Stone Crab Salad w/ Celery Rémoulade, Green Apple Gelée & Finger Lime

Hello friends and happy new year! To jump start the year here’s a recipe using the best-of-the-season. Yup. Every element in this fresh, clean-tasting, cool weather salad are at their best right now. From the bottom-up you’ve got fresh stone crab tossed with olive oil and lemon juice, celery rémoulade enlivened with capers, cornichons and fresh herbs, and a salad of frisée and mache with crunchy walnuts to top it off. The crab salad is already great on its own but it becomes perfect served in a pool of lightly-set green apple gelée with tiny cubes of green apple and some finger lime to make the flavor sparkle.

I used stone crab claws for this salad but feel free to use Dungeness crab if you live on the west coast. Maine lump crab meat works great too and so does Peekytoe crab. The most important thing is that your ingredients are fresh, crisp and bright tasting. Enjoy!

    • Stone Crab Salad w/ Celery Rémoulade, Green Apple Gelée & Finger Lime

      • Serves 4
      • Adapted from Daniel Boulud
      • Green apple gelee:
      • 4 Granny Smith apple, cored and chopped
      • 1 pinch vitamin C powder (to keep green color)
      • 1 lime
      • 1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatin (softened in 1 tbs water)
      • 1 drop green coloring (optional)
      • Celery remoulade:
      • 1 stalk celery, julienned
      • 1/2 celery root, julienned
      • 1 large egg yolk
      • squeeze of lemon
      • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
      • 1/2 teaspoon sherry vinegar
      • salt and pepper
      • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
      • 2 teaspoons chopped cornichons
      • 2 teaspoons chopped capers
      • 2 teaspoons chopped parsley
      • 1 teaspoon chopped tarragon
      • 1 clove garlic, chopped
      • For the crab and the salad:
      • 1 pound peekytoe, dungeness, stone or Maine crab meat (picked through for shells or cartilage)
      • lemon juice
      • extra virgin olive oil
      • 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
      • salt and pepper
      • 1 head frisee
      • 1 cup mache
      • 2 tablespoons walnuts, toasted, salted & roughly chopped
      • 2 finger limes or 1 lime
      • 1/2 green apple
        • For the green apple gelee:
        • Put the apple chunks in the container of a blender and puree until smooth, pushing down as needed. Add the vitamin C powder and blend to mix. Add a drop of green food coloring (if using). Strain the apple puree through a fine strainer. Measure 1 cup of the apple juice. Heat the gelatin to dissolve and mix it into the cup of apple juice. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours until slightly thickened.
        • For the celery remoulade:
        • Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the strips of celery and celery root for 1 minute and cool under cold running water. Drain and dry on paper towels.
        • In a bowl, mix the egg yolk, lemon juice, mustard, and vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Whisk in the vegetable oil to make a mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper and mix in cornichons, capers, parsley, tarragon and chopped garlic. Refrigerate.
        • For the crab and the salad:
        • Toss the crab with lemon juice, olive oil and mayonnaise to taste. Season with salt and pepper. In another bowl toss the frisee and mache salad with lemon juice and olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
        • Scoop out pulp from finger limes or cut the lime into segments and into little dice. Cut 1/2 a green apple into little dice.
        • To serve place four 2 1/2 inch ring molds in the center of soup plates. Spoon a quarter of the crab salad in each molds. Top the crab salad with the celery salad. Remove the ring molds and top the crab-celery with the frisee-mache salad. Top with toasted walnuts. Spoon some of the green apple gelee around the crab salad. Garnish with cubes of green apple and lime.
        Be Sociable, Share!

  • Francine Godoy

    It looks awesome! Wowwww

  • Angela Darroch

    Exquisite – again!!

  • zenchef

    Thank you, Francine!

  • zenchef

    Thanks, Angela!

  • kitchenriffs

    I love stone crab! We used to live in Florida, and always gorged on it when it was in season. Lovely flavors in this – I particularly like the celery rémoulade. And I really like the second photo (but I’m a sucker for overhead shots!). Good stuff — thanks.

  • http://www.tasteslikehome.org/ Cynthia

    Looking at the second photograph in particular, I feel all calm… totally zen. Happy New Year to you too.

  • zenchef

    haha.. then my job here is done. Thanks Cynthia!

  • zenchef

    I like the second photo too. Very green! :) Thanks.

  • http://profiles.google.com/gnocchiaifunghi Frank Fariello

    As always, a true work of art, both culinary and visual.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kathleen.shannon.50 Kathleen Shannon

    This is absolutely beautiful and delicious. I prepared it last night and it is a real winner. Thank you so much. I have been looking for something like this for a long time

  • http://twitter.com/tasteblog Lori Lynn

    I recently saw a recipe for scallop ceviche with finger lime, which I planned to use for an upcoming fundraiser. I think I am going to incorporate some of your elements to elevate the dish. The color is irresistible.
    LL