This Kerala style Crab Curry | Njandu curry is made with a fresh paste of coconut, and whole spices. Learn how to make one the best crab curries that will surely bring in the South Indian aromatic flavors of Kerala straight into your kitchen.
If you have been following me for a while you surely know I have a thing for seafood or rather I have a weakness for crustaceans in general :D. Scallops have turned into my new love ever since I had a taste of them here in the US, as we do not get sea scallops easily in India. And the same goes for Alaskan King crabs, snow crabs, blue crabs, and the likes. In India, the crabs are not that gigantic, but they are super delicious nonetheless.
We love to feast on a good crab meal at least once a month. That delicious and sweet crab meat is perfect for these curries. Despite the use of spices in this crab curry recipe , it still takes on a beautiful crab flavor that’s quite prominent.
I usually make my Mom’s recipe of Goan crab curry almost every time we get crabs, but this time I thought I should venture into trying something else. After all, there are so many Indian crab recipes, and I kind of want to try them all.
So today’s recipe is a South Indian style, Kerala style to be more specific. I used this recipe and adapted it slightly to suit our taste. I guess next on the list to try is Chettinad crab curry followed by the Bengali style. I anyways love that spicy Chettinad masala that I use for cooking up a chicken curry, and I’m sure that would be amazing with crabs as well.
HOW TO PREPARE CRAB GRAVY | KHEKADA CURRY | NJANDU CURRY?
This easy crab curry recipe just needs a ground paste that consists of freshly grated coconut, dried red chillies, some whole spices and tamarind for a subtle sourness. Some people use Kudampuli (Garcinia Cambogia) which is also known as Kerala tamarind, fish tamarind, or Malabar tamarind. People often confuse this with kokum, but the two are different. Kokum is also a souring agent, but it is used in that Maharashtrian, and Konkan regions. The use of kudampuli is quite popular in Kerala and Karnataka cuisine. It’s difficult to spot these here, so I went ahead with regular tamarind.
The ground paste is a breeze if you have some store-bought freshly grated coconut. Just remember to thaw it and use warm water for grinding, or else the fat from the cold coconut gratings will separate and curdle.
Once your spice paste is ready, all that is left to do is to temper the spice paste with mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, onion, tomatoes, and turmeric powder. Add some water to make a curry sauce , dunk in the crabs, and let it soak in that amalgam of beautiful flavors.
The star ingredient of this crab curry is obviously the crabs. In the US we get crabs that are steamed, so there is actually zero prep work.
Let’s go ahead with this scrumptious crab curry recipe.
- STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE KERALA STYLE CRAB CURRY WITH COCONUT | SOUTH INDIAN STYLE CRAB CURRY
- HOW TO MAKE CRAB CURRY | COCONUT CRAB CURRY?
- Crab Curry Recipe With Coconut | Kerala Njandu Curry
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE KERALA STYLE CRAB CURRY WITH COCONUT | SOUTH INDIAN STYLE CRAB CURRY
1.Clean the crabs if using raw, fresh or frozen. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to go about it. I used steamed crabs, so I just broke it up into smaller pieces.
2.Add the dried red chillies, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, tamarind, methi(fenugreek), coconut, and a little salt in a blender and blend into a smooth paste with about 1/2 cup water.
3.Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, once it is hot add mustard seeds, let it crackle.
4.Add onions, curry leaves, green chillies, pinch of salt and sauté until translucent.
5.Next, add tomatoes, and turmeric powder, sauté until tomatoes turn mushy.
6.Add prepared spice paste, stir-fry the paste for another 2 minutes.
7.Add about 1 cup water, mix well and bring to a boil.
8.Add crabs (raw or steamed) and mix it, cover and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes so that crabs absorb all the flavors. If using raw, cook for about 10-15 minutes.
9.Finally, add coconut milk, chopped cilantro leaves and mix nicely. Simmer for another minute. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Switch off the heat and serve this delicious and spicy crab curry with steamed rice or appams. This curry tastes better, the longer it sits.
HOW TO MAKE CRAB CURRY | COCONUT CRAB CURRY?
Crab Curry Recipe With Coconut | Kerala Njandu Curry
Ingredients1x2x3x
Measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml
For the coconut-spice paste
- 1 lb crabs
- 1 cup of freshly grated coconut
- 5 Kashmiri dried chillies
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger, peeled
- 8-10 black peppercorns
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
- Walnut-sized ball of tamarind, about 5 grams
Other ingredients
- 1 cup finely chopped onions
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 3 tbsp coconut oil or any other oil
- 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander/cilantro leaves
- Sprig of curry leaves
Instructions
- Clean the crabs if using raw, fresh or frozen. I used steamed crabs, so I just broke it up into smaller pieces.
