Christmas! It’s now close enough to the big day for me to even mention the word.
Yes, I am one of those people who grouches about mince pies in September, and with good reason.
Christmas is special, and should remain so.
This dilution of the effect by dribbling tinsel and cards into the shops as the kids go back from the summer holidays is becoming faintly ridiculous, and the magic of those last few special weeks is diminished.
Some people don’t even take the lights off their outside trees any more.
But, this piece should be with you on the first of December, and as such, I’m allowed to offer up a dish that would be a great starter for any festive parties you’ll be organising.
I don’t cook with crab much – I’ll be honest with you that it’s not my favourite shellfish, for a reason I can’t quite fathom.
I think it may just be too rich for my taste most of the time – I really have to be in the mood for it.
It is, however, my wife Tracy’s absolute favourite, and I love it when she tells the tale of being a young girl in Suffolk, sitting in the kitchen with a boiled crab on a few sheets of newspaper, pulling, picking and scoffing to her hearts’ content.
Whenever it’s on a menu she’ll dive in and absolutely demolish the poor thing, claws scoured, legs chewed, and so little trace of meat left anywhere it’s as if it had been washed up on a beach for weeks.
I find such things a bit fiddly and not quite worth the effort (is this a man thing, I wonder?), but I’m glad T loves her crab, and I’m sure plenty of you do too.
A recent trip to my childhood haunts near Whitby, and the sights, sounds and smells of the trawlers as they puffed into the harbour brought this recipe to the front of my mental Rolodex, and I thought Christmas would be a great time to prepare and enjoy this sumptuous, rich starter.
It’s a smooth luxurious custard made from the brown meat of the crab, enriched with cream and eggs, set above some fresh-flaked white meat.
It’s incredibly silky and strong, so as a counter I thought I’d like to do something lightly pickled to cut through all that richness.
And I have a great standby recipe for what I call a day-pickle. It’s a slightly sweeter, less briny pickling liquid that you can use after only a few hours, so it’s great for softer vegetables like carrot or butternut ribbons, courgette, cauliflower, tomatoes or, as here, cucumber.
I wanted to add a crunchy element, too, so I thought along Scandinavian lines and went for a sort of open sandwich or smørrebrød.
A little cream cheese, bound with some finely-chopped boiled egg would serve as a nice, cool base for our ribbons of just-pickled cucumber, setting off the dish nicely.
You can make much of this up in advance, which, as we all know, is an absolute boon at this time of year.
For the custard:
175g brown crab meat
150g white crab meat
6 medium free-range egg yolks
120ml full-cream milk
120ml double cream
A little freshly-ground white pepper
A little Cayenne pepper
A pinch of Maldon salt
A little fresh dill, tarragon or parsley
For the pickled cucumber:
1 cucumber
250ml white wine
250ml white wine vinegar
90g unrefined golden caster sugar
40g Maldon salt
For the sandwiches:
6 slices good sourdough bread
280g cream cheese
2 hard-boiled eggs
Maldon salt and freshly-ground white pepper
Extras:
6 small ramekins
A few herbs
Method:
First, let’s make up the pickle. Heat together the white wine, the sugar and the salt, and when dissolved, take off the heat and add the vinegar. Allow to cool, and when completely cold, thinly slice or mandolin the cucumber into the liquid. Cover and let the cucumber pickle gently for a few hours or overnight. Finely chop the hard boiled eggs and add to the cream cheese. Mix well, season to taste and chill until required.
Now for the crab custards; pick over the crab meat to eliminate any errant pieces of shell. Set out a high-sided oven-proof tray that will fit all the ramekins with space to spare. Fold a tea towel into the bottom of the tin. Preheat the oven to 160ºC / Gas 3. In a bowl, beat together the brown crab meat, the egg yolks, the milk and cream. Season with a little salt and a pinch of each of the peppers. Transfer to a blender and whizz until smooth, then pass through a sieve into a jug. Add a little fresh chopped herb.
Divide the white crab meat into the base of reach ramekin and press down. Place in the tray and chill for 20 minutes, then pour the crab custard gently over, filling the ramekins almost to the top. Transfer to the oven, and fill the baking tray with enough boiling water to come just under the rim of the ramekins. Bake the custards for 20 minutes, or until just set, with a slight wobble. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Chill until required, but bring up to room temperature to serve. When you’re ready, toast the sourdough slices and spread thickly with the cream cheese.
Remove the cucumber from the pickle (the remaining liquid can be re-used) and pat dry on kitchen paper. Arrange the slices neatly on each toast and serve with the crab custards.
