Did you know it was possible to take a can of crab meat and make something other than
delicious crab cakes with it? Did you know that that something else could be equally as delicious? Did you know that Alton Brown is a crazy person?
If you didn't, you should read this blog post. If you did, and you've never made Marinated Crab Salad ala Alton Brown, you should also read this blog post. If you did and you've already made it, GO TO HELL. Ok, not really. But you can skip this one.
Ingredients & Equipment
- 1 pound, crab meat
- 1 cup, olive oil
- 1 cup, red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons, kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon, freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
- 1 gallon ziploc bag
- Strainer
- Mixed salad greens
- Lemon
This is a pretty easy dinner -- if you prepare it ahead of when you want to eat. AB recommends four hours in the fridge; we did two and it was pretty damned good. Maximum marinate time, per AB, is eight hours -- so you could prep ingredients on evening, add the oil and vinegar to the marinade in the morning before you go to work, and have dinner ready when you get home. Neat-o.
Chop up your herbs and garlic. Put them in a gallon ziploc bag. Add the kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. It will look like this:
Add one cup extra virgin olive oil and one cup red wine vinegar. If you have an immersion blender, blend it up! I didn't, so the final product doesn't have visible stuff in it. You could also chop the parsley, garlic, and tarragon in a food processor to accomplish this.
Add the crab meat. Squeeze all the air out of the ziploc, and stow in the fridge for 4 to 8 hours (as stated above, we did two hours -- no complaints).
Your bag will look like this:
Before serving, strain the crab salad -- let all that extra oil drip away. Why? Because you don't need it. The crab has taken on all the flavors of the awesome stuff surrounding it.
We served it over salad greens with fresh lemon squeezed over it. Also had some sesame crackers to go with it -- YUM. I paired the meal with a Weyerbacher Merry Monks' -- a nice, spicy Belgian-style Tripel. Chimay would also work, or perhaps Victory Golden Monkey.
Enjoy!
