Crab with melon, tomato and ginger
Patrick Powell's summery crab starter recipe is a beautiful dish bound to impress any lucky dinner party guest. Sweet and salty white crab meat is paired with cherry tomatoes, melon, pickled ginger and a delicate and refreshing chilled melon broth, given plenty of complex acidity from fermented red pepper juice and dashi vinegar.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
- 2 honeymoon melons, or honeydew or cantaloupe
- 200ml fermented red pepper juice (you can make this by fermenting red peppers in a 2% brine for 1 week then juicing the peppers)
- 50ml of dashi vinegar
- 16 cherry tomatoes, on the vine
- 160g of white crab meat
- 20g of pickled ginger, finely juilienned
- 1 sheet of seaweed, such as wakame or dulse, rehydrated if dried and cut into small pieces
- coriander cress, and flowers
- extra virgin olive oil
Equipment
- Parisian scoop / melon baller
- Blender
Method
Use a parisian scoop or melon baller to make around 20 balls of melon (roughly the size of a cherry tomato). Set aside
- 2 honeymoon melons, or honeydew or cantaloupe
Weigh out 700g of the remaining melon flesh. Place this into a blender and blitz until smooth. Stir in the fermented red pepper juice and vinegar then pass through a fine sieve and place in the fridge to chill
- 200ml fermented red pepper juice
- 50ml of dashi vinegar
Bring a pan of water to the boil and use a paring knife to cut a small cross in the base of each tomato. Blanch in the boiling water for around 30 seconds or until the skin starts to peel away where you made the cross. Plunge into iced water then peel and discard the skins
- 16 cherry tomatoes, on the vine
Dress the crab meat with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and place a small 40g pile of it in each bowl
- 160g of white crab meat
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
Place the melon and tomatoes around the crab meat and top these with the finely sliced pickled ginger, seaweed and cresses. Finish with some spoonfuls of the broth and some dots of good quality olive oil
- 20g of pickled ginger, finely juilienned
- 1 sheet of seaweed, such as wakame or dulse, rehydrated if dried and cut into small squares
- coriander cress, and flowers
- extra virgin olive oil
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