There are some cooking shows on television that I follow. One is called My Kitchen Rules (MKR), with the contestants forming teams of two. The contests include friends, siblings, and husbands and wives. The judges and contestants take turns visiting other teams at home. The host team must cook a 3 course dinner for all the guests, with the dishes subsequently scored by the judges. The show is very dramatic and I don’t think the focus is really on the cooking. The scoring is sometimes unfair and it is often more like a game.

The other show is Masterchef. The contestants are from different backgrounds and they can’t be a cooking industry professional. There are individual cooking challenges and sometimes teams. I like the “mystery box”, where the contestants are given different ingredients and they can use these to create anything they wish. I like Masterchef more than MKR.

There is one contestant from Masterchef Australia that I really like. She wasn’t the winner in that series but I like her way of cooking. We also share the same background, as her mum is Thai. She is Marian Gasby. I got this recipe from her book, but I add more ingredients and do it my way

Ingredients

2 x blue swimming crab, cleaned and cut ready to use
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 tbsp tamarind concentrate
1/4 cup shaoxing (Chinese rice) wine
1 egg
1 tbsp chilli jam with some added oil
1 tsp seasoning powder (optional)
1/4 cup of water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped

Coriander leaves to garnish.

Method

• Combine egg, chilli jam, seasoning powder, tomato sauce, sugar, fish sauce, tamarind concentrate, shaoxing wine and water and stir.
• Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Add chilli and garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add crab pieces and briefly mix. Reduce the heat to low, then add the egg/tomato sauce mix and cook until the crab is cooked. Present in a serving bowl and sprinkle with coriander.