Kakrar Jhol | Bengali style Crab Curry is a Bengali delicacy, that’s cooked in an out most simple manner yet it tastes so delicious. Today, we had a crab seller passing by our lane. We stopped him and inquired about the crabs. 500 bucks per kilogram, he said. All carried down from Sundarban, the pride of Bengal. No more thinking twice, we jumped over to get our share.
I have cooked crabs 3 times previously before I started blogging. Following instructions from my mother, Kakrar Jhol | Bengali style Crab Curry came out perfect Everytime. The best crab I had was though from our doctor uncle’s mom’s kitchen. She was a great great cook. Till today, that taste remains etched in my mind. She cooked it in a wonderful rich manner and sent it to us in a 3-tier tiffin carrier. The aroma was too good. Wish I could have a time machine to go back to the time and ask her the recipe! My mom keeps it simple though. Today I will share her recipe. It comes out very nice and can be served with a plate of steamed rice.
Time required for Kakrar Jhol | Bengali style Crab Curry: 1 hour
Ingredients required to make Kakrar Jhol | Bengali style Crab Curry:
- Crab – 1 kg
- 3 potatoes – peeled off and cut into 4 pieces
- A paste of 2 inch ginger, 10 big garlic cloves, 4 red dry chillies, 2 green chillies
- 2 big onions – sliced
- A paste of 2 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp garam masala powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder
- Salt
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- Mustard oil
- 1/2 tomato
Kakrar Jhol | Bengali style Crab Curry – The recipe:
- Clean the crab well in running water. Use a brush to clean off the mud. Break the thin legs out if the crab. I kept them separate to cook another day. Break off the fat legs. De-shelled them. Thus crabs are ready to handle
- Now, take enough water in a bowl. Add enough salt. Boil for 5 minutes so that the mud comes off. Drain water and keep crabs separate
- Marinate crab with salt, turmeric powder, 1/2 of ginger garlic paste mentioned. Keep separate for at least 30 minutes
- Heat enough mustard oil in Wok. Add onion slices, little salt and fry them till brown.
- Add ginger garlic paste, stir fry till rawness disappear
- Now, add paste of coriander and other powders mentioned
- Let oil start to separate from sides of pan
- Add tomatoes, wait till rawness disappears
- Add crabs, stir fry
- When oil starts to separate, add water, potatoes and bring it to boil. Let it cook for 10 minutes in high flame
- Now, lower the flame, cover the wok and simmer for 30 minutes more or until potatoes and crabs are cooked. You have to Stir in between
- Sprinkle some garam masala and simmer for a minute more. Switch off the flame
- Add a tsp of ghee. Cover the wok and let it rest for 10 minutes. Your crab is ready to be served with steamed rice!
