Sri Lankan crab curry

Local cuisine, is always what I’m looking for to get to know better when I’m visiting a new country.
Different cooking methods, spices, ingredients, eating habits,… It can tell a lot about the culture, people and history.

Sri Lanka’s cuisine has a lot of influence from South Indian cuisine, but at the same time, it has its own form of cuisine. As you’d expect from an island in the Indian Ocean in a tropical climate, coconuts and seafood plays an important role in Sri Lankan cuisine. Usually, fish is made into curries, and coconut in some form is a dominant ingredient in cooking.

Crab curry, especially made by lovely Suda at the Doghouse in Ahangama, is one of the best meals I had in my entire life and I’m always looking forward to eating it when I’m in Sri Lanka. It’s always made with fresh lagoon crabs that are caught by a local fisherman and cooked in a fresh coconut milk from a “Doghouse” garden. The most delicious are lagoon crabs, it has more meat comparing with sea crabs.

When eating a crab, very important not to rush, but to take your time and enjoy it, forget about all table manners, it’s a crab, it must be eaten as no one sees, otherwise, you would end up eating only rice. Once I even broke my tooth from cracking the shell, but I’m not regretting at all 😀

Here is a recipe if you would like to try it at home.

Grind the coconut, blend it with water, and squeeze out the coconut milk.
Clean the crabs by removing the top shell, bottom peace and inside.
Cut the crabs in half, brake the big claws and put in a pot with fresh coconut milk.
Add turmeric and chili powder, curry powder, dry goraka, cardamom, cloves, fenugreek seeds, salt, murunga, curry leaves., chopped onion and garlic.
Mix all ingredients and put on fire for about 15min.
Add pandan leaves, green chili and tomato.
Cook for 10min more and take from the fire.
Wash tamarind in a cup of coconut milk, remove the tamarind and add milk to the curry.

Enjoy with rice and chilled Lion beer!
Keep the leftover for breakfast to eat with freshly baked bread. The next day it tastes even better.