Chettinadu Nandu Rasam a.k.a. Chettinadu Crab Soup

Nandu (Crab) Rasam (Soup), a delicacy we picked up from Anjappar the Chettinad restaurant during one of the many visits. It was a favourite for the 3 of us. Nandha is yet to get there yet, but it would be just a matter of time. With the onset of Autumn in Sydney and a coughing orchestra going on at home, decided to try this out as the Sunday special. There are enough blog posts that talk about the "medicinal" properties of crab soup so I will not bother to talk much about it. Just enough to say that it had a good effect on my cold even while preparing the soup. One of the interesting things I found about this recipe was that most of the ingredients had to be used both "as is" and also in a ground form. Whatever the reason behind, but the impact was awesome.

Ingredients
1) Crab - cut and cleaned. This time we used Blue Swimmer Crab - the male version. Apparently males are more meaty. ;-)
2) Cinnamon sticks
3) Poppy seeds (Khus khus)
4) Fennel Seeds
5) Cumin Seeds
6) Cloves
7) Cardamom

8) Black pepper seeds (I cheated with powder here)
9) Green chilies
10) Diced Onion - Shallots if you can get hold of them
11) Ginger
12) Curry leaves
13) Garlic
14) Diced Tomato
15) Dried Red chillies
16) Turmeric powder
17) Cashews
18) Coconut milk

Yes, it does seem like quite an handful of ingredients but am sure each one of them had a clear part to play. The easy way out would be to use garam masala powder just by itself.

The Method
1) Cut and clean the crab into reasonable sizes. Cleaning of course is a technique - not the most enjoyable one. You can look here for further cleaning tips.
2) Create a paste with half of the garlic, all of ginger, half of green chillies, poppy seeds, curry leaves and cashews.
3) In a large sauce pan saute all the dry ingredients in Gingelly Oil
4) Add the curry leave/green chilly paste and saute for a few minutes.
5) Add the remaining garlic (mashed up), green chillies, onions and tomatoes and saute until oil separates.
6) Add coconut milk and saute until the masala boils.
7) Add the crab and cook until the shell turns red - an indicator that the meat would be cooked. Normally takes about 10 minutes.
8) Add garam masala and black pepper powder to the level of "heat" required.
9) Add enough water to the level of consistency needed and let it boil.

Voila - Nandu Rasam Ready !!

This can be served directly as a soup or with steamed rice as you would normally eat rasam sadam (rice).

Enjoy Cooking !!

C