Nams' Secret Curried Crab Recipe

It's been nearly two years since my last post on here so I thought it is about time I started catching up a little.
In my defence I have moved from Poland and currently live in India with the wife and dog.
And what an amazing place this is for a foodie like me!
When we got here we very quickly became good friends with a colleague of mine and neighbour, Namrata, an absolute gem of a woman, who has been so patient with me whilst teaching me how to cook Indian Style.
This morning she called me up quite early (well anything before 9am is early on a Sunday morning for me) and told me we were in luck, the local fishmonger had crabs (don't laugh) and we should go to him straight away and get a whole bag of them.

So that's is exactly what we did (no one argues with Nams).
Only a short drive away, outside a chicken shop, on the pavement was a whole bunch of fish, 3 guys hard at work and an audience of about a dozen customers. Nams very quickly got the chaps attention and hey presto from under a bag he pulled out a dozen fresh crabs. Before you knew it the chaps on the chopping boards were cleaning them out and chopping them into pieces. Pretty efficient. Our bags of crabs in hand we went back home and Nams invited me round to show me how to do her famous curried crabs, it is a family secret, and under no circumstances must I divulge her secret to anyone. I'm pretty sure no one reads this blog anyway...

Nams and our maid Kalpana hard at work

I stuck around taking notes and pictures and then went back home to try it myself, so, here is Nams' Secret Curried Crap recipe.

Ingredients:

• About 2Kg of cleaned and chopped up crabs
• 2 nice onions
• 4 tablespoons of blended garlic and ginger paste
• 2 teaspoons of turmeric
• 2 teaspoons of coriander powder
• 3 teaspoons of red hot chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
• 1 coconut
• peanut oil (6 tablespoons)
• fresh coriander (handful)
• fresh curry leaves (2 dozen)

The whole process is pretty simple, but the quality of the ingredients is a priority, so don't use pre-packed coconut milk when it is easy to do at home. Same goes for the ginger and garlic paste.

Start by marinating the crab in the turmeric, coriander powder, chilli powder and salt...

Mix well and set aside

De-husk and crack open the coconut...

Keep the water aside (dogs love it if you don't)

Remove all the flesh and pulp it in a blender

To this add 2 large cups of boiling water

Make sure the lid is properly secured before blending...

Leave the pulp to soak for half a minute

Chop up the onions

Put some peanut oil in a large pan and crackle the mustard seeds and fenugreek

Add the onions

And a dozen curry leaves, stir fry for a couple of minutes

Stir in the crabs with their marinade, cook until the change colour (blue to red)

Sieve in the coconut milk

Add the ginger and garlic paste and bring the whole thing to a boil

When it has been boiling for 3 or 4 minutes add another dozen curry leaves, cook until the gravy has the consistency you desire

Finish off with some chopped coriander leaves and dig in!

It is usually eaten with rice or you can do like me and just eat it with...your fingers!

Bon appetit!