Recipes, re-invented from cooking shows
Crab and Yuzu Rice Cracker
Prep. Time:
Baking Time:
Total Time:
1 hr 15 min
9 hrs
10 hrs 15 min
Serves:
24 canapés
Abbie created this dish for Great British Menu Series 21. The veteran judge ranked it his top canapé of the heat, praising the crab directly and the way the yuzu worked against it, and one of the chamber judges liked the cracker more than the fish served beside it. At the regional judging round the...
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Ingredients
FOR THE BLACK RICE CRACKER: Black venere rice — 150 g Water — 700 ml Fine sea salt — 5 g Sweet (glutinous) rice flour — 15 g Neutral oil, for deep-frying — 1.5 litres
FOR THE PICKLED WATERMELON RADISH: Rice vinegar — 75 ml Water — 50 ml Caster sugar — 30 g Fine sea salt — 4 g Watermelon radish — 1 large
FOR THE YUZU AND BROWN CRAB AIOLI: Brown crab meat, sieved — 60 g Egg yolk — 1 Dijon mustard — 5 g Neutral oil — 140 ml Yuzu juice — 20 ml Yuzu kosho — 4 g Yuzu zest, finely grated — 2 g Sea salt — to taste
FOR THE DRESSED WHITE CRAB: Picked white crab meat, Portland — 220 g Chives, finely sliced — 5 g Sea salt — to taste
TO FINISH: Yuzu juice, in a dropper — 10 ml
EQUIPMENT: Dehydrator with solid drying sheets, or a low oven Silicone baking mats Blender or food processor Deep-fryer or heavy pan with a probe thermometer Mandoline Wire rack and tray Piping bag Small dropper or pipette
Method
STEP 1: COOK THE BLACK RICE TO A PASTE
Rinse the black venere rice under cold water. Put it in a pan with the water and the fine sea salt, cover, and simmer over a low heat for about 45 minutes, stirring often, until the grains have collapsed and the mixture is a slack, glossy, sticky paste. Add a splash more water if it tightens before the grains give way. Blend briefly — broken down but not wholly smooth, as a little grain reads in the finished shard.
STEP 2: BIND AND SPREAD
Beat the sweet (glutinous) rice flour into the hot paste until no lumps remain; it tightens the paste so the dried sheet fries thinner, snaps harder and takes on less moisture from the air. Spread as thinly as you can manage onto dehydrator sheets or silicone mats — aim for 1.5 mm and no more. Thickness here is the single biggest lever on how long the finished cracker holds its crisp.
STEP 3: DEHYDRATE TO BONE DRY
Dry at 60C for 8 to 12 hours, until the sheet is hard, glassy and snaps cleanly with no flex anywhere. An under-dried sheet fries into a cracker that looks right and softens within minutes. Break the dried sheet into shards for frying.
STEP 4: FRY AND HOLD DRY
Heat the neutral oil to 200C. Fry the shards for 8 to 12 seconds, until they puff and blister. Lift onto kitchen paper, salt lightly, then hold them somewhere warm and dry — a low oven at 60C, a warming drawer, or an airtight box with a silica sachet — until the moment of service. Do not leave them out on a tray at room temperature.
STEP 5: PICKLE THE RADISH
Bring the rice vinegar, water, caster sugar and fine sea salt to the boil, then leave to cool completely. Slice the watermelon radish on a mandoline as thinly as it will hold together, and pickle in the cooled liquor for at least an hour. Lift the slices onto kitchen paper and blot both sides before plating — pickle liquor carried onto the crab ends up in the cracker.
STEP 6: MAKE THE AIOLI
Whisk the sieved brown crab meat with the egg yolk and the Dijon mustard. Add the neutral oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly, to a firm emulsion — firmer than a dressing aioli, stiff enough to hold a piped line. Fold in the yuzu juice, yuzu kosho and yuzu zest: juice for acid, kosho for sustained aroma and a little heat, zest for the top note, and neither of the last two adds water. Season, tasting for citrus before salt. Rest in a piping bag in the fridge.
STEP 7: DRESS THE CRAB
Pick the white crab meat over carefully for shell. Spread it on a wire rack set over a tray and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes, then blot on kitchen paper. Fold through roughly two thirds of the aioli with the chives and check the seasoning. The crab should read as dressed rather than wet: if a spoonful weeps on the board, it will weep on the cracker.
STEP 8: SEAL, BUILD AND SERVE
Pipe a thin sealing film of the remaining aioli across each cracker and let it settle for a moment — that fat barrier is what stands between the crab and the starch. Quenelle the dressed crab on top, crown with a blotted slice of pickled radish, and finish with one drop of yuzu juice from the dropper. Serve within ninety seconds. Build to order and never in advance; if a canapé has had to wait, set it aside and build a fresh one.
STEP 9: OPTIONAL — SIZE
For a true one-biter, break the fried shards to roughly 4 cm by 3 cm and scale the quenelle down to suit. Offered as an option rather than a correction.
