Crab Gratin

When I was growing up in Bombay, we airily requested crab for lunch with no thought of the labor involved for our cook. It was only after I dealt with enough small blue crabs to feed four—it took hours—that I realized what poor Andrew de Souza must have gone through producing enough stuffed crabs for the family and guests as just one part of a meal to be served between the time he got back from the bazaar and half past one.

His version of crabs baked in their shells was based on a b