Street Food Warms Your Heart: 31 Bar & Kitchen at 31 Keong Saik Road S(089138) - Homemade Chilli Crab Puff S$14 per 2 piece serving

This is the Homemade Chili Crab Puff under the Starter & Nibble Category priced at S$14 per 2 piece serving served here at 31 Bar & Kitchen located at 31 Keong Saik Road.

31 Bar & Kitchen is a French Gastrobar co-founded by Frenchman André Rannaud, 45, from Lyon, France. An F&B veteran with 27 years' experience, André Rannaud has been active in the F&B industry, having stayed in Singapore for the past 15 years. Together with Franck Herbaux [MD of Estima Consulting (S) Pte Ltd], Daphane Wang & Fabien Giordano, André Rannaud started 31 Bar & Kitchen in April 2014 after closure of Provence Le Restaurant. Estima Gourmet Pte Ltd is the current holding company of 31 Bar & Kitchen - a French Gastrobar with Singapore influence & serves mainly Modern International Cuisine with Asian spices. The kitchen is helmed by Executive Chef Tan Chee Leong who brings with him more than 23 years' culinary experience.

31 Bar & Kitchen Menu 2015

Core Ingredients include - Homemade fresh Sri Lankan crab meat, homemade chili paste, homemade pastry puff.

How it is prepared - Here at 31 Bar & Kitchen, Executive Chef Tan Chee Leong makes the Chili Crab Puff from scratch.

To make the puff pastry sheets from scratch - Chef Tan Chee Leong uses bread flour, eggs, butter.

To make the chili paste from scratch - Chef Tan uses core ingredients such as: chili padi, dry chili, fresh chili, onion, shallot, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, garlic, a little ketchup. He shares that the recipe in this dish uses chili padi in order to give an added spicy kick to the chili crab filling as he believes that chili crab is not chili crab if it is not spicy.

To make the chili crab meat from scratch - Chef Tan Chee Leong buys the live Sri Lankan crab from his supplier at the local market, cooks the live crab himself, extracts the freshly cooked crab meat for later use.

To make the chili crab filling - Chef Tan Chee Leong usually mixes the freshly extracted Sri Lankan crab meat with the homemade chili paste to form the chili crab filling & the mixture marinate for 24 hours overnight in the chiller to allow for full infusion of the chili flavor into the Sri Lankan crab meat. The chili crab filling is made every alternate days to ensure freshness of the meat.

To make the chili crab puff - The following day Chef Tan Chee Leong fills the pastry puff with a ball of 30gm of the chili crab filling. He makes the fresh chili crab puffs once a week, & usually makes about 20 pieces per batch per week.

To serve, he does the order ala minute, by first deep frying the chili crab puff to doneness about 30%, then bake it in the oven to serve warm. The portion is dainty & nice bite size.

Tasting Notes - The puff pastry is al dente. The chili crab filling is full of the crab meat that are fully infused with chili. The end result is a very spicy flavor, it seems like there is a fair amount of chili used in this recipe that gives it that strong spicy tinge. The crab meat has been shredded into single fine strands allowing for a mixed flavor to burst out from the puff with a level of sweetness & spiciness mingled together. The puff has a strong chili crab flavor.

The pastry is fairly thin & filled with juicy fresh crab meat fully infused with chili paste that is very spicy. The filling is tasty, & is al dente because if it is too moist, the chili crab filling might seep through the pastry shell.

The spicy chili flavor makes for a very appetising bite. For chili crab lovers you will not be disappointed as this is indeed the real deal. There is level of natural sweetness coming from the homemade freshly extracted shredded crab meat interspersed with the spicy chili flavor of the chili paste. Because the Sri Lankan crab meat is shredded into singular strands you can taste it is completely infused with the chili paste, as not a strand is left unturned. Since the order is prepared ala minute, the pastry shells are piping hot & best eaten warm , that way the chili crab filling oozes out from the shell to give off a burst of spicy juicy flavors - mouth watering goodness indeed!