, photo by , nutritional review by Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE
in Recipes, Appetizer, Dinner, Meal Crabs stuffed with tomatoes, basil and hazelnuts
Ingredients
- 2 2 Dungeness crabDungeness crabs or canned crab meat
- 5 oz. 140 g shrimp, cooked and peeled
- 1¼ cups (1¾ oz.) 300 ml (55 g) fresh basil
- 2 (1 oz.) 2 (30 g) scallionscallions
- 2 (8 oz.) 2 (230 g) tomatotomatoes
- 3½ oz. (¾ cup) 100 g (180 ml) hazelnuts, toasted
- ¼ cup 60 ml hazelnut oil
- sea salt
- pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Pull the crab legs from the body with a twist. Be careful not to break the shell.
- Remove the meat from the legs and body. This is a messy job that takes time. However, read the last tip — it will give you courage!
- Put the crab meat in a bowl, reserving a few of the nicest pieces. Clean the crab shells well.
- Chop the shrimp. Chop the basil and scallions. Core, seed and chop the tomatoes. Coarsely chop the hazelnuts.
- Add tomatoes, hazelnuts and shrimp to the bowl with the crab meat.
- Sprinkle with a splash of hazelnut oil and season with pepper and a little fleur de sel. Mix carefully.
- Fill the shells with this mixture. Put the nicest pieces of crab meat on top and serve.
Tips
In addition to the white crabmeat, females contain roe, also known as red coral. Not everyone is wild about the roe, but it is actually delicious if a bit rich. You can add this to the crab mixture or serve it on the side by mixing it with mayonnaise to create a dressing.
You will never get enough meat from a crab to completely fill the shell; therefore, I add shrimp. This way, you won't have to worry about not having a generously filled crab.
Removing crabmeat is a lot of work. After a meal, I clean the crab shells so I can reuse them. Then, for a quick meal, I make the filling with canned crabmeat or fresh lump crabmeat, and the entire dish is ready in 15 minutes.
About the recipe
This recipe is part of a collaboration with Pascale Naessens and comes from her book "Pure & Simple"
