PICKED CRAB, CELERY LEAF, GREEN APPLE & RADICCHIO
Fresh crab, with crusty, thickly buttered bread, is my ideal lunch pretty much anytime of year. A crunchy salad of tart apple, celery, and radicchio alongside is a particularly summery accompaniment – (consider serving also with a chilled glass of white wine, and on a vine-shaded terrace for maximum effect!).
INGREDIENTS
(Serves 4)
- 1 large dressed crab – from a fishmonger, not a can!
- 1 medium celery stalk
- Celery leaves picked from a few stalks of celery
- 1 crisp/under-ripe granny smith apple
- 1 Radicchio (or purple endive/treviso)
- 3-4 pointy (French Breakfast) radishes
- Small handful of mixed small lettuce leaves
- 1-2 lemons
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 1 freshly baked baguette
- Some good quality salted butter (removed from the fridge to soften prior to serving)
Assemble the salad ingredients in a large bowl: first, cut off the base of the radicchio, separating it into its individual leaves; pick the leaves from the celery; thinly slice the celery stalk on an angle; thinly slice the radishes in the same way; halve and core the apple before thinly slicing (splash these with a little lemon juice to prevent discolouration before adding to the bowl); and, lastly, add the mixed lettuce leaves.
Remove the picked meat from the crab into a bowl. Lightly mix the white meat and brown with a fork before dressing with the juice of half a lemon, along with a sprinkling of salt and a little freshly ground black pepper.
Diagonally cut four thin slices from your baguette, and butter generously before lightly piling some crab meat high on each.
Lastly, dress the salad with a good squeeze of lemon, a light drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper.
Arrange as you wish, either on individual serving plates (as pictured), or on a platter to share.