EQUIPMENT:
Dehydrator with solid drying sheets, or a low oven
Silicone baking mats
Blender or food processor
Deep-fryer or heavy pan with a probe thermometer
Mandoline
Wire rack and tray
Piping bag
Small dropper or pipette
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Instructions
FOR THE BLACK RICE CRACKER:
Black venere rice — 150 g
Water — 700 ml
Fine sea salt — 5 g
Sweet (glutinous) rice flour — 15 g
Neutral oil, for deep-frying — 1.5 litres
FOR THE PICKLED WATERMELON RADISH:
Rice vinegar — 75 ml
Water — 50 ml
Caster sugar — 30 g
Fine sea salt — 4 g
Watermelon radish — 1 large
FOR THE YUZU AND BROWN CRAB AIOLI:
Brown crab meat, sieved — 60 g
Egg yolk — 1
Dijon mustard — 5 g
Neutral oil — 140 ml
Yuzu juice — 20 ml
Yuzu kosho — 4 g
Yuzu zest, finely grated — 2 g
Sea salt — to taste
FOR THE DRESSED WHITE CRAB:
Picked white crab meat, Portland — 220 g
Chives, finely sliced — 5 g
Sea salt — to taste
TO FINISH:
Yuzu juice, in a dropper — 10 ml
EQUIPMENT:
Dehydrator with solid drying sheets, or a low oven
Silicone baking mats
Blender or food processor
Deep-fryer or heavy pan with a probe thermometer
Mandoline
Wire rack and tray
Piping bag
Small dropper or pipette
Heading 5
Ingredients
STEP 1: COOK THE BLACK RICE TO A PASTE
Rinse the black venere rice under cold water. Put it in a pan with the water and the fine sea salt, cover, and simmer over a low heat for about 45 minutes, stirring often, until the grains have collapsed and the mixture is a slack, glossy, sticky paste. Add a splash more water if it tightens before the grains give way. Blend briefly — broken down but not wholly smooth, as a little grain reads in the finished shard.
STEP 2: BIND AND SPREAD
Beat the sweet (glutinous) rice flour into the hot paste until no lumps remain; it tightens the paste so the dried sheet fries thinner, snaps harder and takes on less moisture from the air. Spread as thinly as you can manage onto dehydrator sheets or silicone mats — aim for 1.5 mm and no more. Thickness here is the single biggest lever on how long the finished cracker holds its crisp.
STEP 3: DEHYDRATE TO BONE DRY
Dry at 60C for 8 to 12 hours, until the sheet is hard, glassy and snaps cleanly with no flex anywhere. An under-dried sheet fries into a cracker that looks right and softens within minutes. Break the dried sheet into shards for frying.
STEP 4: FRY AND HOLD DRY
Heat the neutral oil to 200C. Fry the shards for 8 to 12 seconds, until they puff and blister. Lift onto kitchen paper, salt lightly, then hold them somewhere warm and dry — a low oven at 60C, a warming drawer, or an airtight box with a silica sachet — until the moment of service. Do not leave them out on a tray at room temperature.
STEP 5: PICKLE THE RADISH
Bring the rice vinegar, water, caster sugar and fine sea salt to the boil, then leave to cool completely. Slice the watermelon radish on a mandoline as thinly as it will hold together, and pickle in the cooled liquor for at least an hour. Lift the slices onto kitchen paper and blot both sides before plating — pickle liquor carried onto the crab ends up in the cracker.
STEP 6: MAKE THE AIOLI
Whisk the sieved brown crab meat with the egg yolk and the Dijon mustard. Add the neutral oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly, to a firm emulsion — firmer than a dressing aioli, stiff enough to hold a piped line. Fold in the yuzu juice, yuzu kosho and yuzu zest: juice for acid, kosho for sustained aroma and a little heat, zest for the top note, and neither of the last two adds water. Season, tasting for citrus before salt. Rest in a piping bag in the fridge.
STEP 7: DRESS THE CRAB
Pick the white crab meat over carefully for shell. Spread it on a wire rack set over a tray and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes, then blot on kitchen paper. Fold through roughly two thirds of the aioli with the chives and check the seasoning. The crab should read as dressed rather than wet: if a spoonful weeps on the board, it will weep on the cracker.
STEP 8: SEAL, BUILD AND SERVE
Pipe a thin sealing film of the remaining aioli across each cracker and let it settle for a moment — that fat barrier is what stands between the crab and the starch. Quenelle the dressed crab on top, crown with a blotted slice of pickled radish, and finish with one drop of yuzu juice from the dropper. Serve within ninety seconds. Build to order and never in advance; if a canapé has had to wait, set it aside and build a fresh one.
STEP 9: OPTIONAL — SIZE
For a true one-biter, break the fried shards to roughly 4 cm by 3 cm and scale the quenelle down to suit. Offered as an option rather than a correction.
EQUIPMENT:
Dehydrator with solid drying sheets, or a low oven
Silicone baking mats
Blender or food processor
Deep-fryer or heavy pan with a probe thermometer
Mandoline
Wire rack and tray
Piping bag
Small dropper or pipette
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