Stir-Fried Crab with Tamarind Sauce-Cua Xao Me

Ingredients
   1 large or medium  Dungeness crab, alive or cooked (prefer live one)
   2 Tbs vegetable oil
   2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed
   1 small shallot, finely chopped
   2 scallion, cut into 1-in length
   A few sprigs cilantro, coarsely chopped, save a whole one for decoration
  1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  1 small red Thai chili, seeded and thinly slice
  1/2 cup boiling water
  A small chunk of tamarind paste without seeds: about 1-in cube
  2 Tbs sugar
  2 Tbs fish sauce

1. Boiling water in a small sauce pan, add tamarind. Use the back of a spoon, smash tamarind paste into water.  Add sugar, fish sauce, set aside.  
2. If use cooked crab, just need to rinse it well to remove all the dust and sand.  If use the live crab. Put the crab on its back (shell) on a cutting board then cut into the center of its belly with a sharp knife  Remove the shell, keep  the orange roe (inside the shell) if you like and add to the tamarind sauce . Save the shell for decoration if you want to. Discard the gills.Remove the legs and claws from the body. Crack the big claws'shell. Cut the body into 4 pieces. Make sure the crab is cleaned because the sauce will cling to the crab and we are going to lick the sauce from the crab surface.
3. Heating oil in a medium saute pan over medium high heat.  Add shallot and garlic, stir a few seconds until fragrant.  Then add crab pieces and and stir a few minutes.  Add tamarind sauce and chili, and crab shell.  Continue stirring occasionally, until the sauce thicken and the crab cooked (the crab meat become opaque white and the outer shell turn orange red) taste and adjust seasoning if needed as your like. The sauce should taste lightly sweet, sour with a little salty. Add cilantro, scallion, and black pepper. Toss well and serve.

Note:

   Tamarind is a fruit with sweet, sour taste and brown color flesh when ripe.  It is sold whole or paste with or without seeds.  you can find it  at Asian or Mexican markets. I saw Winco carries it too.  I haven't use tamarind water yet. If you buy it whole, just need to remove the tough outer shell and cook with the seeds in.  Then discard the seeds later which must be easier then try to remove seeds before cooking.  The seeds is tough and may cause choking so be careful.  Some tamarinds is very sweet and others is extreme sour. So adjust seasoning to your liking and enjoy.
   We live in Oregon so I use Dungeness crab from Oregon coast.  You can use any kind of crab at your area but remember at some area sea water or cooked crab are saltier than others.