Supper Club: Buttery-sweet garlic crab

If you ever visit Mumbai as a tourist, one of the first restaurants that is always recommended is a place called Trishna in Kala Ghoda – its fame carried on this one dish alone. The buttery-sweet crab makes this indulgent dish hard to resist and I have also used a little brown crab meat, for added flavour. The papads (dusted with blitzed seaweed) are the perfect vehicle for scooping up all that delicious crab meat – this is definitely one to try out at home! You can also serve this with freshly baked bread, to mop up all the juices.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 150g unsalted butter
• 4 tbsp minced garlic
• 3 tsp finely chopped green chillies
• 4 tsp cracked black pepper
• 350g picked white crab meat
• 40g picked brown crab meat
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• a small handful of coriander leaves
• sea salt, to taste

To serve

• 4 store-bought papads or freshly baked bread
• 10 sheets nori, blitzed to a powder (optional)

Method

1. Heat a couple tbsp of water in a large heavy-based saucepan until bubbling. Add the butter and stir over a medium heat so an emulsion is formed.
2. Stir in the garlic, green chillies and black pepper and cook for a few seconds before adding the white and brown crab meat.
3. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, until the crab meat has absorbed most the liquid and the consistency is creamy and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and finish with lime juice and coriander. Season to taste with salt.
4. Spoon the crab into bowls and serve with papads dusted with nori powder.

Extracted from Kricket: An Indian-inspired Cookbook by Will Bowlby (Hardie Grant).  Photography by Hugh Johnson.