Curry crab and dumpling

As tradition built it

Curry crab and dumpling

Serves 4. Marinated 2 hours or overnight.

Ingredients

The crab

• 450g crab
• 60ml vinegar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 120ml fresh green seasoning
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1½ tsp ground masala

The curry

• 60ml coconut oil
• 60ml onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp Scotch bonnet, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp pimento pepper, finely chopped
• 1 tsp geera (whole cumin)
• 5 to 6 young caripoulé (curry) leaves
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• ¾ tsp ground masala
• 120ml water
• 480ml coconut milk
• 80ml chadon beni, finely chopped

The dumplings

• 240ml flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 80ml water

Method

The crab

1. Take any dirt and fine hair off the crab. Wash it, then soak it 10 minutes in warm water with the vinegar. Rinse it in cold water and let it air dry.
2. Season it with the salt, pepper, green seasoning, 2 tablespoons of curry powder and 1½ teaspoons of masala, and leave it 2 hours or overnight.

The curry

3. Heat the pot over a medium to high heat and add the oil.
4. Add the onion, garlic, Scotch bonnet, pimento, geera and caripoulé leaves and cook 2 minutes.
5. Add the rest of the curry powder and masala and let it dry out to a thick, grainy paste.
6. Stir in the water, turn the heat to high and reduce it to a thick paste, about 5 minutes.
7. Lower the heat to medium low, stir in the crab to coat it, cover and cook 2 minutes.
8. Stir in the coconut milk and chadon beni, and a little more water if you want it. Turn the heat to low, cover and cook 10 minutes. Taste for salt.

The dumplings

9. Mix the flour and salt, add the water and knead about 5 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and rest 10 minutes.
10. Roll it 5mm thick, cut it into any shape and drop the pieces into boiling water. They are done when they float.
11. Serve with the crab.

Notes

The dish's curry technique is Indian in origin, brought either directly or as a diffused commercial spice good, its crab and coconut milk are local, and its dense flour dumpling is the clearest African-descended contribution, making this an on-island Tobagonian fusion assembled from the 1960s rather than, as far as this research could determine, a demonstrably separate African lineage of curry predating Indian contact. That question is left open.

The recipe is Foodie Nation's, of Trinidad and Tobago. Renee Robley, of This Bago Girl, cooks six blue crabs in 4 cups of coconut milk and adds the onion, celery, scallion and hot pepper after the milk. Foodie Nation's 2020 version cleans the crabs with lime and baking powder, cooks them covered 5 minutes until the shells turn bright orange, and uses garam masala. All three boil the dumplings apart.

What a modern chef changes

Roasted Shell Stock, Sous Vide Claws

Rung 01

Method

1. Roast the crab shells and the crab's own trimmings separately into a proper stock, clarified through a chinois, and use that stock, rather than water, to build the coconut broth, intensifying the dish's crab character without asking for more crab than the pot already has.
2. Cook the crab claws briefly sous vide and add them back only at the point of serving, keeping their texture distinct from the long-simmered curry base around the dumplings.