Kerala Crab Masala - Njandu vazhattiyathu

I lived in a little suburb called Mundakkal which is close to Kollam Beach in my primary school days.   We got fresh sea food everyday like most families.  The local fishermen fished at night and came back at dawn with their catch.  The fisherwomen then placed these fish in baskets and carried them on their heads and walked around the neighbourhood selling them.  They would call out the names of the fish they had in their basket and the housewives would call out to them if there was a fish that caught their fancy.  

The fisherwomen had to sell them before 9 am when it got too hot.  What eventually happened was that housewives who bought these fish started to cultivate a very good relationship with the fisherwoman who supplied the fish.  And depending on how good you were with your fisherwoman, you got the best catch first thing in the morning.   Later on when the housewives in the area stood around to have a cuppa and gossip, they would compare notes on who got what fish for what price that day.  They would then use this information to haggle with the fisherwoman the next day!

This ritual was followed dutifully by all the women living close to mum’s house and I think I learnt a lot about fish and seafood in general at that time.  Stella was our favourite fisherwoman.  She knew that amma hated cleaning prawns and crabs, so to get on amma’s good side she would do the favour.  Meanwhile, while Stella was cleaning the fish I got to peer inside the basket and check out all the fish and may be even touch them or play with them.  I still remember the day she brought in crabs.  They were still alive and when she set the basket down, they started to crawl out and around and Stella was running around chasing the crabs and chasing our neighbours cat that had got a whiff of the fish.

Crabs are very easy to clean when they are dead but when they are alive it is a different story!  Anyway, today when I went to Preston Market and saw these beautiful fresh blue swimmer crabs, I was reminded of my home and the flavours of Kerala.  So here is a crab dish I prepared with today’s catch.

Ingredients:

1 kg blue swimmer crabs, cleaned and shells reserved for decoration.

1 tablespoon ginger- garlic paste.  You can use the store bought paste for convenience.  But if you want your dish to taste authentic, you have to grind ginger and garlic in the ratio 1:1 and use 1 tablespoon of it.

1 large red onion, diced.

1 green chilli.

1 ripe red tomato, diced.

1 sprig curry leaves

1-2 teaspoons chilli powder ( depending on how hot you would like this dish to be)

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

2-3 tablespoons dessicated coconut, soaked in hot water.

1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional)

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, about ½ teaspoon.

4-5 tablespoons of Olive oil

½ teaspoon black mustard seeds.

Method:

In a large wok, add olive oil.  Heat it and add the mustard seeds.  When the mustard seeds crackle, add the curry leaves, chopped onion and green chilli. Sauté the onions for a few minutes till they got translucent and start to caramelize.  Now add the ginger garlic paste and sauté till you get a nice aroma.  Next add the tomatoes and sauté till the oil separates from the rest of the ingredients. 

At this point, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and the soaked desiccated coconut.  Add salt to taste and put in the pieces of crab and shell and cover the wok.

The crab starts off as blue but as soon as it starts to get cooked the colour changes to orange.  Once all the pieces have turned orange, add freshly ground black pepper and a tablespoon of coconut oil.

Serve hot with rice and pulissery or have it just like that with a glass of white.