WE HAVE ONLY JUST stepped in the door a few hours ago, after being away on business for only two days, but it has felt like an eternity, for so much has happened in the past forty-eight hours. Last night, we were trapped in traffic for hours due to extreme wind and highway closures, before escaping and deciding to not attempt to make it the rest of the way home—opting, instead, to stay at a Victorian mansion in Cheshire. And now it’s home again, home again, and there is much to catch up on, as you can imagine, and so, before the rest of this week’s inspiration, a quick stop to say hello and to leave you with this romantic recipe for Valentine’s Day . . .
CRAB SALAD WITH AVOCADO | from Nigella Lawson
Ingredients
2 tablespoons mirin
½ teaspoon wasabi paste
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 drop asian sesame oil
½ teaspoon sea salt flakes (or 1/4 teaspoon table salt)
1 long fresh red chile pepper (deseeded and finely chopped)
1 ¼ cups crab
1 teaspoon lime juice
5 cups arugula
1 ripe avocado
2 teaspoons chives (chopped)
Method
In a bowl that will take the crab meat later, whisk together the mirin, wasabi paste, rice vinegar, Asian sesame oil and salt. Then remove about 4 teaspoons to another big bowl large enough to fit your salad.
To the first, more generous amount of dressing, add the finely chopped chilli and then the crab meat, and fork through to mix thoroughly.
To the small amount of dressing in the other bowl, add the lime juice and then the salad leaves and toss well to mix, before arranging on four plates.
Spoon a quarter of the mixture into a metal American 1/3-cup measure, or a small ramekin, squishing down to get it all in, then unmould in the centre of a salad-lined plate.
Just turn over, tap and the crab meat should fall out. Repeat with the remaining crab meat and the 3 other plates.
Using a rounded teaspoon measure, scoop out curls or humps of avocado and dot around on top of the salady bits. Spritz with a little lime juice.
Sprinkle the chopped chives over the mounds of crab and take the plates to the table.
Additional information – for gluten free, most wasabi is gluten free but check packaging.
[the original recipe that accompanies these photographs, from El Meuble–in Spanish]
Ingredientes (2 personas)
150 g de carne de cangrejo hervida
1/2 aguacate
100 g de brotes tiernos
Una pizca de guindilla picada (opcional)
Para la vinagreta
2 cucharadas de mirin (vino dulce japonés)
1/2 cucharada de vinagre de arroz y el zumo de 1/2 lima.
Unas gotas de aceite de sésamo y sal
1/2 cucharadita de wasabi
Preparación
• Lava los brotes.
• Abre el aguacate cortándolo por la mitad y elimina el hueso.
• Corta la pulpa en rodajas finas (sin traspasar la corteza) y sepáralas de la corteza con la ayuda de una cuchara. Rocía con un poco de zumo de lima y desmenuza el cangrejo.
• Prepara la vinagreta: mezcla en un pequeño bol el mirin, el wasabi, el vinagre de arroz, el aceite de sésamo, el zumo de media lima y una pizca de sal. Bate todo enérgicamente con un tenedor.
• Coloca en un plato una base de hoja de lechuga y altérnalo por capas con láminas de aguacate y cangrejo.
• Rocía con la vinagreta preparada y espolvorea con guindilla picada.
