Pure Hunger

We were recently gifted fresh crab meat from friends who had traveled to the East Coast. We watched their dogs, we got crab meat. Could be a better deal on my end. While I enjoy eating crab, freshly boiled and cracked, I wanted to do something special with this meat. First, it was already plucked from the shell which cut down my cooking time for any crab recipe considerably. I had to take advantage. As though an unknowing perfect marriage was taking place, I purchased a new cookbook featuring Pacific Northwest Recipes called Pure Flavor. It just happened to have a crab salad recipe I absolutely had to try. I have also been making a commitment to become better at cooking in the season and crab is a seasonal seafood just about all year round in the Pacific Northwest.

Ingredients

Adapted from Pure Flavor by Kurt Dammeier
2 cups lump crab meat washed and drained*
2 green onions thinly sliced
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 celery stalk, diced
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp grated lemon zest
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh horseradish or creamy store bought
1/4 tsp Tabasco/hot sauce
1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
Pinch of celery seed
1/4 tsp Old Bay seasoning

*Preferably Dungeness crab

All of the ingredients are not seasonal but they were easily purchased at my local food cooperative. It took me about 10 minutes to mix up the salad. I omitted the horseradish and hot sauce because I am a wimp when it comes to my nostrils being on fire. I also did not have celery seed or fresh dill on hand but added a little seafood seasoning to the mix.

I laid out sundried tomato wraps, filled it with some spinach leaves, crab salad and a little mayo and dijon mustard. It was one of the fastest dinners I have ever made and one of the most addicting. The best part? He includes a recipe for Crab Enchiladas, which I will be featuring soon, that you can make from the leftover crab salad. That is, if you have any leftover.

Put the crabmeat in a large bowl and pick through it with your hands, removing any pieces of shell.

Add the green onions, bell pepper, celery, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, horseradish, hot sauce, dill, basil, celery seed and Old Bay seasoning. Mix well. Refrigerate until ready to eat. Can be stored in refrigerator up to two days, covered.