Baked Cheese Crab

Paradeep is a working port before it is anything else, and Fish Market cooks what the boats bring in that morning rather than what a menu decided a week ago. Crab is the thing to order there.

The meat is picked, dressed and baked, then returned to the shell it came out of. That is how it reaches the table, whole shells laid over the platter, to be taken apart rather than served neatly. Curry leaf and whole dried chilli go in underneath, so the coastal seasoning is doing the work and the baking is doing the rest.