Inspired by a very fine broth we had in a lovely little café in Kanazawa Market on our 2017 Japan trip, this is a delight; sweet and savoury, rich and light, and very easy to make

1 large live crab

2 litres dashi

1 tbspn ground nut oil

1 small stick celery, finely chopped

1 large carrot, finely chopped

6 spring onions, 4 finely chopped, 2 thickly sliced diagonally

150mls dry white wine

Chopped coriander leaves

Salt and pepper

• Put a wok on a medium heat, add the oil, then when it’s hot, add the celery, carrot and the finely chopped spring onions. Cook till soft, season lightly

• Add the dashi and bring to a boil

• Kill the crab in your preferred manner (if you freeze it to death, it'll need to be defrosted before cooking), and pull the legs and claws off. Put the body into the boiling dashi, and boil for 15 minutes. Remove the body, add the wine to the dashi, simmer very gently for 10 minutes while the crab cools

• To prepare the crab, placed it upside down on a chopping board and pull off the apron with your fingers (it is the flap of shell on the underside of the crab). Pull out the body that the legs were attached to. Remove and discard the leaf-like, spongy gills from either side of the body. Rinse out the greenish-brown guts very gently; over-washing can kill the flavour. Break off and discard the mandibles, which are the mouthparts at the front of the crab. Pull all of the large chunks of meat out of the body. With a big chopping knife, cut the body into 4 or 6 pieces, and gently pull the white meat out of it. Set all the cooked crab meat aide

• Strain the dashi, bring back to a boil, put the claws and legs in and boil for 5 minutes

• Add the prepared crab body and the sliced spring onions and bring to the table, scattered with the chopped coriander. Make sure diners have a crab crackers to hand for the claws, and those long skinny crab forks (below) are very handy for getting the sweet, juicy meat out of the legs and claws