Search This Blog

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Crab (shrimp) and Grapefruit Salad - French Fridays with Dorie


There's not much to say about putting this salad together. It's really just a loose set of recommendations, and you could make it a dozen times with it tasting a little different every time. The essentials are grapefruit, some kind of greens, and seafood--the recipe specifies crab, but as I feared, there was no fresh crabmeat available in these parts. The only thing I saw was a large tin of expensive lump crabmeat. I bought this once before to make crab cakes, and, although it came highly recommended, I thought it was more than a few notches less satisfactory than fresh crab. So I substituted precooked shrimp, a substitution that made the salad a cinch to put together.
As happens more often than I'd like it to, I neglected to thoroughly read the recipe, and missed the step about cutting the grapefruit a few hours ahead of time. I dried it ferociously in paper towels, and I thought it was just fine. So I've just started this recipe, and I've already concluded that crab isn't necessary for a crab salad, and preparing the grapefruit ahead of time isn't necessary for a grapefruit salad.
While I started in this devil-may-care manner, I did everything else according to Hoyle. Cucumber, orange pepper, mint, chile pepper....everything else was just as it was supposed to be. I loved the fresh flavors of the chile and mint, and the general lightness and healthiness of the salad.


I piled a generous dollop of guacamole on top of the salad. For years, Jim has claimed to dislike avocados and guacamole. While we were in Mexico, though, he ate it twice a day (at least). I was a little unhappy that he ate it all, because I was thinking he'd eat around it and leave it for me. He claimed, though, that guacamole in Mexico was a completely different thing than guacamole in Minnesota. But I noticed that he ate his Minnesota guacamole too. Apparently he's getting flexible in his old age.

12 comments:

  1. What a great idea to use shrimp instead. Looks delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great idea to add a dollop of guacamole on top! I definitely need to make this with shrimp next time. Your salad looks so delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The guacamole on top looks delicious - it must have been awesome having it melt with the oil and citrus juice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your shrimp looks great! I don't understand the point of the grapefruit-drying stage. Ah well. Mmmm...guacamole.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Minnesota guacamole :-)
    I totally don't get the drying of the grapefruit. I drained mine on paper towels for about...um...two minutes.
    Shrimp = bonnee idee

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice job! I'm really happy to know I don't have to do the grapefruit ahead. And, I love the dollop of guac on top. I liked the way the avocado and grapefruit went together.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Where do you buy your shrimp? I live in Minneapolis too and want to make this salad...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oooh I love the guacamole…looks fabulous on top of the salad. Love that you used shrimp!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Stacey and Frank,
    I got this shrimp at Whole Foods, but Coastal Seafoods also has wonderful shrimp. Neither of them had fresh crab this week. It works so well with shrimp that I'm not sure I'll even try to hunt down crab.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ooh, those shrimps really add an extra pop of color to the salad! So glad your other half liked it, the guacamole was probably a great lure after Mexico :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Using the shrimp is a great idea. Maybe I would like it better that way!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Minnesotan Guacomole vs. Mexican Guacomole - that could be a whole post. It looks really great on top of the salad and makes me in the mood for a margarita, chips and salsa. Looking forward to trying this one and catching up.

    ReplyDelete