Boil a large pot of water and drop in the crabs.

Boil them rapidly for 4 minutes then tip the contents of the pot into a colander to drain.

When cool enough to handle, chop crabs into quarters with a cleaver or large knife, leaving legs at- tached to body.

With a hammer, gently crack the claws and areas of harder shell.

Put 3 teaspoons tamarind pulp to soak in 3/4 cup boiling water.

Finely chop 2 onions, grate 5 cm piece fresh ginger, finely slice 2-3 birdseye chillies (or to taste) and chop 3 green (spring) onions.

Mix 2 teaspoons cornflour with a little water.

In a large wok or pan, heat 3 tablespoons of oil and stir-fry onion, ginger and 2/3 of the chopped chillies for a couple of minutes.

Add crab pieces and strained tamarind water, lower heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Lift the crab out onto a serving dish and to the mixture in the wok add 3 teaspoons sugar and 2 of tomato paste.

Stir, add dissolved cornflour and stir again until the mixture thickens.

Pour over the crab, garnish with the rest of the chillies and the spring onions and serve.

Disclaimer: I am absolutely not going to slay a bunch of crabs to make this soup. They will have to be dead as doornails before I drop them into the boiling broth. I know this is cowardly and illogical but, trust me, I am not gonna do it. Forget it.

Not that the crabs aren't dying for a good cause. The recipe for this truly fabulous soup is modified from: