Crab
is something that I adore, but haven’t really got a great deal of knowledge
about apart from relishing its intense and unique flavour. Iam not aware of the
kind of crabs and never knew how to do the cleaning until I prepared it last
time. It is a bit tricky to clean and prepare, I should say and it takes a
while to prepare a crab.
I had prepared crab before this, but while
preparing it this time, I watched couple of videos to make sure that I do things
right. I then realized that I din’t do proper cleaning and I even dumped the
large back shell into the gravy when I prepared the first time!! Check out this
video here if you are not sure how to clean a crab.
Now
here is the kind of crab curry that my mom makes back home. It’s slightly dry
or rather crabs smeared in spicy masala paste. I got the recipe from her the
other day when I got hold of some fresh crabs from the fisheries. I bought
three large crabs which weighed 1.5 kilos, and after I was done with the
cleaning, it just weighed half the original weight!!Most of it had to be thrown
away. Feel free to increase the amount of spices per taste. You can also add
coconut milk towards the end if you wish.
Njandu
Curry (Crab Curry)
serves 3 - 4
Ingredients:
750g
Cleaned crabs
3
Tbsp coconut oil
3
medium onions, 380g sliced thin – 3 cups
3
twigs curry leaves
2-3
green chillies, slit
2
medium tomatoes chopped, ~200g, 1 cup
salt
– as required
3-4
teaspoons Kashmiri chilli powder
2-3
teaspoons coriander powder
½
teaspoon turmeric powder
1
¼ - 1 ½ cups of water
¼
teaspoon garam masala
Preparation:
1. Heat
oil in a large saucepan.
2.
When hot, add sliced onion, 1 twig curry leaves, green chillies, salt and
tomatoes. Cover and cook on medium heat until onions go soft and tomatoes are
mushy and soft.
3.
Add chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and stir well.
4.
Add cleaned crabs, stir well, cover and ook on medium heat until steam comes
through.
5.
Add water and keep cooking on medium heat until the crabs are smeared in thick
gravy.
6.
Add garam masala and remaining curry leaves and stir.
7.
Serve along with plain rice or chappathi, porotta etc.
Notes:
1.You
can add more spices if you want. I add a mixture of paprika and kashmiri chilli
powder to balance the heat.
2.
Also you may add coconut milk towards the end of cooking.
This
post also goes to Kerala Kitchen event hosted by Jehanne who blogs at the
cookingdoctor.
