Avocado & Crab Napoleon
User Reviews
4.9
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Prep Time
15 mins
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Cook Time
15 mins
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Total Time
30 mins
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Servings
4 servings
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Course
Main Course
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Cuisine
Mediterranean
Avocado & Crab Napoleon
Description
The recipe begins by cleaning large fresh crabs, removing inedible parts and extracting the meat. The crab meat is combined with butter, fresh basil strips, salt, and white pepper, creating a delicate and savory seafood component.
Parmesan crisps are made by baking grated Parmesan cheese into thin, golden rounds that provide a crisp, salty contrast to the soft crab and creamy avocado. The avocados are cubed and mixed with chopped sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, spring onions, mint, coriander leaves, Dijon mustard, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper to form a fresh, herbaceous, and tangy salad layer.
The assembly layers these elements creating a Napoleon-style stacked presentation that balances the rich crab and cheese with the bright avocado salad.
Ingredients
Crabs:
- 4 ½ lb crab fresh
- 1 ¾ oz butter
- 5 basil cut into strips, leaves
- salt
- white pepper
Parmesan crisps:
- 1 cup Parmesan Cheese finely grated
Avocado salad:
- 3 avocados peeled and cut into cubes, riped (ripe
- 3 sun-dried tomatoes chopped, in oil
- 1 red onion chopped, medium
- 3 spring onions chopped
- ½ cup mint leaves
- ½ cup Coriander leaves
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard heaped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 lemon juice fresh
- salt
- black pepper
Instructions
Cleaning Crabs:
- Flip up the “apron” at the back of the shell, and use your thumb to break it off.
- Stick your thumb into the hole left from removing the apron, and lift up gently but firmly, to fully remove the carapace.
- Remove and discard the spongy, inedible gills from either side of the body.
- Also crack and remove the mandibles (mouthparts) at the front of the crab.
- Rinse all of the greenish-brown goo out of the body so that you are left with only shell and tasty meat.
- Turn the crab upside down, grip it on either side, and crack it in two.
- Squeeze out the meat from each half.
Parmesan Crisps:
- Preheat the oven to medium-low (160C/325F/gas 3).
- Lay a baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper.
- Shape 8 flat rounds of grated cheese on the paper, spacing them from each other.
- Bake for about 6 minutes, until the rounds are golden.
- Peel them off the paper while they are still warm and set aside. (You can make the crisps ahead of time and keep them for two days in an air-tight container.)
Avocado Salad:
- Mix together all the ingredients for the salad and season with salt and pepper.
Crabs:
- Melt the butter in a sauté pan.
- Add the crab meat and sauté over a low flame, stirring.
- Add the basil, season with salt and pepper and continue sautéing while stirring until the crab meat becomes white.
- Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
To Serve:
- Divide two-thirds of the avocado salad among 4 serving plates.
- Lay 4 parmesan crisps over the salad, and top them with the crab meat.
- Lay the remaining 4 crisps on top of the crab meat, and top them with the remaining avocado salad.
- Sprinkle some of the dried tomato oil around the Napoleons and serve.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.9
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