Not every broth needs hours on the stove, and this crab noodle soup is as weeknight-friendly as it is flavour-packed. The boost of flavour comes from the richness of almost browned butter and deeply caramelised ginger, with added warmth from the rice wine.

Mud crab is ideal for this dish, as the rice wine does wonders for enhancing the sweetness of the meat, but flower crab and blue swimmers both work well.

The recipe calls for Shaoxing wine, but brandy works too if you happen to have some on hand. The alcohol is cooked out as it simmers leaving only a lovely aroma, so there’s no need to worry about this broth being too boozy.