Recipe: Crab Salad with Bacon, Apple and Watercress

So, as we can’t treat you to some delicious food in the restaurant, we asked our head chef Adam Hague to share a few timely and seasonal recipes which are easy to make.

Crab Salad with Bacon, Apple and Watercress.

Serves 4 people

At The Greyhound, we try to support local farms wherever we can. For this salad, I usually like to use the smoked streaky bacon from Stockings Farm based in Coleshill, Amersham. These guys are fantastic! They are close to Beaconsfield and also tend to visit a few of the markets in the area. Check out their website for details www.chilternfarmfood.co.uk

The best thing about this salad is that it's about having fun!

Ingredients

200g Fresh White Crab Meat

100g Smoked Streaky Bacon

4 Granny Smith Apples

1 Lemon

Handful of Young Watercress

Salt

Mayonnaise

5ml of Egg Yolk

2g Dijon Mustard

30ml Rapeseed Oil

2ml White Wine Vinegar

Salt

Method

To begin, start by making the mayonnaise - you can use shop bought mayo if you prefer. Take the egg yolk, Dijon mustard and vinegar and place it into a mixing bowl. Whisk together and slowly start adding the oil, keep whisking to mix it all in, then season to taste with salt.

Next up is the crab - pick through the crab meat to remove all shell and cartilage. Just get some gloves on and place it on a tray and pick through the crab using your fingertips - once picked, place the meat into separate containers.

Mix mayonnaise into one container of crab. Dress the other with a squeeze of lemon juice and salt. Cover and put it in the fridge until serving.

To make the burnt apple purée take three of the apples, remove the core and roughly chop. Spread it on a baking tray and put it in a 200 degree oven for 15 minutes or until slightly burnt. Just move the apple pieces occasionally.

Then just blend until smooth, season with lemon juice and add some sugar if you feel it is too bitter. Pass through a fine sieve and place in a squeezy bottle.

Now let’s move onto the bacon. Slice the bacon into 5mm strips, get a medium size frying pan and get on a medium to high heat. Once it starts to smoke, add the strips of bacon, keep turning over until the bacon becomes crispy, then remove and drain it on some absorbing paper to remove the excess oil.

Now for the fun part - serving the dish. While waiting for the bacon to cool down for 5-10 minutes, remove the crab from the fridge, dice the last apple and grab the watercress (if there are any big stalks just rip them out, give it a quick wash in cold water and give it a shake).

Plating the dish - dot some of the apple purée around the plate, take the crab with mayonnaise and drop it around, drop some bacon bits, add some of the freshly cut apple, sprinkle some of the watercress over the top then flake some of the lemon dressed crab.

Dig in.