Aaji's Crab Special

I have wonderful memories of watching my grandmom grinding various spices for her paste. She loved making crabs and she loved the fact that I enjoyed eating them. I wasn't a fussy child but I didn't enjoy meat like the rest of the family so I would stick to vegetables and seafood when I was at home.When the family meets for gatherings,  I fill up my plate with vegetables and seafood while the others line up to eat the meat dishes :)

As a child I wasn't intimidated by the size of the crabs (though my mother was). After my grandmom passed,  I did not eat crabs for many years till we got new neighbours and then it was my new neighbour who took over the role of my grandmom and taught me how to work with them ( I was a lot older then so was allowed to hold them).
The recipe is my grandmom's and I recommend you make this dish a day before you intend eating it so the crab and the gravy have some time to get cozy:)
This dish tastes sensational with plain rice.

Here's what you need -

6 huge crab claws or 8 mid sized crab claws.
1 teacup freshly grated coconut (frozen coconut that is grated works well too)
2 big onions sliced/chopped. Keep 1/2 sliced onion aside for making the gravy.
6 big cloves of garlic chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garam masala (if your garam masala has red chili powder, skip adding the chili powder and increased the quantity of garam masala to 1.5 teaspoon instead of 1 teaspoon)
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon cooking oil (olive or sunflower)
Handful chopped coriander leaves

Method
Use a brush to clean the crab claws.

Put them in cold water till you are ready to use them.

In a shallow frying pan, add 1 teaspoon oil and add onions (except the 1/2 you keep aside at the start).

Fry well for 10 minutes, then add garlic.

Fry till the raw smell of garlic goes away and then add the coconut.

Fry well till the onion and coconut turns a nice shade of brown.

Once done, keep aside to cool then grind this with turmeric, salt & red chili powder.

In a deep bottomed vessel, add the remaining oil and allow to heat. Keep heat on low.

Add the remaining sliced onion and fry well.

Add the ground paste and fry well for about 6 minutes.

Add the crab claws to this and mix well.

Add 2 glasses of water and the garam masala and mix.

Cover and allow to cook till crabs are done.

Mine took 28 minutes. The colour of the shell changes so you know when they have cooked. You can always ask your local fish supplier how long to cook it because the time changes with the type.

Once done, take off heat and add the chopped coriander leaves.

Once cool, take out the claw one by one and bash them slightly so that they have openings in their shell . This ensures the gravy gets to the interiors of the crab claws. You can skip this and decide to break it apart when you are eating. It's your choice.
The way I  bash claws is by wrapping the claw in a kitchen (cloth) towel and then using my pestle. Make sure you exercise caution when doing this so that you don't injure yourself or destroy your kitchen counter. When you cover the claw completely with a towel, you avoid a mess.

Once done (discard the loose shell bits), and put  the claws with exposed meat back in the gravy. Let them stay there till you are ready to eat.

Before eating, take the quantity you want in a vessel and heat to boiling point.

Points to remember

Never re-heat shells in a microwave. 
Always be careful and alert when eating because there may be be fragments of the shell in the gravy. Always pick out the crab meat and strain the gravy before you give it to someone younger, older or to someone with vision problems. 

Enjoy this delicacy! Thank you!