Crab Malaikari

In all our trips to Costco my daughter insists that I pick up the huge king crabs they have on sale. I mostly land up making Konkani Crab or Red Curry. This time I decided to adapt the traditional Bengali Prawn Malaikari to Crabs. It turned out to be really yummy. Hope you would enjoy it as well.

Ingredients

• 2lbs. crab cleaned and cut
• 1 medium onion
• 3-4 green chilies
• 2” ginger 
• 2 tsp.red chili powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 4-5 tbsp. ghee (Clarified Butter)
• Whole garam masala (1’ cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, 2 green cardamom, 1 bay leaf)
• 1 tsp. Bengali garam masala powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil
• Small piece of cinnamon and few cloves
  

Procedure

Make a paste of onion, ginger with two green chilies.

In a wide vessel heat ghee till it melts. Now temper it with whole garam masala and bay leaf.

Add the ground onion paste to it and sauté on low heat till the raw smell goes away.

Now one by one add turmeric and chili powder to it. Sauté on low heat till you see oil gets separated from the spice mixture.

Add crab pieces to it and fry them on medium heat for about two to three minutes. Make sure that all crab pieces are well coated with the spices. season them with salt.

Pour half a cup of water and let it simmer on low heat for about ten minutes. Add coconut milk to it and give a nice stir. Cook for another three to four minutes.

Finish it off by adding a spoon full of ghee, green chilies and a spoon  Bengali garam masala powder. Serve hot with plain rice.

Lal Kankrar Jhal (Crab in Red Hot Sauce)

Easy availability of Alaskan crabs has turned crabs from a rare delicacy to a common staple at our household. My daughter never lets us skip it on the grocery trips. I have posted bunch of crab recipes but most were from the other coasts of India. This is a traditional Bengali recipe.

Ingredients

1. 2lb. crab (I got crab claws)
2. 2tbsp. onion paste
3. 1tbsp. garlic paste
4. 1tbsp. dry red chili paste
5. 1/2tsp. turmeric powder
6. 1tbsp. chopped green chilies
7. 1tbsp. ginger cut into thin strips
8. 2tbsp. tamarind pulp
9. 1tsp. yellow mustard paste
10. 5-6 green chilies slit lengthwise
11. 1tsp. Bengali garam masala powder
12. 200gms. mustard oil
13. 1tsp. sugar
14. Salt to taste
15. Whole garam masala for tempering
    1. 2 green cardamom
    2. 1” cinnamon stick
    3. 2-3 cloves

Procedure

Take crab and cut into halves. The legs need to be crushed a bit. This is done so that the spices and salt gets into the juicy flesh.

Now heat mustard oil in a pan and toss the crab pieces. The color of the crab will turn vibrant orange. Remove and set aside.

Temper the same oil with whole garam masala. Wait till the oil becomes fragrant. Lower the heat and add garlic paste to it. Sauté for 2-3 minutes before you add onion and red chili paste to it.Drop chopped green chilies. Fry everything together on low  heat. Now add turmeric powder, salt and sugar one by one. stir continuously till you cook out their raw smell. If required you may sprinkle little water so that the spices don’t get burnt.

Add fried crab pieces to it and mix well so all sides of the crab pieces are nicely coated with spices. Throw the ginger sticks in. Now add a cup of water and simmer it covered for about 10 minutes. Add mustard paste and tamarind pulp to it and crank up the heat to high.

Stir everything together till all the moisture evaporates and the oil oozes out from the gravy. Sprinkle garam masala powder and slit green chilies.

Serve with plain hot rice.

Thai Pepper Garlic Crab

How would you feel if the shop owner just threw your freshly purchased bag of sea-food or fish across the store. In most places it would cause an outrage, at a particular place in Seattle it would cause a hundred camera flashes to fire. Welcome to the famous Pike place market.

Being a foodie I just love going to the Seattle Pike Place market. I love roaming inside the market eating stuff from across the world, buying the freshest sea-food money can buy and just being there. My husband also makes his pilgrimage to the first ever Starbucks store in the world across the street which is obviously called “Store No.1”.

In my last trip I picked up some great fresh Dungeness crab which is a local crab found around the coast of Washington state. I also picked up some leek. I cooked it as soon as I got home, no meaning is buying fresh and then keeping it refrigerated.

Ingredients

1. 1 medium sized crab around 5 lbs cut into pieces
2. 1 medium sized onion chopped
3. 1 leek chopped
4. 1 spring onion chopped
5. 10 cloves of garlic crushed
6. 2 tbsp. black pepper freshly crushed
7. 2 tbsp. soya sauce
8. 2 tbsp. chili garlic sauce
9. Salt
10. Sugar

Procedure

Heat oil in a pan on a medium heat. Scald crab over the hot oil and stir continuously until the crab starts to turn color. Remove the crabs now.

To the same oil  add chopped onion and crushed garlic. Fry for about 1-2 mins till you get a nice aroma of fried garlic. Add half of the chopped leek and spring onion. Sauté for a while.

In a bowl take half a cup of water and mix soya sauce,chili-garlic sauce along with salt and a pinch of sugar. Add this sauce mixture to the pan and bring it to a boil. Add crabs and cook it covered for about 5 mins. By that time crab should be done.

Check the seasoning and add crushed black pepper powder. Throw in the rest of the chopped leek and spring onion and or stir fry for about 2-3 mins.

Serve with noodles or fried rice.

Crab is best had when no one is watching you. It’s difficult to maintain decency when you are fighting with a 10 legged creature. Just be wild and ensure no meat is left behind however, hard it is to get it out from the shell.

Konkani Crab

I dealt with plenty of crabs in college. I had cut them open and studied their nervous and digestive systems. However, I never ate them, not until years later after I got married.

Cooking crab was always on ordeal considering that I had to cut and clean them. However, after moving to the US this main hurdle has gone because you can buy fully cleaned and even boiled crab legs at many stores (including Costco, Fred Meyers).

I picked up the recipe of Konkani Crab from one of my closest friend who is Mangalorian.

Ingredients

1. 2lbs Crab cleaned
2. 2 medium onions finely chopped
3. 2 tbsp. of minced garlic
4. Half cup shredded coconut fresh or frozen
5. One ping-pong sized tamarind soaked in half a cup of warm water
6. 1 tsp. chili powder
7. 1 tbsp. cumin powder
8. 2 tbsp. coriander powder
9. 2 tbsp. black pepper powder
10. Few curry leaves
11. 2" cinnamon stick
12. 5,6 cloves
13. Salt
14. Sugar

Procedure

Heat oil in a pan and add crabs to it. Fry till they turn pink. Remove and keep aside. Don't discard the oil as we will use the same oil for the gravy.

Temper oil with curry leaves, cinnamon stick and cloves. When the spices start popping add chopped onion and minced garlic to it. Fry till they turn golden brown. Now add the shredded coconut to it and continue frying on a low flame till you get a nice aroma of fried coconut.

Squeeze out tamarind pulp and add to the fried spices followed by chili, cumin and coriander powder. Fry till the raw smell goes away.

Add fried crabs to it and mix well so that crab pieces are well coated with spice mixture. Add water along with salt and little sugar. Adjust water level depending on the type of gravy you want. I love this dish dry so I put very little water.

Cook it for  5-10 minutes depending on the size of your crab. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle black pepper powder and keep it covered till you serve.