Finally, here I am with my all time favourite crabs gravy. I have observed that people who are very fond of fish, dont prefer crabs/prawns much and vice versa. Obviously I am in the second category.
At my native Kodkani, its very rare to find the crabs in the market. These are usually caught by people for their own use. Usually we ask Thimmappa to catch them for us. Many of the people at our native know how to catch them (No..I have never tried my hand on it). People say that they go to river with a lantern on ‘amavasya’(no moon) to catch them. The crabs live in small nest-like holes in the sand. They are caught using some kind of ‘big pincers’ (I am not able to recall what this tool is called).
There are usually two types of crabs that we get at our native. One is the crabs that we get in river which are called ‘Kurle’, these are black in color and second type are sea crabs which are called ‘jhali’/’jhale’. The river crabs have harder shell/bone than the sea crabs. The sea crab flesh is more sweater compared to the river crab.
An interesting fact about crab: The crabs which are caught on or around “amavasye” (No moon) are the best ones with full of flesh and the ones caught near or around “hunnime”(full moon) do not have much flesh (they are called as ‘pollu’, meaning ’empty’). I still wonder how these things matter in the life cycle of crabs.
In Bangalore, I liked the crabs thali at “Fish Land”, in majestic, where we get all the sea food cooked in Konkani style.
Most of the people use the 10 walking legs also for the gravy. But we usually discard them.
Crabs gravy (Kurle ambat)
Ingredients
- 4 crabs
- 3/4 cup onions
- 1 cup fresh/frozen coconut
- 1 tea spn coriander seeds
- 5-6 red chillies
- 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract
- Oil 2 tea spns
- Salt
Instructions
- Clean the crabs. If the crab is big, cut them into 2 pieces to make eating easier. Slightly crush the legs with pestle(beat it just once or twice just to crack the outer shell slightly).
- Heat 1 tea spn of oil and fry coriander seeds. Grind them with red chllies, coconut and tamarind to a smooth paste.
- Heat remaining oil and fry onions till they are slightly brownish. Add ground masala, salt and cook for 2-3 min. Now add the crabs and cook for around 12-15min.
- Serve hot with rice.
- The taste of gravy increases once the crabs absorbs the gravy. So preferably serve it after 3-4 hours.
Crabs gravy (Kurle ambat)
Ingredients
- 4 crabs
- 3/4 cup onions
- 1 cup fresh/frozen coconut
- 1 tea spn coriander seeds
- 5-6 red chillies
- 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract
- Oil 2 tea spns
- Salt
Instructions
- Clean the crabs. If the crab is big, cut them into 2 pieces to make eating easier. Slightly crush the legs with pestle(beat it just once or twice just to crack the outer shell slightly).
- Heat 1 tea spn of oil and fry coriander seeds. Grind them with red chllies, coconut and tamarind to a smooth paste.
- Heat remaining oil and fry onions till they are slightly brownish. Add ground masala, salt and cook for 2-3 min. Now add the crabs and cook for around 12-15min.
- Serve hot with rice.
- The taste of gravy increases once the crabs absorbs the gravy. So preferably serve it after 3-4 hours.
I bought one pomfret hoping to make the ‘masala fish’ that we got in “Curry House”, Bangalore. Unfortunately, when I serached on the google, I could not get the exact recipe for it. But I knew how it should taste and I got one recipe which looked more or less like the one I was searching for. When I prepared it, it was quite different from the one I was searching for, but the taste of it was superb. So here is the recipe.
Ingredients: Pomfret 1 Dry roasted coconut 2 tea spn Lemon juice 1 tbl spn Onions 1/2 cup Red chillies 10 Garlic 3 Ginger 1″ piece Cinnamon(dalchini) 1″ piece Cloves 3 Vinegar 1 tea spn Banana leaves or foil (to wrap) Oil 1 tea spn Salt
In the picture, I reduced the amount of red chillies to make it less spicy. I liked the thick coating of the masala on fish, this can be reduced if you wish to have a thin masala layer.
Method: Clean the fish. Make 2-3 slits in the fish with a sharp knife. Rub lemon juice and salt on the fish and keep it aside for 1hr.
Heat oil and fry finely chopped onions till slightly brownish. Take out one tea spn of onions and keep aside to be used later in the dish. Add coconut to remaining onions and fry for 4-5mins. Grind it with ginger-garlic, cinnamon, chillies, cloves, vinegar and salt without adding water. Add the onions (preserved earlier) to the masala. Rub the masala on the fish to make a thick/thin coating. Wrap it in banana leaf or foil.
Preheat the over to 400F. Bake the fish for 25-30min. Open the oven after every 10mins and turn the fish.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 45min
