Crab salad with avocado lassi and curry mayonnaise

Avocado, curry, salt, capers and lemon- what more could you ask for with crab? Peter Kuruvita's Coastal Kitchen

• serves

  4

• prep

  40 minutes

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 200 g cooked spanner crab meat, picked through
• 1 punnet micro watercress
• 2 tomatoes, finely diced 
• 1 tsp baby capers
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Fried curry leaves and croutons, to serve 

Curry oil 

• 200 ml grapeseed oil
• 2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 24 fresh curry leaves
• 1 white onion, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp curry powder
• ⅓ cup baby capers
• ⅓ cup (80 ml) lime juice

Caper mayonnaise

• 4 egg yolks, at room temperature
• 200 ml curry oil (see above)
• 1 garlic clove
• ¼ tsp caper salt 
• Zest of ½ lemon
• 50 ml lemon juice 

Avocado lassi

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
• 1 tbsp milk
• Salt, to taste 

Instructions

For the curry oil, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add the mustard seeds and cook until they pop. Add the curry leaves, onion and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes or until just softened. Stir in the curry powder and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the capers and cook for another 3 minutes or until lightly fried. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Transfer the mixture to a blender, add the lime juice and remaining oil. Process until smooth, then strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

For the caper mayonnaise, place the egg yolks in a bowl. Whisking continuously, gradually add the curry oil, drop by drop at first and then in a slow steady stream until thick and emulsified. Place the garlic on a chopping board and sprinkle with the caper salt. Using the back of a large knife, mash the salt and garlic together until paste forms. Add to the mayonnaise with the lemon zest and juice and whisk to combine well.

For the avocado lassi, place all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

To serve, place the crab meat, watercress, tomatoes, capers and lemon juice in a bowl and gently toss. Drizzle a generous amount of curry dressing around the edge of each serving plate. Put the crab salad in the centre. Garnish with the fried curry leaves and croutons and serve with a dollop of avocado lassi on the side.

Peter Kuruvita's Coastal Kitchen airs 8pm, Thursdays on SBS and then you can catch-up on SBS On Demand. Visit the program page for recipes, videos and more.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.