Asian Crab Claws on a BBQ

Our trip around the South West didn't just revolve around restaurants, pubs and BnBs. We interspersed these indulgences with a healthy amount of camping, partly to keep the costs down and also to give us a chance to cook some fantastic local produce on our BBQ. Over the last few years we've tried to avoid ever doing anything average and instead have tried to be a bit more experimental and interesting with what we do, such as smoking trout and doing beer can chicken. We've built up a supply of gourmet camping kit and never set off with our tent without our trusty football BBQ, larder of herbs, oils and an array of spices. Here's the first in a handful of posts about what we cooked on our camp sites...

While we were at the fish monger in Fowey we spotted the armour like crab claws laden in the corner on the fish slab. Once we established that half a dozen were only going to cost us £2.50 we ordered them by the scoop. Bizarrely, because they sell so many dressed crabs, they land up with lefover claws! It’s one of those little twists in life that make all the bad things seem to vanish.



The fishmonger, very kindly, bashed the claws for us as well as issuing us with cooking instructions and suggestions of where to eat and where to avoid in Fowey -mainly based on who they supply and who has recently let them down. I can’t give the details here as I’ll get them in trouble. But it was fascinating to pick up on some of the gossip that made Fowey seem more like Westminster than a well to do sailing resort!

We chugged across the chain ferry to our camp site and immediately set about cooking our crab claws in a style that I remember from Lamma Island off Hong Kong.





Simply sautée a large amount of garlic, butter, chilli, spring onions and ginger in a hot frying pan. Meanwhile put your crab claws on the grill so they start to heat up and become aromatic. Then add the claws to the pan for 3-5 mins to absorb the majestic flavours. Glug in some soy sauce too and then dive in with the enthusiasm of a hyperactive toddler who’s just mistaken the Sanatogen bottle for some Smarties. So simple, but so good.

You’ll be able to smugly saunter over to the communal washing up area, safe in the knowledge that your supper was a million times better than their reheated can of chilli con carne. Just watch out for any attacks to your tent during the night.