How to cook Sri Lankan crab curry (කකුළුවො හොද්ද)

Ingredients. I can’t telly you how many portion it will be, it is up to you, how hungry you are for the crab curry, but generally speaking, think, how many crabs you can eat. My guideline is to have 500 gram crab per person. So, if you have 2 kilo crab it will be good enough for 4 portions.

• 2 small edible crabs. This will be about 700gm in my case today. He should be alive or extremely fresh. You can use mud crabs as well, or even floating crabs, but they are much smaller. So, go for proper edible crabs.
• Curry paste:
  • Turmeric - 4-5cm
  • Ginger 3cm
  • Hot chilli - 4
  • Medium chilli - 1
  • Garlic – 1 bulb
  • Coconut milk – 1tin (350 ml)
• Spices:
  • Cumin – 1 tbsp
  • Black pepper – 1 tsp
  • Cinnamon – 1 piece
  • Cardamom – 4-5 bulbs
  • Cloves – 3-4 buds
• Herbs:
  • Curry leaves – about 20, better to have them on one stalk – it will be easier to remove later
  • Lemon grass - 2 stalks
  • Basil – small bunch
  • Coriander – small bunch
• Vegetables
  • Courgettes – 2 small. It is more traditionally to use eggplants, but courgettes are good as well
  • Okra – 5-6 fruits
  • Red onion – 1 medium, chopped
  • Tomatoes – 1 cup of chopped tomatoes (sweet is better)
• Oil for cooking 2-3 tbsp
• Salt to taste

Grind cumin. And make in mortar curry paste. Slightly chop across the fibres and add to mortar and crush there in the following order:

• Turmeric
• Black Pepper
• Chilli
• Ginger
• Garlic

Very finely chop soft part (white part) of the lemon grass. It is important to slice it very thinly, or do not slice at all.

Cur courgettes, okra and medium hot chilli. Do average slice pieces, son’t do them too small.

Prepare crabs in the following order:

1. Separate head from the body.
2. Remove gills and legs around mouth
3. Remove crab claws, by twisting them from the body
4. Cut the body into 4 or more pieces
5. Crack claws by hitting them with knife.
6. Remove mouth and stomach from the crabs head

It is time to start cooking! In the wok, preheat oil and start to fry curry paste. Add spices, curry leaves, onion and tomatoes, lemongrass and don’t forget to salt. Add hot boiling water to cover everything and bring to boil.

Add crab pieces, except heads. Then add coconut milk and mix everything.

Add crab heads, but make sure that they stay open side up, to do not loose tomalley. Cover with lead and cook for about 10-20 min, depending on the crab size.

Mix everything and start add vegetables. Make sure that courgettes will only cook no more than 5 min and okra will cook no more that 2 min. Add basil and coriander and serve.

Serve with rice and enjoy!

Watch our video to see how we do it.





The Sri Lankan crab curry (කකුළුවො හොද්ද,) is one of the most well known curry in the world and it is served in the best seafood restaurants. And now you know how to cook it!