Stuffed Crabs ( भरले खेकडे )

The koli community is one of the original inhabitants of Mumbai . 

Their food which is full of spices is extremely delicious  . 

The variety of fish that this community prepares is just mouth watering . 

Today when I bought crabs from the fish market decided to make a popular koli variety which tastes amazing . 

It goes very well with rice and solkadhi ( curry ) . 

Make this dish a bit dry if you are having it with rice . 

And if you like to have it with roti , bhakri or paratha then you can keep little gravy . 

Ingredients - 

5/6 ............................ crabs 

10/12 ........................ garlic flakes 

1 inch ....................... ginger 

1/2 bowl ................... grated dry coconut

1 ............................... onion sliced 

1 ............................... onion chopped

3/4 .......................... green chillies 

1 ............................ tomato chopped 

2 t sp ..................... red chilly pd 

1 t sp .....................  turmeric pd 

2 tb sp ..................... koli masala ( can also use garam masala ) 

salt according to the taste 

oil to cook 

Method 

Add little oil in a pan and saute ginger , garlic , dry coconut , sliced onions and green chillies till they are golden brown . 

Clean and wash the crabs properly . 

Remove the legs and upper cover of the crabs . 

You can keep the legs intact if you like . 

I use them to make crab soup so I remove and keep them separately . 

Now in a pan add oil and saute the chopped onion till transparent .

Add chopped tomatoes and saute till the raw smell of tomatoes disappears . 

Add chilly pd , turmeric , koli masala , above ground masala , salt and mix everything properly . 

When this mixture cools down a bit fill it in the cleaned and washed crabs . 

Now again in a pan add little oil and arranged the masala filled crabs in it . 

Add little water as per your desire and cover the pan with a lid and cook on a low flame . 

After 5/10 minutes move the crabs upside down and let the other side cook for 10 more minutes .

Serve with hot rice and solkadhi a popular konkan speciality .