Jaffna cuisine is renowned for its use of the fresh seafood readily available along the coast. The region is famous for its crab curries that use some unusual ingredients such as murunga leaves also known as moringa leaves. Use of these leaves are non essential but they do add a quality that cannot be described or named easily, to the dish, as well as removing the natural acidity of the crab by making the dish alkaline. You don’t have to include them but if you have access to them; go for it! With that in mind, let us begin!
Serves 4
2 large fresh (still in the shell, cut into 4-6 pieces) or frozen crabs 800g usually you will have about 9 pieces of crab 🦀 Fresh is always better but, in the U.K. it is very hard to come by. Actually the frozen crab I made, I couldn’t taste any difference.
3 tablespoon of coconut oil
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
¼ tsp of fenugreek seeds
1 piece of cinnamon stick
1 piece of lemongrass
1 large red onion finely sliced
4-5 garlic cloves finely chopped
2-3 green chillies finely chopped
1 tablespoon of finely chopped ginger
10-15 curry leaves (fresh or dried)
½ teaspoon of turmeric
2 tablespoon of Jaffna curry powder ( please see my blog on how to make this at home)
1 teasp of red chilli powder or paprika
1 tin of Coconut milk or 600ml
4 tablespoon of Tamarind water or paste
Bunch of moringa leaves (optional)
For the coconut paste
150g fresh or frozen coconut
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
4 garlic cloves
3-5 tablespoon of coconut milk
Method
For the paste, toast the grated coconut, peppercorns and cumin seeds in a dry pan, toasting one after another, until each is lightly coloured. Leave it to cool, then blend all ingredients together until smooth. Keep it aside.
Heat the oil in a wok and sute the mustard seeds, cinnamon until the spice crackle. Add the onion, green chillies, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and curry leaves and saute for a minute. Put in the pieces of crab into the pan and saute, turning so the shell colour changes to red all over. Add all the ground spices, stir well and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the coconut paste and stir well 2-3 minutes, then pour in the coconut milk and tamarind water. Simmer very gently for few more minutes until the crab is cooked. Take it off the heat. Season it according to your taste and finish it off by adding the moringa leaves. Stir it once more and serve it hot with rice.
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