, and then the crab
5. place in large dish and eat! 
6. consume many of the fried chili peppers and peppercorns
7. enjoy ridiculous spice endorphin high.

Note: this dish goes very well with a strong beer.  We had the Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout, which I heartily recommend.

Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures, but here's a picture I found that looks similar to what we produced.

Recipe(ish):

Batter:
1 t (ish) salt
2 c brown rice flour
1 c corn starch
1/2 c garbanzo flour
maybe some wheat flour next time, or cook batter first?
1 bottle beer
1 cup water
1 egg

1 bottle (small - 24 fl. oz) peanut oil

Stir-fry:
4 bags dried red chili peppers
4-5 T sichuan peppercorns
5 cloves garlic
1 thumb ginger
maybe 4 T soy sauce?
a bit of sesame oil
1 T sugar