One of my very favourite people, Domini Kemp, has shared this delicious recipe for a crab salad. Shellfish and Summer are a heavenly match and this is great for dinner parties and outside entertaining, the Tabasco adds a gorgeous punchy finish.

Crab salad in baby gem parcels by Domini Kemp

This dish, featuring baby gem is a great bit of party grub. Mixing the crab salad with some crème fraiche and a little splash of anchovy sauce (my new secret ingredients for mega-umami hits) and Tabasco was really delicious. This was a great dish to have instead of a “starter” as friends just grabbed one along with a napkin and wolfed in. It is also extremely quick and handy as you can easily buy frozen crab meat in plenty of fishmongers and supermarkets. Just thaw it out, wash your hands really well and have a little search and rescue for any excess shell. It’s not entirely necessary (unless you run a professional kitchen and are in the restaurant business) but every now and then you will find a teeny tiny bit of shell that is never that nice to crunch down onto. After that, you just have to mix with a flurry of ingredients, chill and once your avocado cream is made, just a little last minute assembly for a delicious bit of zingy crab salad.

Ingredients

Approx 450g pack of fresh or frozen cooked crab meat

Juice of 1 lemon

Good splash olive oil

3-4 drops Tabasco sauce

1-2 tsp anchovy sauce

2 spring onions, finely sliced

100 g crème fraiche

Small bunch coriander

2 avocadoes

Juice of 2 limes

Salt & pepper

2 shakes Tabasco sauce

2 packs baby gem

Method

Pick through the crab meat with very clean hands. Then mix with all the ingredients. Season with plenty of black pepper, but go easy o the salt and the anchovy sauce (and the crab itself) are quite salty. Chill until ready to serve. Either mash or blend the avocadoes until super smooth with the lime juice, salt, pepper and Tabasco, which you can leave out of the crab also if kids are about or you have sensitive souls. When ready to serve, cut the stalky bit of the baby gem to separate the leaves. Lay out and spoon some avocado cream onto each one and then top with a generous spoonful of crab. Serve on a big platter with some extra lemon wedges if necessary and a glass of something white and very well chilled.