The South Indian style Crab Curry is a very spicy and tasty dish prepared often at our home and served as a main course. This instructable will guide you on how to prepare the crab curry in easy to understand steps.

Step 1: Ingredients Required

One kilogram of whole crabs. In our place, the shop keepers selling crabs will cut, clean and dice them for you. After cleaning you will get around 800 grams of crab meat with shells.

Ingredients for making spice powder

5 to 6 dried Red Chilies. If you want the curry to be more spicy, increase the quantity to your taste
2 teaspoons of Coriander seeds
2 teaspoons of Black Peppercorns
2 teaspoons of Cumin seeds
2 teaspoons of Fennel seeds

Other Ingredients

4 Tomatoes
About 1-1/2 " long piece of Ginger
3 Medium sized Onions
8 to 10 Garlic Cloves
3/4th of a Coconut
Coriander leaves
Bunch of Curry leaves
3 Tablespoon of Cooking oil
Salt to taste
Water as required

Step 2: Clean Crab Pieces

Wash and clean the crab pieces few times in water
Add 3 teaspoons of turmeric powder, mix well with the crab pieces and keep aside. This will suppress the smell from the crab.

Step 3: Preparation of Spice Powder Step 1

Place a flat bottomed frying pan over medium heat and add few drops of cooking oil
You need to roast the ingredients required for the spice powder one by one in the pan.
First start with Red chilies, then Coriander seeds and then Black peppercorn
Cumin seeds and fennel seeds can be roasted together
Remove the roasted items from the pan and keep in a plate. Do not over do and burn the ingredients

Step 4: Preparation of Spice Powder Step 2

Once the roasted ingredients are cooled down, place them in a mixer grinder and grind to a fine powder.
Transfer the ground spice powder to another container and keep aside

Step 5: Ginger Garlic Paste

Shuck garlic and remove skin from the ginger piece
Make a fine paste in a mixer grinder and keep aside

Step 6: Onion Paste

Chop the onions into pieces
Now take half of the chopped onion and make a rough paste as this will give us more gravy.
Keep the other half of the chopped onion separately

Step 7: Tomato Paste

Dice the tomatoes into pieces and place them in a mixer grinder
Grind to a fine paste and keep aside

Step 8: Preparation of Coconut Paste Step 1

Cut the coconut into small pieces and place them in a mixer grinder
Grate the coconut pieces without adding any water

Step 9: Preparation of Coconut Paste Step 2

Now roast the grated coconut in the frying pan to a golden brown. There is no need to add any oil
Transfer the roasted coconut from the pan and allow to cool down
Place the roasted coconut in a mixer grinder and add about one cup of water
Grind the coconut into a fine paste and keep aside

Step 10: Preparation Step 1

Place another frying pan over medium heat and add three tablespoons of cooking oil. Make sure that this pan is large enough to hold all the ingredients including crab pieces
Add a handful of curry leaves and ginger-garlic paste to the pan
Add the onion paste to the pan and mix well

Step 11: Preparation Step 2

Add other half of the chopped onion to the pan and cook till raw smell disappears
Add the tomato paste to the pan and cook till all water evaporates from pan and the mix leaves oil
Add salt to taste and mix well

Step 12: Preparation Step 3

Add the earlier prepared spice powder to the pan and mix well
Now you can add the crab pieces to the pan
Add enough water to cover the crab pieces
Place a lid on the frying pan and keep on medium flame
From time to time rotate the crab pieces so that all sides are properly cooked

Step 13: Add Coconut Paste

Once the crab pieces are properly cooked, add the coconut paste to the pan and mix well
Cook for another five minutes and remove from stove
Transfer the crab curry to a serving dish and garnish with coriander leaves

The spicy crab curry is served as a main course with rice, chapatis and bread