Whenever you buy crabs make sure you buy female crabs as they have eggs in their stomach,which gives extra flavour and thickness to the gravy.As per my mom,cleaning crab is an art.In crabs the two big legs (not the walking ones)are the most dangerous ones .The 10 walking legs are relatively very less harmful. I mostly get the two big legs  removed by the person who sells  the crabs. If not you can keep crab in deep freezer for hour or two and then clean them.Two big legs are also used with crabs while cooking.

Always hold the crab from top, If you try to hold in any other way, they can easily bite your hand

Still keeping it pressed to ground, pluck the legs.2 big one and 10 small ones.Open the white colour flap,u will see a small hole init,put a thin knife or chop stick in it and apply pressure to remove the shell.Clean the soft portion ( lungs) ,dont discard yellowish orange colour substance,those are eggs.

Hold the crab below running water to remove any other unwanted dirt from crab.,ur crab is ready to use now.

Dont discard small legs,clean them well and grind them in mixie without using water to extract juice out of it.

Strain the juice and keep it aside.

You can  makes two pieces from the stomach to make eating easier (only for bigger crabs). For this, hold the cleaned crab like this and twist the right hand in clockwise and left hand in anti-clockwise direction.

Ingredients:

6 Medium sized crabs with big legs..

1 small Onion chopped.

1 tsp Ginger garlic paste.

2 tbsp Malvani masala.

1/2 tsp Haldi powder.

4 Kokum.

4 tbsp Vatan ( see glossary)

2 tbsp Oil.

Salt to taste.

Method:

To the cleaned crabs and big legs apply malwani masala and haldi powder,mix well,add yellowish orange eggs to this,and keep aside.

In a pan heat oil,add chopped onion and saute till brown.Add ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute more.

Now add marinated crabs and juice extracted from small legs.Mix well and let it come to boil on high flame,lower the flame and let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes.

Now add vatan and mix well.

Simmer on slow flame for a minute or two,add kokum and simmer further for a minute.

Check for salt and add only if required,as shell fish has salt content in it.

Remove in a serving dish and serve hot with rice or roti of your choice.

Happy Cooking!!!

Sameera.

Mandeli is one of the not so expensive fish, it has its unique taste,I have childhood memories of Crispy Mandelis made by my mom,i used to love to have crispy tails of Mandelis.Served with fish curry,sol kadhi  & rice,mandeli makes a perfect meal.

Ingredients:

15 Mandelis

Salt to taste.

1/2 tsp Haldi powder.

1 tbsp kokum aagul.(Juice of Kokum)

1/4 cup rice flour.

1/4 cup fine rava.

Oil for frying.

For the masala

1 medium sized onion.

2 tbsp Dhana(corriander seeds)

5 tbsp Red chilli powder.

1 tbsp haldi powder.

1 tsp black pepper powder.

Method:

You can  get mandeli  pre cut and cleaned from market,if not can be cut in following way.

Cut of the head in slanting way till stomach,cut of fins and tail end.

Wash mandeli under running water.Open stomach area an wash it clean.

Add salt,turmeric and kokum aagul to wash and cleaned mandeli.Keep aside.

Place all the masala ingredients in a mixie jar and grind to a smooth paste using very little water.

Apply this masala to the fish pieces.Leave it to marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.

Mix together rice flour and rava.

Heat Oil in a frying pan.

Coat the marinatedfish pieces with rava and rice flour mixture from both the sides.

Shallow fry in the oil till crisp from both sides till crisp.

Drain on an absorbent paper to drain out excess oil.

Serve hot.

Happy Cooking !!!

Sameera.