CANCERIAN DINNER PARTY APPETISERS
Stephen Doyle
Crab Pastries:
Grill capsicum until skin is blackened. Put it in a plastic bag to sweat so you can easily remove the skin when it is cool.
Puree the capsicum and fold through your mayonnaise. Add some paprika for extra colour and flavouring and thin out some more with extra lemon juice. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and chives.
Asian Version:
Fry wonton skins or prawn crackers as the base.
Use small amounts of fish sauce, slivers of ginger, red chilli and coriander tossed through the crab - please don't overpower the crab's delicate flavours or it will get all sulky.
Fish and Chips:
Unfortunately I'm allergic to crab so we couldn't have the crab pastries, so we substituted flathead fish bites, with a batter made from seasoned SR flour and our bubbly Chirac. Soda water does a good job too. It was fish and chips in one with the scales of potato glued to the batter!
Alternately fry up whiting fillets encrusted in flaked almonds.
Shortcuts:
- Buy ready made pastry shells or puff pastry
- Buy already prepared and cryovaced frozen crab meat from the fish markets or
- Buy frozen crab and pork dumplings from Harris Farm or specialist Asian shops and either steam or deep fry
- Buy some whole egg mayonnaise and grilled capsicum