Gougeres with Dungeness Crab Salad

November 14, 2008
Dungeness Crab
Dungeness Crab
People who love food love people who love food, so it should come as no surprise that all my girls love to eat just as much as me. What started out as a dinner of lobster fried rice (made with leftovers from Newport Seafood), turned into a tour of Asia/seafood feast mixed with a little Animal Planet in my sink. Our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs, but that never stops us. Thinking that we didn't have enough food, Jamie brought over four giant, and very feisty, dungeness crabs. So on top of Misa's Tom Yum Soup, my Lion's Head Meatballs and Jamie's lobster fried rice, now we had crab and lots of it. This wouldn't be a lot of food for an army, but for three girls and one scrawny boy (sorry B), we ended our gluttonous night with two whole crabs leftover. Trust me, that's a lot of meat. Now what does one do with that much crab meat leftover? Hmm. And though I immediately thought of crab cakes, I wanted something a little more inspired.

Gougeres with Dungeness Crab Salad
Gougeres with Dungeness Crab Salad

Most of the recipes I found online paired crab with cream cheese, but the lump crab meat was so sweet and delicious on its own that I immediately nixed the idea of mayo or cream cheese anything. A light, citrusy salad would do my leftovers justice. Since I had a block of gruyere on hand, I thought gougeres would be a fun and delicious way to deliver the salad. Crispy little cheese puffs all warm fresh from the oven. I have to use serious self control not to shovel them all into my mouth. :) For the salad, I mixed the crab with tarragon, parsley, roasted red peppers and lots of lemon juice. Salt and pepper too, of course. I filled the hollowed out choux pastry with my crab salad and added a sliver of Reed avocado and arugula.

Wow. Eating is my favorite hobby!

Dungeness Crabs
Dungeness Crabs

4 Comments

  • Laurel

    14 Nov 2008 06:11 pm

    [this is good] This looks so insanely good!

    Reply

  • Mexid Cocktail

    15 Nov 2008 11:11 am

    Gruyere and Crab… 😛

    Reply

  • Susan C

    16 Nov 2008 08:11 pm

    [this is good] Yum! You just paired two of my favorite foods. I can’t imagine a better combination. And you’re so right about cream cheese being way too heavy for the light delicacy of good, fresh crab.

    I also love crab fried rice with a drizzle of Thai fish sauce.

    Reply

  • Mexid Cocktail

    16 Nov 2008 09:11 pm

    Love that strong Thai fish sauce, can never find it though.

    Reply

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