Swimming Crab Stir-Fried with Rice Cakes 梭子蟹炒年糕

Swimming Crab Stir-Fried with Rice Cakes (梭子蟹炒年糕) combines chopped swimming crab with rice cakes and is cooked in both Zhoushan (舟山) and Ningbo (宁波). A Zhoushan contributor to Hangzhou Net (杭州网) calls it a traditional Zhoushan dish, and a Chao News (潮新闻) food column describes it as the Ningbo way with swimming crab that everyone likes.

How it is made

In the method given by Chao News, the crab has its shell taken off and its gills removed and is cut into pieces. Spring onion and ginger are fried in oil until fragrant, the crab pieces are stir-fried, and wine, sugar, vinegar and a little light soy sauce go in; the rice cakes are added last. The column insists on water-milled rice cakes (水磨年糕) made in Ningbo, which are fine in texture and chewy. The Zhoushan account describes the rice cakes as braised in the pan until they are soaked through with the sauce.

Flavour and texture

Chao News says the rice cakes are the real attraction: coated in the crab's flavour, they are what everyone reaches for, and the crab comes second. The Zhoushan account describes them as soft and glutinous, and says the dish is cleared as soon as it reaches the table.

How it is eaten

In Zhoushan the dish is part of the New Year table, where the islands' best-known seafood meets the rice cake, a festival food; the Hangzhou Net contributor says it is indispensable then. Chao News notes that it can be served as a main dish or eaten as a snack or staple to fill up, and on lazy days is a meal in itself. Swimming crab is Zhoushan's most prized seafood, and the local catch opens in September and October each year, according to the Zhoushan account.