Of Crabs and chocolate cake

Like the rest of the week my weekends are also compartmentalised into various matters that I cannot fit into my weekday schedules . Saturdays are for shopping , having lazy lunches with families or friends , taking the girls out on long drives , favouring the neighbourhood Barista or browsing in a bookstore .

Sundays however are reserved for cooking , watching a DVD in the afternoon whilst eating salted jamuns and a lazy evening thereafter .
Sunday mornings are spent worrying about when and with what AG is going to turn up with from the market . .On steamy summer mornings when the humidity hits 95 and the temperature maxes at 42 he is likely to come back with a kilo of shrimps which need deveining , tiny fish called mourala which need cleaning and all this at 1130 which gives us a scant 2 hours to clean up and cook lunch. The man is good - he stocks the freezer himself , with the fish - the calculations of which fish on which day just pass me by .

Last Sunday was Crab Sunday . Delectable little meaty softshell crabs .cooked to perfection in a gravy of garlic-onion-ginger-cumin -chilli masala .Eaten with steamed rice - it's pure heaven .

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Bengali Crab Curry

500 gms softshell crabs, cleaned and in their shell

Onion,garlic,ginger - pureed

1 medium onion chopped

Turmeric/Cumin powder - 2 tsps each and chili powder - 1 tsp or to taste

Salt

Mustard Oil

Green chillies - slit

Potatoes - cubed small

In a wok heat the oil and fry the onions till translucent . Fry the onion ginger garlic paste and add the dry spices and salt . Add a little water and fry till the oil floats on top . Add the diced potatoes and the crab legs and cook till tender .

Place the crabs over the potaoes and spoon gravy over them . Cover and steam for about 15 minutes or till the crabs are cooked through . Remove and serve with steamed rice and a cucumber,tomato,onion salad

Sometimes ,Sundays are bake days when I cook standard favourites or pick up something from the net or friends . The cinnamon chocolate bundt was discovered by Itchy and passed on to us . What can I say ? It was soft and moist because of the butter -oil combination in equal ratio and the yogurt which went into it along with the cinnamon powder .

The cake was greeted happily by Tani but Srin , being more of a conservative and not given to culinary experiments with her favourite cakes wrinkled her nose .