- Add the dried red chillies, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, tamarind, methi, coconut, and a little salt in a blender and blend into a smooth paste with about 1/2 cup water.
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, once it is hot add mustard seeds, let it crackle.
- Add onions, curry leaves, green chillies, pinch of salt and sauté until translucent.
- Next, add tomatoes, and turmeric powder, sauté until tomatoes turn mushy.
- Add prepared spice paste, stir-fry the paste for another 2 minutes.
- Add about 1 cup water, mix well and bring to a boil.
- Add crabs (raw or steamed) and mix it, cover and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes so that crabs absorb all the flavors. If using raw, cook for about 10-15 minutes.
- Finally, add coconut milk, chopped cilantro leaves and mix nicely. Simmer for another minute. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Switch off the heat and serve this delicious and spicy crab curry with steamed rice or appams. This curry tastes better the longer it sits.
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Freda
Crab Curry Recipe With Coconut | Kerala Njandu Curry
Ingredients
Measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml
For the coconut-spice paste
- 1 lb crabs
- 1 cup of freshly grated coconut
- 5 Kashmiri dried chillies
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger, peeled
- 8-10 black peppercorns
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
- Walnut-sized ball of tamarind, about 5 grams
Other ingredients
- 1 cup finely chopped onions
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 3 tbsp coconut oil or any other oil
- 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander/cilantro leaves
- Sprig of curry leaves
Instructions
- Clean the crabs if using raw, fresh or frozen. I used steamed crabs, so I just broke it up into smaller pieces.
- Add the dried red chillies, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, tamarind, methi, coconut, and a little salt in a blender and blend into a smooth paste with about 1/2 cup water.
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, once it is hot add mustard seeds, let it crackle.
- Add onions, curry leaves, green chillies, pinch of salt and sauté until translucent.
- Next, add tomatoes, and turmeric powder, sauté until tomatoes turn mushy.
- Add prepared spice paste, stir-fry the paste for another 2 minutes.
- Add about 1 cup water, mix well and bring to a boil.
- Add crabs (raw or steamed) and mix it, cover and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes so that crabs absorb all the flavors. If using raw, cook for about 10-15 minutes.
- Finally, add coconut milk, chopped cilantro leaves and mix nicely. Simmer for another minute. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Switch off the heat and serve this delicious and spicy crab curry with steamed rice or appams. This curry tastes better the longer it sits.
Shortbread cookie recipe with step by step pictures. These Scottish shortbread cookies made with three simple ingredients, butter, flour, and sugar are a scrumptious treat and so simple to make! With the Holidays around the corner, you really don’t need a reason to bake these crispy, buttery shortbread cookies. So let’s learn how to make this Scottish classic!
Our journey continues from Sweden’s thumbprint cookies to Austria’s Linzer cookies , and now to Scotland with these shortbread biscuits or Scottish butter cookies. And with that, I’m winding up my list of cookies for this year. I hadn’t really planned on it, but I realized that I ended up making cookies from three different countries this Holiday! I hope you enjoyed these eggless treats.
- What is shortbread?
- HOW TO MAKE SHORTBREAD COOKIES?
- ENJOYED THESE RICH SHORTBREAD BISCUITS? THEN DO CHECK OUT THESE EASY EGGLESS COOKIE RECIPES TOO,
- STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE THE PERFECT SHORTBREAD COOKIE | EASY SHORTBREAD RECIPE
- Variations
- Shortbread Cookie Recipe | Shortbread Recipe | Scottish Shortbread Biscuits
What is shortbread?
Shortbread is a crisp, crumbly, buttery Scottish cookie. Traditional Scottish shortbread recipe calls for 1 part of sugar, two parts of butter, and three parts of flour, by weight. It is also known as 1 2 3 shortbread or 2 4 6 shortbread . The former number simply represents the ratio of the ingredients while the latter represents the weights, i.e 2 oz, 4 oz, and 6 oz of sugar, butter, and flour respectively.
Walkers cookies remind me of the slice and bake Indian shortbread cookies minus the flavorings and also the popular Nankhatai , that’s made with chickpea flour, semolina, and ghee. Because there is no additional flavoring used in Scottish butter shortbread cookies you can really taste all that rich buttery goodness. But instead of making plain shortbread cookies I added some pure vanilla extract to make some vanilla shortbread biscuits .
And that’s how I always thought a biscuit, or rather a cookie, was supposed to be. The classic American chocolate chip cookie, or snickerdoodle and other soft and chewy cookies are not something that I grew up eating. I enjoy them though, and make a batch or two at home since the kids love them and devour them like crazy!
HOW TO MAKE SHORTBREAD COOKIES?
