Asian Crab Salad Croustades
The festive season is near, I am doing everything I can to get into the Christmas spirit, which I always find hard... it's the climate, I do need my snow to get into the mood But it is snowing as we speak, so I can't complain, although it wouldn't be the first time that we have snow just before and then run out in T-shirts on the actual day! I have much to look forward to over the next three weeks, my parents will be joining us for the celebrations after a month in Australia, my husband will be off until January - a luxury I haven't had for a long, long time! And so after baking several batches of cookies, some old and trusted, some new and instantly liked, I now need to sit down and plan the food... There will always be an opportunity for fingerfood, so we'll have rather a lot of that... this recipe here is one that I concocted for a catering I did last week - an all girls' Christmas party, all girls' with astonishing waistlines, I have to say, and much of what I made was on the healthy and figure-conscious side. So if you want to indulge without piling on the pounds, here's a small step towards that. Since white crab meat is quite expensive, I would suggest you buy a whole crab at your fishmongers and have them pit it for you (white and brown meat separately), it works out about half the price! I paid 12 at a rather pricey fishmonger whereas the crab meat alone would have cost me 30 - and that was for almost 50 canapes! I didn't want to throw out the brown meat, so made a little mayo with it for the base... adding some creaminess and a depth of flavour you won't get from the white. You could use just the salad and arrange on a leaf of gem lettuce for an easy and stylish starter. These croustades are incredibly simple to make and bursting with flavour - the salad can be prepared well in advance and is relatively easy to assemble as well... just what you need when you've got a million things on your mind.
The festive season is near, I am doing everything I can to get into the Christmas spirit, which I always find hard... it's the climate, I do need my snow to get into the mood But it is snowing as we speak, so I can't complain, although it wouldn't be the first time that we have snow just before and then run out in T-shirts on the actual day! I have much to look forward to over the next three weeks, my parents will be joining us for the celebrations after a month in Australia, my husband will be off until January - a luxury I haven't had for a long, long time! And so after baking several batches of cookies, some old and trusted, some new and instantly liked, I now need to sit down and plan the food... There will always be an opportunity for fingerfood, so we'll have rather a lot of that... this recipe here is one that I concocted for a catering I did last week - an all girls' Christmas party, all girls' with astonishing waistlines, I have to say, and much of what I made was on the healthy and figure-conscious side. So if you want to indulge without piling on the pounds, here's a small step towards that. Since white crab meat is quite expensive, I would suggest you buy a whole crab at your fishmongers and have them pit it for you (white and brown meat separately), it works out about half the price! I paid 12 at a rather pricey fishmonger whereas the crab meat alone would have cost me 30 - and that was for almost 50 canapes! I didn't want to throw out the brown meat, so made a little mayo with it for the base... adding some creaminess and a depth of flavour you won't get from the white. You could use just the salad and arrange on a leaf of gem lettuce for an easy and stylish starter. These croustades are incredibly simple to make and bursting with flavour - the salad can be prepared well in advance and is relatively easy to assemble as well... just what you need when you've got a million things on your mind.
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbsp good-quality mayonnaise or aioli
- 4 heaped tbsp brown crab meat
- salt, pepper, tabasco
- ca. 250 g white crab meat
- 1 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
- 2 heaped tbsp soft brown sugar
- 1 small handful mint leaves
- 2 large handfuls coriander leaves
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 small red chilli (or more to taste)
- half head of romaine or iceberg lettuce
- Carbohydrate 0.15434 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.002716 g
- Fiber 0.0375199993610382 g
- Protein 0.027596 g
- Saturated Fat 0.0003056 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (2g)
- Sodium 27.8188 mg
- Sugar 0.116820000638962 g
- Trans Fat 0.0014008 g
- Calories 1 calories
Step-by-step
- First, check both the white and brown meat for any bits of shell that might have snug in. This is best done with your bare hands, the pieces can be quite small.
- For the crab salad, combine the lime juice, brown sugar and fish sauce in a bowl, stir until the sugar has dissolved. If your sugar is quite hard, you can heat the mixture a little to make the dissolving easier. Finely chop the coriander, mint and kaffir lime leaves, deseed and de-vein the chilli and chop finely as well. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and leave to infuse for at least 3 hours in the fridge. You can prepare this a day in advance, if you wish.
- For the brown meat mayo, chop the brown crab meat roughly, then mash with a fork. Combine with the mayo/aioli and seaon with salt, pepper and a dash of tabasco.
- Shred the lettuce leaves thinly, then cop roughly.
- To assemble, place about half a tsp of the brown mayo on the bottom of each croustade, fill the shells up with shredded lettuce about half way, then top with about 1 tsp of the crab salad. Serve within 30 minutes to an hour so the bases don't get soggy.
How do you know when the dressing ingredients have fully integrated without needing a thermometer to test the mixture? The visual cue is simple: the coarse granules of soft brown sugar must disappear entirely into the liquid of the lime juice and fish sauce, leaving a clear, glossy emulsion behind. If small crystals remain visible at the bottom of the mixing bowl, continue stirring until the texture is completely smooth before introducing the herbs.
Mastering the Shellfish Preparation
Handling delicate crustacean meat requires patience and proper tactile awareness. Run clean fingers gently through both the white and brown portions to locate hard calcified fragments left behind during extraction. When combining the rich brown meat with commercial mayonnaise, mash the mixture thoroughly with a fork until uniform, then season with drops of hot sauce to cut through the heavy lipids. Marinate the shredded herbs and chilies for at least three hours in refrigeration to extract maximum aromatic compounds into the liquid base. For larger gatherings, scale the volume proportionally by multiplying the fish sauce and citrus juice measurements while keeping the herb ratios flexible to personal taste.
- Bases turn soggy if assembled too early; plate the croustades within thirty to sixty minutes of serving.
- Substitute a single leaf of gem lettuce for the pastry shell to create a lighter starter option.
- Heat the sugar and lime juice gently on the stovetop if the sweetener refuses to dissolve at cold temperatures.
