If I can sneak in a little "health science" here before we get down to business, shrimp and crab are both
seafoods that are very low in mercury, so I would never let that concern stop me from enjoying them.
Although, beware of imported, farm raised shrimp and crab, because they can be vulnerable to excessive toxins. Whatever you think of Whole Foods, they can be depended on for quality, Wild Caught Seafood.
Anyhooz, enough Food Science, back to "Style Points" and "Beautiful Eats", I haven't done a "Tapas Time" article in a while.
I think because it's winter, but this cool photo shoot of this Australian outdoor kitchen inspired me to put this one together, even though outdoor eating here in rainy Seattle is probably about 4 months away, I wanted to get this original recipe I've been working on out into the universe.
Which reminds me, why do bloggers be "copping an attitude" because you copy their recipes, like you stole the Nuclear Missile Launch Codes or something? Hey, take mine, repost it, copy it, plagiarize it and pretend you invented it, whatever, it ain't that serious………
Contemporary Patio by Sydney Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Dean Herald-Rolling Stone Landscapes
I can see a few "freestyle" variations, depending on what I grab from a farmers market, or hopefully from in my soon to be home organic garden, or whatever favorite fruits or veggies are the favorites of some cutie I'm hanging with at my little "pad".
Always gotta be ready, because those spontaneous cooking dates always come up 🙂
freestyle creation #1
tomato bowl stuffed with crab salad and shrimp
1 or 2 large cooked, peeled, deveined, I prefer tails removed, wild caught shrimp per tomato
(or you can have several smaller shrimp)
4 huge organic tomatoes (the firmer the better)
1 pound lump crab meat
2 cloves [optional] organic garlic, minced
Zest of 1 organic lemon
finely diced colorful bell peppers
2 tablespoons fresh organic lemon juice
4 organic scallions, green part thinly sliced
1/4 cup organic flat leaf parsley (or cilantro), chopped
Optional mayonnaise
(I hate almost all store bought mayo, you can make own mayo with 3 ingredients)
Optional Olive Oil or Culinary Argan Oil (my fav' non cooking oil!!!)
you know how I feel about oils, AVOID CANOLA OIL and vegetable oils like Wesson under all circumstances
or the whole point of healthy/delicious eating is defeated
2 tablespoon organic Dijon mustard
Manuka honey the best, healthiest honey by far!!!!!
Pink Himalayan Salt (AVOID COMMON TABLE SALT)
Coarse Ground Organic Black Pepper
Directions
I kinda like my crab in large chunks, but you can dice fine if you want. The amount of mayo depends on preference, I only like little perhaps one spoon full for a bowl of crab salad mix. You can do this recipe with no may at all, because I would rather omit the mayo instead of using store bought.
Other that this it is pretty simple, your just really mixing your filling ingredients. Chop your parsley, onions, cilantro and add to a bowl of crab meat. Smash your garlic cloves and add. The amount of garlic determines the amount of Manuka Honey, because the right balance of brash garlic and sweet honey makes for a good taste, though that varies from person to person. Add in lemon zest and lemon. Mix everything with a large spoon, or hand mix with a food prep glove.
Remove the top of a tomato and use a spoon to hollow out a bowl. (You might need to cut a little sliver off the tomato bottom so it stands up). You can dice up that tomato lid and add it to your mix, but not the inside of the tomato, that makes the blend a little too runny to me. I throw those tomato "innerds" into a baggie for the freezer and add that to my smoothies, no sense throwing away the most nutritious part of the tomato. Fill your bowl with your crab salad, add your shrimp on top, I like to have one or 2 jumbo shrimp sticking into the crab salad
Grind out some coarse ground black pepper and Pink Himalayan salt over your creation. Also, say if you are creating 4 of these for guests, a drizzle of Culinary Argan oil (it is very healthy/and BEYOND VERY TASTY), or a final squeeze of lemon or lime juice, or drizzle of olive oil on a "cool shaped plate" in front of your guests eyes gives it a cool salivating presentation. It makes guests think us average cooks actually know what the hell we are doing.
Doesn't have to be a "Tomato Bowl"
If that's too "artsy fartsy" for you. You can simply serve your tomato in sedges and set your crab salad and seafood on top.
The tomato wedges can be topped with whatever concoction, dip, or whatever tickles your fancy. You can also replace tomatoes with colorful bell peppers.
Freestyle Filling!!!
…for example, you can do any filling you want like a finely dice pineapple, cucumber, diced avocado, and cilantro filling with a little olive oil or Culinary Argan oil
You can replace the crab with flakes of your favorite whitefish, salmon, or whatever floats your boat. Of course you can experiment with veggies in the mix, like some chives, lemongrass, or whatever your farmer's market brings to you from mother nature.
Wild Rice can be interesting as well. Shrimp is my own "guilty pleasure" but I suppose the shrimp is not necessarily mandatory. I'll have a vegan-vegetarian variation in case of a vegan dinner guest in the crowd.
Dressed to Grill?
This might actually work nicely on the grill…..I might play around with that this summer, but I try to keep as many dishes with uncooked veggies in my cookbook as I can
……nonetheless, go ahead and "freestyle it", get creative, express yourself, and enjoy!!!!
The Sylvers: "Freestyle"
You can ignore this song if you want, I just popped it here cause it popped in my head when I started the post.
I don't think anybody liked it, or even remembers it, but me {chuckle}.
I'm always on my own blog reading my own recipes and archiving my favorite music. Recently deceased Sportcaster Stuart Scott said ….."Always leave a piece of yourself in your work"
Anyhooz, thanks for stopping by 🙂
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~stay healthy~
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all my articles in "The Healthy Chef's Cookbook"
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