Nourish the Planet: Curried Crab and Avocado Galette

July 9, 2021 Emily Buchanan

This beautiful summery recipe is recreation of a dish from Le Chardenoux, a small and popular bistro in Paris’s 11th arrondissement. A thin crispy round of pastry is the anchor for a delicious mixture of fresh crab seasoned with curry powder, paired with cubes of Granny Smith apple and lime zest, all held together with homemade mayonnaise. This is topped with the thinnest slices of ripe avocado, seasoned with lime juice, lime zest, salt, pepper, and herbs.

Nourish notes: As with so many beautiful ingredients that find their way to our plate, it’s not so much what the ingredient is but how it is produced, farmed or fished and transported that determines whether it is a sustainable choice. Crab and avocado are both great examples of this. For some avocados may be a local product, for others they have been flown half way around the world to get to us, in which case you may want to find an alternative or seek out an avocado producer closer to home (we like to make sure our avocados come from neighboring Spain rather than air-freighted from South America for example). When sourcing crab, look out for the Marine Stewardship Council label which guarantees they come from a sustainable fishery that preserves the marine ecosystem using pots or trotlines. Be wary of imported crab from Asia that doesn’t have a sustainable certification and may be fished in an unregulated, unsustainable way.

Making your own mayonnaise means that you can make sure the eggs used are from a truly free range source, since most industrial mayonnaise is made with eggs from battery-raised hens.

Curried Crab and Avocado Galette

Serves 4 | Equipment: A 3 ½-inch (8 cm) pastry cutter; a toaster

Ingredients

3 ounces (100 g) fresh cooked crab meat (MSC label)
2 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise
1 teaspoon homemade curry powder
Half a Granny Smith apple, cut into small cubes
Coarsely grated zest of 2 organic limes, divided
4 corn tortillas, or thin crepes, or blinis
1 large, ripe avocado
Freshly squeezed lime juice
Freshly ground pepper
4 fresh lemon thyme sprigs, with flowers if possible
Fleur de sel

Method

1. In a bowl, combine the crab, mayonnaise, curry powder, apple, and zest of 1 lime and toss with a fork. Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly.

2. With the pastry cutter, cut the tortillas, crêpes or blini into rounds. Toast them lightly. To construct each salad, place the pastry cutter on top of the toast and carefully arrange the crab mixture on top of the toast, pressing down to even it out. Halve the avocado, slice very thinly, and arrange five overlapping slices on half of the crab salad. Drizzle the avocado with lime juice and the remaining lime zest. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme sprigs. Serve.