There are 2 ways you can go about making shortbread. In the traditional method, you mix the dry ingredients i.e. flour and sugar and work the butter into the dry mix with your fingers until the butter is well incorporated with the flour. To make things easier, you can pulse the ingredients in a food processor until it forms a dough that leaves the sides.
The other method is creaming the butter and sugar and then adding the flour. And that’s the one I’ve followed today. I like doing the traditional method if I’m making some sort of bars like lemon bars or millionaire’s shortbread.
The key point to remember in both the methods is to avoid overworking the dough. Over-kneading the dough results in gluten formation, which will cause these cookies to be less crumbly, thereby ruining the texture of a shortbread, which is what you want to avoid!
And that’s why flours like cornstarch or rice flour have become popular choices to add that tender and crunchy characteristic to these biscuits.
Shortbread comes in various shapes. They can be shaped using the traditional wooden mold or pressed in a round pan, and cut into triangles or pressed into a rectangular or square pan to make finger-shaped cookies. The triangle shaped shortbread are called “petticoat tails”.
Once you are done with the dough and shaping all that is left to do is to bake these biscuits! You should keep an eye on the baking time as you don’t want the cookies to turn brown. They should be pale in color. The longer you bake them, apart from the darker color, they will turn a tad too crispy and loose that light crunch. You want the shortbread to have a lightly crisp bite and then just crumble in your mouth.
I made chocolate covered shortbread and sprinkled some pistachio for a festive flair. I also ended up making Christmas shortbread cookies with the scraps with these cute Christmas theme mini cutters that I got last week. They made for a nice bite-sized cookie.
My homemade ones were just as comparable with the popular brand of shortbread cookies, except for the added vanilla flour, the texture in terms of crispness and crumbliness was spot on!
It is really easy to make a shortbread cookie recipe from scratch, you don’t really need a shortbread mix! So try and include these easy homemade shortbread cookies this Holidays. They are great for your cookie exchange as well 🙂
And before we move on to the recipe, here is a fun fact: January 6th is celebrated as National Shortbread Day 🙂
ENJOYED THESE RICH SHORTBREAD BISCUITS? THEN DO CHECK OUT THESE EASY EGGLESS COOKIE RECIPES TOO,
- Eggless Bourbon biscuits
- Eggless badam pista biscuits, Karachi bakery style
- Coconut cookies
- Nankhatai (Indian shortbread cookies)
- Swedish Thumbprint cookies
- Linzer Cookies
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE THE PERFECT SHORTBREAD COOKIE | EASY SHORTBREAD RECIPE
1.Place butter in the bowl of your stand mixer (you can use your hand mixer or a whisk too), sift in powdered sugar, beat on low heat initially, until the powdered sugar is mixed with the butter, then increase the speed to medium and beat until light and creamy.
2.Add vanilla extract and beat for another 30 seconds. I used clear vanilla extract coz that is what I had.
3.Now switch to the lowest speed and add the flour in parts. Gently bring the dough together, avoid overworking the dough. If you press the dough between your palms it should hold its shape. If the dough feels too dry and crumbly, add a teaspoon of milk or more as required just until the dough comes together.
4.Divide the dough into two parts. Place a cling wrap on the work surface, transfer one part of the dough over the plastic wrap and shape it into square or a round disc, about 1 inch thick and wrap in the cling film. Refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
5.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper. Take one part of the dough, roll it out between two parchment or wax papers to 1/4 inch in thickness.
For the finger-shaped cookies: Snip off the edges to make a neat rectangle or square. Score the shortbread dough to make finger shapes. Indent the cookies with a fork or skewer.
For the round or other shaped cookies: Use your favorite cookie cutter, and make cut-out after rolling out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Gather the scraps, form a disc, refrigerate for another 15 minutes, reroll and make more cutouts.
6.Lay the cookies on the sheet at least 2 inches apart (If the cookie dough seems too soft at this stage, place the tray with the cutouts in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. This prevents the cookies from spreading too much while baking). Bake for about 15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Do not let the cookies turn brown. Smaller shaped cookies will take less time to bake, so keep an eye. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Let the cookies stand on the baking sheet for about 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let them cool completely.
8.Dip one end of a cookie in the melted chocolate, shake off excess, sprinkle pistachio pieces and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat the same with the rest of the cookies.
9.Place the tray in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes or until the chocolate hardens and firms up. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
NOTES
- Shortbread without icing sugar (shortbread recipe with granulated sugar): Substitute the powdered sugar with 1/2 cup granulated sugar.
- Shortbread with rice flour and icing sugar: Substitute 1/4 cup of flour with rice flour and use the same amount of powdered sugar and other ingredients mentioned in the recipe.
- Shortbread cookies with cornstarch: Substitute 1/4 cup of flour with cornstarch or custard powder.
