Recipe: Crab Salad

Crab Salad with Mango, Avocado and Tropical Fruit Purée
by Patrick O'Connell

Serves 4

Tropical Fruit Purée:
1 each small cantaloupe, peeled, seeds discarded
1/2 each fresh pineapple, peeled and cored
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro
Sugar to taste

Crab Salad:
2 cups jumbo crabmeat, carefully picked over
1-1/2 tablespoons minced jalapeño pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (nuoc nam)*
2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 cup halved fresh avocado, with the pit removed
1/4 cup diced fresh mango

Crab Salad
*Available at Asian markets

For the Tropical Fruit Purée:

Purée the melon in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pour the mixture into a medium-size bowl. Purée the pineapple and add it to the melon purée. Add lemon juice and mix the purée thoroughly. Tie up the chopped cilantro in a 5-inch square of cheesecloth. Add the cilantro sachet to the purée. Cover and refrigerate at least 1/2 hour or overnight. Before serving, add a pinch of sugar if necessary.

For the Crab Salad:
Combine crabmeat, jalapeño, lemon juice and fish sauce in a medium-size mixing bowl. Fold carefully with a rubber spatula to prevent breaking up the lumps of crabmeat. Place a ring mold (or a round cookie cutter that is about 2 inches tall and 2-1/2 inches wide) on each of four chilled plates. With a teaspoon, scoop 2 tablespoons of avocado from the shell and place at the bottom of the mold. Pack down lightly with the back of the spoon. Place 1 tablespoon of mango on top of the avocado, and press it down gently. Place a final layer of the crabmeat mixture and smooth off the top with the flat side of a knife. Lift the ring mold off carefully. Repeat this process on the remaining plates.

To Finish and Serve:
Ladle the tropical fruit purée around the edges of the crab mold and serve chilled.

Buy the Book!

from:
Winning Styles Cookbook
Recipes from the James Beard Foundation Award-Winning Chefs
Feeding Frenzy, Inc.
$42.00/hardcover
4-color photography throughout
ISBN: 0-9728697-1-9
Recipe reprinted by permission.