The Wedding Frenzy: Dungeness Crab Salad on Endive Petals

It's Dungeness Season. Oh, yes. We timed it just perfectly. Down at Swan's on Wednesday, the guys said, "Yeah, they just pulled the traps this morning. If you can come back by this afternoon we should have some for you."

I love, love, LOVE this town.

This little item went like hot cakes (or crab cakes, or crab salad) at the reception.

With all the insanity going on, I couldn't have put this one together without the extraordinary help of our kitchen assistant, pictured left. He also arranged our crudite platter, saying he was just pleased to have a task within his skill set. Thank goodness everyone can cook in this town!

We made double this recipe. There were no leftovers.

Dungeness Crab Salad on Endive Petals

7 oz cooked Dungeness crab meat
2 inner stalks of celery finely chopped
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 ½ tsp Dijon mustard
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
5-6 firm, fresh heads Belgium endive
Fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Cut 1/2 inch off the bottom (root end) of each head of endive. Separate the leaves, and set aside 24. Trim the leaves to measure about 4 inches in length. The leaves may be kept, in a single layer under a damp paper towel, in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.

Cut Dungeness crab meat into chunks. In a medium bowl, combine celery, mayonnaise, mustard lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add Dungeness crab meat and mix well.

Place a tablespoon of the Dungeness crab salad on the base of each endive petal. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Holidays 2003

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