Chilled Crab Salad with Tropical Avocado Relish
Hosting guests waterside this summer? This is the perfect luxurious chilled appetizer to woo & impress your guests utilizing locally-caught seafood. Chilled lump crab is folded with an easy chile lime aioli, fresh chives and a bite of heat from serrano chiles. The crab salad chills while you dice up a tart tropical fruit & avocado relish with some crunchy spicy sesame honey cashews. An entertaining showstopper!
Ingredients
- Crab Salad:
- 1 pound fresh crabmeat *jumbo lump*
- 1 pound fresh crabmeat *lump*
- 1/2 cup chile lime aioli recipe follows
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives sliced thinly
- 1 tablespoon serrano pepper 1 medium pepper, sliced thinly
- 10 turns freshly-ground black pepper
- 2 cups tropical fruit avocado relish recipe follows
- 1/2 cup sesame honey cashews recipe follows
- plantain chips for serving
- Chile Lime Aioli:
- 1 cup homemade aioli or avocado oil mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- juice of 1 medium lime
- 1/4 teaspoon ground aleppo pepper or chile powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pink himalayan salt
- Tropical Fruit Avocado Relish:
- 2 medium kiwis peeled & diced small
- 1 medium ripe mango peeled & diced small
- 1 medium pink or yellow dragonfruit diced small
- 1 medium just-ripe avocado diced small
- drizzle of honey
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- juice of 1 medium lime
- sprinkling of salt
- Sesame Honey Cashews:
- 1/2 cup salted cashews
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/4 teaspoon ground aleppo pepper or chile powder
- 1/2 tablespoon black & white sesame seeds
Instructions
- first, make your sesame honey cashews. preheat oven to 400 degrees. mix ingredients in a small bowl then transfer to a greased sheet pan, pressing down uniformly. bake in the oven until lightly toasted, 4-5 minutes. let chill completely then break apart. set aside while preparing remaining components.
- while cashews are cooling, whisk together your chile lime aioli. in a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients. keep chilled.
- next, make your chilled crab salad. in a medium bowl, delicately combine and fold together the lump crabmeat with chile lime aioli. stir in sliced serrano pepper, fresh chives and cracked black pepper. fold in your jumbo lump crab very delicately, careful not to break up the crab. chill until ice cold- at least an hour.
- meanwhile, make your tropical avocado relish. In a medium bowl, add all ingredients and fold together gently until combined well and avocados are coated with lime juice. Chill until ready to serve. wash & dry your plastic crabmeat tubs for serving.
- after crab salad has chilled, return the salad split between your original crab tub containers, pressing down well, then invert both on your serving platter. top each mound with liberal tropical fruit avocado relish, letting it fall off the sides.
- finish with a sprinkling of sesame honey cashews and serve with plantain chips on the side. serve immediately.