These days, I am cooking a lot of sea food at home. I relish my prawns and fish, though I don't have the stomach for very smelly fish still. But, this is the first time I cooked crab at home. I have eaten crab with relish when I eat out. So, I decided to try it out. I tried this Mangalore style crab curry recipe that I've eaten at one of my favorite sea food places, Mahesh Lunch Home, in Mumbai. Crab is really quite easy to prepare, and this curry did not take much long to cook. Of course, the crab was already cleaned and washed. I used 4 medium crabs, one crab for each of us, which was about half a kilo.
Here's how to make crab curry at home:
📖 Recipe Card
Mangalore Style Crab Curry Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 medium-sized crabs cut, cleaned and washed
For the Curry
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 8-10 cloves garlic
- 2 Tomatoes finely chopped
- 1 small ball tamarind immersed in some hot water and juice extracted
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 1 small coconut scraped
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
For the dry masala
- 1 tsp. cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp. coriander seeds
- 1 tsp. mustard seeds
- 1 tsp. saunf
- 10-12 black peppercorns
- ½ tsp. fenugreek seeds
- 5-6 dry red chillies
- 2 tsp. oil
- salt to taste
- coriander leaves to garnish
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Instructions
- To prepare the gravy heat oil in a pan. Add chopped onions and garlic and fry till transparent for about 5 minutes.
- Now add chopped tomatoes and curry leaves and fry some more till they are squishy. Now add the scraped coconut. Fry some more.
- Now add in the crabs along with the dry masala. Prepare the dry masala by dry roasting all the ingredients mentioned above and powdering them.
- Add salt. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add in the tamarind juice and cook for 2 minutes. Now add the coconut milk to make a lovely thick curry.
- Cook some more on low flame. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Now turn off the gas. Let the crab steep in the curry for some time to absorb the flavors. Serve hot after garnishing with coriander leaves with boiled rice.
Notes
Nutrition
I was surprised at how tasty this crab curry was. The crab was succulent. The sweet flesh had soaked in the flavours so well. I can't wait to make this again. Hope you enjoy this too.
Step by step Pictures
Roast the dry spices well.
Fry onion, garlic, tomatoes and coconut in oil.
Blend the masala. Add coconut milk and ground masala along with crab and salt and cook.
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Bikramjit says
I am not a big fan of sea food .. so i will replace the crab with chicken or mutton 🙂
thank you rachna
Rachna says
Yes, you can, Bikram. I think the taste will still be good. But do remember to marinate the chicken or mutton for better flavor.
Bikramjit says
I am not a big fan of sea food .. so i will replace the crab with chicken or mutton 🙂
thank you rachna
Rachna says
Yes, you can, Bikram. I think the taste will still be good. But do remember to marinate the chicken or mutton for better flavor.
nabanita21 says
Yumm yumm yumm Rachna.... I will try this one...
Rachna says
You must! And let me know how it turns out. 🙂
nabanita21 says
Yumm yumm yumm Rachna.... I will try this one...
Rachna says
You must! And let me know how it turns out. 🙂
dnambiar11 says
You tried making a crab dish at home? So cool!! 🙂
dnambiar11 says
It looks so yum. I barely cook these days; should take some inspiration from you and try it out when I start cooking again.
Rachna says
It was so tasty too. And quite simple since the fish monger had done all the cleaning. Looking forward to meeting you, Dee. Hope you recognize me at the meet because I don't have your picture to go by. 🙂
Rachna says
I felt very cool too. 😉
dnambiar11 says
You tried making a crab dish at home? So cool!! 🙂
dnambiar11 says
It looks so yum. I barely cook these days; should take some inspiration from you and try it out when I start cooking again.
Rachna says
It was so tasty too. And quite simple since the fish monger had done all the cleaning. Looking forward to meeting you, Dee. Hope you recognize me at the meet because I don't have your picture to go by. 🙂
Rachna says
I felt very cool too. 😉