Chimboricha Kalwan - Crab curry

This is a CKP cuisine recipe.. we have gathered it from our aajji and Aai.. The main task here is to get good crabs or as we call it Chimboryaa.. the ones which are big n full.. cutting open their fangs (naangde) is a tedious but much enjoyable task.. and so eating crabs is an elaborate process just as cooking them is.. 

Ingredients are simple..

7 to 8 nice big crabs

1 tbsp - garlic paste

1 tbsp - chilly and coriander paste.. 

in Marathi it is called Watan.. and the joy of calling these pastes watan still remains unmatched for the nostalgic kid in me.. who in her thoughts still wanders in her aai's kitchen ..where my aai used to make the most amazing Sunday lunch ever.. 

back to the ingredients..

2 tsp - red chilly powder

1/2 tsp - turmeric powder

very little - jaggery (gul)

2 onions finely chopped

some coriander leaves.. nice fresh n green

black pepper

garlic may be 1 tbsp

3 to 4 bay leaves

oil for tempering 

and salt to taste

the most important ingredient of this recipe is the ' talela masala' paste made from onions and coconut.. to make this paste.. in some oil..shallow fry a tbsp of fennel seeds.. then add onions.. fry them well and once they are nice n golden brown in color add either dried coconut or wet coconut (scraped).. once this mixture starts looking golden brown ..take it off the stove top..allow it to cool for sometime and then grind it adding just the right amount of water it will take to be made it into a fine  smooth paste..

how to make..

clean the crabs well.. there's always a lot of mud on these crabs..so cleaning them well is very important.. today I got really small sized crabs.. but these aren't the right size.. the crabs have got to be a lot bigger than these to get that perfect taste.. 

marinate these in the mixture of garlic paste..chilly coriander paste.. red chilly powder.. turmeric and salt.. 

meanwhile grind black pepper and garlic too.. the paste should not be too fine..its better if its left a little coarse.

now in a pot.. add some oil .. black pepper and bay leaves..

now add the chopped onion.. and wait till its nice golden brown..now add the black pepper and garlic paste..

add the marinated crabs to this and let it cook for a while on low flame without adding water..

now grind the crab legs.. not the bigger fangs.. just the smaller legs.. remove their pointed tips and grind

once you grind the paste will look something like this

now add little water to this and sieve it .. that juice is important.. the key ingredient.. 

now add this to the pot.. add a little water.. the gravy for this particular recipe isn't very thick.. now add a bit of jaggery..take care that you don't add too much of it.. let this boil sometime and now add the talela masala..fried onion and coconut paste.. now adjust the taste by adding salt and chilly powder.. now let all this simmer for sometime.. there's no hard n fast parameter to tell when the crabs are cooked but a well seasoned eye and nose can do this job well.. I know of a woman who waited for a very very long time for the crabs to turn soft cause she thought that's what happens to it when they are cooked.. lol..

when you are sure that the curry is ready to be served add some fresh green coriander leaves finely chopped.. 

 there you go.. this absolutely mind-blowing recipe is ready..

Enjoy this with hot steaming white rice or a nice ghee bathed paratha too.. No matter what ingredients I add to this or how well I try to make this..it can never ever taste like my Aajji or my Aai.. but this first recipe on this blog is for them.. without whom I would have never known what exactly good food means.. :-)