Asian Crab Salad Croustades

Total Time: 35 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons good-quality mayonnaise or 2 tablespoons aioli
• salt
• pepper
• hot sauce or harissa
• 15 ounces crabmeat, picked & cleaned
• 1 lime, juice of
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla)
• 2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
• 1 small handful mint leaf
• 2 large handfuls coriander leaves
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 small red chili (or more to taste)
• half head romaine lettuce or iceberg lettuce
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (can be left out overnight)
• 48 slices bread

Recipe

• 1 for the crab salad:.
• 2 combine the lime juice, brown sugar and fish sauce in a bowl, stir until the sugar has dissolved.
• 3 if your sugar is quite hard, you can heat the mixture a little to make the dissolving easier.
• 4 finely chop the coriander, mint and kaffir lime leaves, deseed and de-vein the chilli and chop finely as well.
• 5 combine all ingredients in a bowl and leave to infuse for at least 3 hours in the fridge. you can prepare this a day in advance, if you wish.
• 6 combine crab with the mayo/aioli and seaon with salt, pepper and a dash of tabasco.
• 7 shred the lettuce leaves thinly, then chop roughly.
• 8 croustades:.
• 9 preheat oven to 375ºf.
• 10 coat insides of 48 muffin (2" ea) pans, generously with butter.
• 11 using a 2-1/2" to 3" plain round cookie cutter; cut a round from each slice of bread. (use the reminder bread for breadcrumbs).
• 12 use fingertips, press against muffin cups (and you create a little cup).
• 13 bake 8-10 minutes.
• 14 remove from oven and cool. (these can be stored in airtight container)
• 15 to assemble;.
• 16 fill the shells up with shredded lettuce about half way, then top with about 1 tsp of the crab salad.
• 17 serve within 30 minutes to an hour so the bases don't get soggy.
• 18 voilá.
• 19 the croustades (rahm's) are available in most supermarkets in the uk and at ikea food shops worldwide.