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.