Crab crust salmon takes me back to my California days.
Crab crust salmon served on fresh spinach leaves
This crab crust salmon recipe is now officially my wife’s favourite fish dish!
I happen to like it a lot too and hope you’ll feel the same. Crab and salmon just seem to go so well together.
This is actually a play on a recipe I was brought up with back when I was growing up near San Francisco. Dungeness crab live in abundance off the Pacific Coast and my grandfather used to serve crab crust salmon with nothing more than lemon juice and olive oil. The flavours were amazing. I remember helping him put it all together knowing we were in for a gorgeous feast.
It is with this in mind that I kept the ingredients quite simple here.
I find the brown crabs that are caught off the coast of North Yorkshire work so well with this recipe. They have more moisture in the meat which when blended with a handful of dry breadcrumbs makes the meat easy to spread over the salmon steaks and quite tasty too.
Crab Crust Salmon Served With A Coconut And Saffron Sauce
Ingredients
- FOR THE SALMON
- The meat of two brown crabs
- 100g country white loaf of bread
- Rind of two lemons
- 30 black peppercorns coarsely ground
- 4 x 150g salmon steaks - skinned
- Salt and pepper to taste
- FOR THE SAUCE
- 2 tablespoons ghee
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 inches finely chopped ginger
- 2 small shallots finely chopped
- 2 fresh green chillies
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 200ml coconut milk
- 100ml single cream
- A pinch of saffron
- A pinch of turmeric
- 4 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves
- Juice of one lime
Instructions
- Start by making your sauce.
- Heat the ghee in a large pan or wok over medium heat.
- When melted, add the shallots, garlic, ginger and chillies.
- Allow to sizzle for about a minute and then add the cumin, coriander powder and turmeric.
- Again, let this fry for about a minute.
- Now add the coconut milk, saffron and turmeric and bring to a simmer while stirring continuously.
- Add the single cream, chopped coriander and lime juice just before serving.
- Now for the salmon.
- Pick all of the meat out of the crabs and set aside.
- In a food processor, blend the bread into very fine bread crumbs and then add the lemon zest and ground pepper.
- Toast the bread crumb mixture over medium heat in a large pan until it is just beginning to brown.
- Depending on the consistency of your crab meat, you may need to add more bread crumbs to it if it is too liquidy.
- Season your salmon steaks with salt and pepper and the spread the crab paste evening over the top.
- Sprinkle with the bread crumbs.
- Place the steaks on a baking tray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. I like to serve my salmon pink in the middle so watch the steaks carefully to ensure they cook through to the way you like them.
- You could serve this crab crust salmon and sauce with rice but I like serving it with simple new potatoes and stir fried baby spinach leaves.
Calogero
Tuesday 17th of July 2012
Salmon is very good against bad cholesterol. Thanks for this recipe of crab crust salmon and... never been in California.
Dan Toombs
Tuesday 17th of July 2012
Thank you very much. I hope you enjoy the recipe. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions.