Crab Curry

I want to start my first post with my favourite crab curry. All my life crab was an alien creature to me something found on the beach and was not a pretty sight. I first tasted this dish when a colleague of mine offered it to me at work and liked the taste but never mustered enough courage to cook it myself since I thought cleaning crabs are a tedious process.

While buying fish on a cold morning from my friendly fisherman, he had crabs and mentioned they were perfect for the cold weather. He said he would clean them for me and I could make it like my regular fish curry and also suggested what masala I could use. I was reluctant but the taste of my colleagues crab lingered on and I thought I could just give this a try. I’ve never looked back since then and this dish has been a regular at our home though I must sadly admit that my husband and son don’t fancy crab and curl up their noses every time I cook this dish. Well!!! They don’t know what they’re missing.

Now for the recipe

Ingredients
6 crabs
4 tomatoes
1 onion
2 tbsp freshly ground ginger garlic paste
Coconut – ½ scraped- To make paste
2 tsp chilli pwd
2 tsp coriander pwd
½ tsp turmeric pwd
1 tsp garam masala (1 stick cinnamon, 3 cloves, a little fennel seeds powdered)
3 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste

Method

Take 3 tbsp of oil in a pan and add sliced onions. When brown add ginger garlic paste, curry leaves and fry till the raw smell disappears. Add finely chopped tomatoes and fry well. To this mixture add chilli pwd, coriander pwd, turmeric powder, garam masala. Fry well till the oil separates. Make a fine paste of the coconut and add to this masala. Add a little water and make it of gravy consistency. When it begins to boil add the cleaned and cut crabs. Add salt to taste .Close the lid and cook for 15 mnts. Garnish with coriander leaves. Crab curry is ready. The consistency of the gravy should be thick and it should ideally be served after 2-3 hours when the crabs have absorbed the gravy.