Recipes

Chosen from The River Cottage FISH Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall & Nick Fisher, this recipe works well with spider or brown crab.

Serves 6

    125g softened unsalted butter
    300g white and brown crabmeat
    A good pinch of cayenne pepper
    2 tbsp chopped mixed herbs, such as parsley, chervil and chives
    A squeeze of lemon juice
    A day-old white baguette, cut into slices 1.5-2cm thick
    4 eggs
    250ml milk
    250ml single cream
    Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Use some of the butter to grease a medium gratin dish generously. Combine the crabmeat with the cayenne, mixed herbs and lemon juice and season well.

Generously butter the baguette slices. One good approach is to construct two giant, multi-decker, Scooby-snack style crab sandwiches, which will lie side-by-side in the gratin dish. Start with a buttered slice of baguette. Cover it with crab mixture. Add a second slice of bread, some more crab, then another piece of bread. Keep going till you have a sandwich long enough to fit the dish.

Place the sandwich in the dish on its side and then make a second one to lay beside the first. Use the remaining bread slices and filling to make smaller sandwiches to fit around the edge of the dish and fill any gaps.

Whisk together the eggs, milk and cream and season well to make a savoury custard. Pour this mixture all over the crab and bread and leave to soak for at least 10 minutes. Then bake in an oven preheated to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for 25-30 minutes, until the custard is set and golden.

Serve warm, rather than hot, with something slightly bitter on the side, such as a salad of white chicory, radicchio, rocket or watercress with a citrus dressing - this helps cut the richness.