Back in 2010, we had lunch at Mr. Kurosawa and one of the dishes we ordered was bacon-wrapped kani. We made our home version, took photos and a recipe was published. While that recipe is still good today, we have come up with a more convenient way of cooking bacon-wrapped kani.
The ingredients for the recipe are the same. It’s one bacon rasher for every piece of kani. But, after 12 years, we have modified not only the cooking method but the preparation was well.
We have learned the value of removing excess moisture from any ingredient that’s going to be wrapped. To make the kani easier to handle (read: less slippery), we let them rest on a stack of paper towels for about 10 minutes before wrapping them with bacon.
The bacon-wrapped kani are cut into halves and pierced with bamboo skewers. Why cut after wrapping? It’s easier to wrap that way. The smaller the kani, the harder it is to make the bacon stay in place.
In the past, we cooked this dish in a frying pan. With butter. That cooking method required turning the bacon-wrapped kani around to make sure that the bacon cooked evenly. No matter how careful we were, the bacon often came loose.
So, we air fry our bacon-wrapped kani now. No turning required. No bacon comes loose. And with the delectable parcels neatly skewered, no chopsticks or forks are required to enjoy them.
Bacon-wrapped kani
Equipment
- Air fryer
- bamboo skewers cocktail-sized
Ingredients
- 12 kani fully thawed
- 12 rashers belly bacon
- Japanese mayo to serve
- aonori (dried green laver) to garnish
- shichimi togarashi (Japanese chili flakes) to garnish
Instructions
- Peel off the plastic wrappers of the kani.
- Line a plate with paper towels and arrange the kani in a single layer. Leave for about five minutes to allow the paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
- Lay a bacon rasher flat. Place a piece of kani on one end positioning it on a slightly diagonal angle. Roll the bacon to enfold the kani but leaving both ends exposed.
- Repeat for the rest of the bacon rashers and kani.
- With a sharp knife, cut each bacon-wrapped kani into halves.
- Thread three pieces of bacon-wrapped kani with a bamboo skewer. Repeat for the rest.
- Arrange the skewered bacon-wrapped kani in a single layer in the basket of the air fryer.
- Cook for 12 minutes at 190C.
- Transfer the air fried bacon-wrapped kani on a serving plate and sprinkle with aonori.
- Serve with Japanese mayo sprinkled with shichimi togarashi for dipping.
