This recipe combines sweet-tasting crabmeat with aromatic spices and the heat from chilies. Provide your guests with a crab cracker, picks, finger bowls and pieces of roti to mop up the wonderful juices. You can use any kind of crab for this recipe.
Ingredients: (Serves 4)
- 4 x 250 g (9 oz) small live crabs or 2 x 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) live crabs
For the paste:
- 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) oil
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4 cm (1½ inch) piece of ginger, grated
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cilantro (coriander)
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon tamarind purée
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 small red chilies, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (coriander) leaves, for garnish
Method:
Put the crabs in the freezer for 2 hours to immobilize them. Using a large, heavy-bladed knife or cleaver, cut off the large front claws from each crab, then twist off the remaining claws. Turn each body over and pull off each apron piece, then pull out the spongy grey gills and discard them. Cut each crab body in half (quarters if you are using the large crabs). Crack the large front claws with the handle of a cleaver or a rolling pin. Rinse off any chips of shell under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels.
Mix half the oil with the garlic, ginger, cumin, cilantro, turmeric, cayenne pepper, tamarind, sugar, chili and a generous pinch of salt until they form a paste. Heat the remaining oil in a karhai or large, heavy-based, deep frying pan over medium heat. Add the spice paste and stir for 30 seconds, or until aromatic.
Add the crab portions to the pan and cook, stirring for 2 minutes, making sure the spice mix gets rubbed into the cut edges of the crab. Add 60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) water, cover and steam the crabs, tossing them a couple of times during cooking, for another 5-6 minutes, or until cooked through. The crabs will turn pink or red when they are ready and the flesh will become opaque (make sure the large front claws are well cooked). Drizzle a little of the liquid from the pan over the crabs, then scatter with the cilantro leaves and serve.
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