King Kankra Curry

A trip to St. Lawrence Market over the weekend means we eat like kings and queens for the rest of the week. And these insanely colossal crabs (Kankra in Bengali) are just enough reason to reinstate the feeling of royalty on our plates.

I made my Mum’s Spicy Crab Curry recipe today, which has remained in the family for three generations now. She inherited it from her Grandmother, who as long as I remember remained on a wheelchair for the latter part of her life. I sometimes became her lathi, human walking stick, with her resting her winkled but strong arms on my shoulders to take her from one room to another.

“Nani” passed on in her 90s and always used an unuun (chulha, Indian clay oven) for cooking. Her servants would get the unuun close to where she sat in the courtyard for her to spend the rest of the afternoon making her signature sondesh, goja, narkel naru, nolen gurer payesh, pantua, and other out-of-the-world delicacies. Needless to say, no one could out-cook a Grandmother.

These crabs were cracked by the fish monger, but I had to de-shell them before cooking. I also cracked and broke their claws from the body for easy cooking.

Since you already have the recipe, I will just go ahead and share the pictures of how I made them today. Oh and another thing, I did not use potatoes today as mentioned in the original recipe. And also changed the measurements of the ingredients for the amount of crab we had today.

Turn the heat off and garnish with fresh coriander.

This crab curry tastes perfect with plain white rice. With a rush of great flavors in my mouth, my Sunday will be complete, as I close my drooping eyes for a well-deserved snooze.

I am linking this to Patty’s Weekend Wrap Up – Week 11, the last one on her Blog for 2010. Patty is a dear Blogger friend who outshines everyone on the circuit with her warm infusion of colors for everyday mundane things. Do check out ideas on Christmas decorations on her Blog.