Charlie’s cayenne-spiced crab and avocado

One of the best things we've eaten all year...

Charlie’s cayenne spiced crab and avocado with charcoal biscuits

At a recent party, hosted by Country Life, a certain cayenne spiced crab canape went down rather well. So well in fact, that we begged the fantastic caterer-Charlie at Quail London (0208 560 1103/07867 847 186)-to adapt his recipe into a more substatial starter. If you are entertaining at the weekend, with time to spare, then take a trip down to your local fishmonger in search of super fresh crab meat.
Serves 4crab recipe

Ingredients
125g pack Miller’s Damsel Charcoal Biscuits
200g White Crab Meat (such as Seafood & Eat It)
1 ripe avocado
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp finely chopped dill
1 tbsp good quality mayonnaise (such as Delouis Fils Mayonnaise)
salt and pepper to taste

You will need: one 7cm cooking ring (or an empty 400g tin with both ends taken off !)

Method
Pit and peel the avocado and cut it into 1cm chunks. In a small bowl toss the avocado
chunks gently with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and season with salt to taste. In a
medium bowl, whisk together remaining lemon juice, cayenne pepper, finely chopped
dill and the mayonnaise. Add crabmeat and combine gently. Season with salt and
pepper to taste.

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Stand the chefs ring on a serving plate. Scoop a quarter of the diced avocado into the
ring and press down. Place 1/4 of the crabmeat on top and press down again.
Gently pull the ring off the avocado and crab mixture, wash and repeat with the
remaining 3 servings.

Serve with the charcoal biscuits.

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