- Alternately, you can gently press the shortbread dough in an 8-inch square pan lined with parchment paper or a 9-inch springform pan or a fluted tart pan. Smooth the surface out. Score the dough into triangles or finger shapes, and prick with a fork all over. Bake until shortbread is a light golden in color and cooked through, may take around 30-40 minutes. Then cut the warm shortbread along the scored lines. Transfer on to a cooling rack after 5 minutes, and let it cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Variations
There are so many possible variations with this easy shortbread cookie recipe .
- Shortbread cookies with jam: These are the same as the shortbread thumbprint cookies I shared earlier, you can find the recipe here .
- Shortbread flavor ideas: You can flavor up your basic shortbread recipe with flavors like dried lavender, saffron, pistachio, almond, citrus like lemon or orange zest, chai spice, matcha, cardamom, peppermint etc You can also add in chocolate chips, chocolate chunks or nuts like walnuts, pecans, cashew nuts or dried fruits like cranberries, raisins, apricots etc.
- Savory shortbread: Of course you can make some awesome savory shortbread as well. Bacon, dried herbs, caraway seeds (which was traditionally used in shortbread) are yummy options. You may cut back on the sugar to reduce the sweetness in the cookies.
- Festive shortbread : Make differently shaped shortbread, such as heart-shaped, reindeer, snowman, snowflake, Christmas tree, stars, egg-shaped etc. for various occasions or make some embossed shortbread cookies with one of those fancy stamps.
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Shortbread Cookie Recipe | Shortbread Recipe | Scottish Shortbread Biscuits
Ingredients1x2x3x
Measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml
- 1 cup salted butter, add 1/2 tsp salt if using unsalted butter
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar, you may reduce it to 2/3 cup
- 2 & 1/4 cups cup all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, optional but recommended
For chocolate covered shortbread
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks/chips
- 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup coarsely crushed pistachios, or nuts/sprinkles etc of choice
Instructions
- Place butter in the bowl of your stand mixer (you can use your hand mixer or a whisk too), sift in powdered sugar, beat on low heat initially, until the powdered sugar is mixed with the butter, then increase the speed to medium and beat until light and creamy.
- Add vanilla extract and beat for another 30 seconds.
- Now switch to the lowest speed and add the flour in parts. Gently bring the dough together, avoid overworking the dough. If you press the dough between your palms it should hold its shape. If the dough feels too dry and crumbly, add a teaspoon of milk or more as required just until the dough comes together.
- Divide the dough into two parts. Place a cling wrap on the work surface, transfer one part of the dough over the plastic wrap and shape it into square or a round disc, about 1 inch thick and wrap in the cling film. Refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper. Take one part of dough, roll it out between two parchment or wax papers to 1/4 inch in thickness.
- For the finger-shaped cookies: Snip off the edges to make a neat rectangle or square. Score the shortbread dough to make finger shapes. Indent the cookies with a fork or skewer.
- For the round or other shaped cookies: Use your favorite cookie cutter, and make cut-out after rolling out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Gather the scraps, form a disc, refrigerate for another 15 minutes, reroll and make more cutouts.
- Lay the cookies on the sheet at least 2 inches apart (If the cookie dough seems too soft at this stage, place the tray with the cutouts in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. This prevents the cookies from spreading too much while baking).
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Do not let the cookies turn brown. Smaller shaped cookies will take less time to bake, so keep an eye. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Let the cookies stand on the baking sheet for about 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let them cool completely.
- For chocolate covered shortbread: Place the chocolate chips or chunks along with the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high power in 30-second intervals, stirring with a clean, dry spoon after each interval. It took me a total of 1 & 1./2 minute to melt the chocolate chunks. Keep stirring to make it smooth and glossy.
- Dip one end of a cookie in the melted chocolate, shake off excess, sprinkle pistachio pieces and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat the same with the rest of the cookies.
- Place the tray in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes or until the chocolate hardens and firms up. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
- Shortbread without icing sugar (shortbread recipe with granulated sugar): Substitute the powdered sugar with 1/2 cup granulated sugar.
- Shortbread with rice flour and icing sugar: Substitute 1/4 cup of flour with rice flour and use the same amount of powdered sugar and other ingredients mentioned in the recipe.
- Shortbread cookies with cornstarch: Substitute 1/4 cup of flour with cornstarch or custard powder.
- Alternately, you can gently press the shortbread dough in an 8-inch square pan lined with parchment paper or a 9-inch springform pan or a fluted tart pan. Smooth the surface out. Score the dough into triangles or finger shapes, and prick with a fork all over. Bake until shortbread is a light golden in color and cooked through, may take around 30-40 minutes. Then cut the warm shortbread along the scored lines. Transfer on to a cooling rack after 5 minutes, and let it cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
