Photo: Hugh Johnson
With restaurants in Brixton, Soho, and White City, Kricket has become particularly renowned for its modern Indian-inspired food. Based on a similar dish served at Trishna in Mumbai, Kricket’s butter garlic crab uses both picked white and brown crab meat, served with seaweed-dusted papads. Taken from chef Will Bowlby’s Kricket Cookbook, it’s a perfect work-from-home lunch, prepared and ready to eat in fewer than 15 minutes.
“If you ever visit Mumbai as a tourist, one of the first restaurants that is always recommended is a place called Trishna in Kala Ghoda – its fame carried on this one dish alone. The buttery-sweet crab makes this indulgent dish hard to resist and I have also used a little brown crab meat, for added flavour. The papads (dusted with blitzed seaweed) are the perfect vehicle for scooping up all that delicious crab meat – this is definitely one to try out at home! You can also serve this with freshly baked bread, to mop up all the juices.”
Serves 4
150g unsalted butter
4 tablespoons minced garlic
3 teaspoons finely chopped green chillies
4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
350g picked white crab meat
40g picked brown crab meat
2 tablespoons lime juice
A small handful of coriander leaves sea salt, to taste
Salt, to taste
4 store-bought papads or freshly baked bread
10 sheets nori, blitzed to a powder (optional)
Heat a couple of tablespoons of water in a large heavy-based saucepan until bubbling. Add the butter and stir over a medium heat so an emulsion is formed.
Stir in the garlic, green chillies and black pepper and cook for a few seconds before adding the white and brown crab meat.
Cover and cook for 5 minutes, until the crab meat has absorbed most the liquid and the consistency is creamy and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and finish with lime juice and coriander. Season to taste with salt.
Spoon the crab into bowls and serve with papads dusted with nori powder or fresh bread.
Butter Garlic Crab recipe adapted from Kricket Cookbook, by Will Bowlby.
