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Recipe from Fairyhouse Food and Wine School

Recipe from Billie O’Shea and her team at the award winning Fairyhouse Food & Wine School

Cucumber and Dill Salad

1 large cucumber, unpeeled and very thinly sliced
175g sugar
1 level tablespoon salt
120 ml cider or white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped finely chopped dill herb

• Put the slices of cucumber in a large bowl.
• Mix the sugar, salt and vinegar together and pour over the cucumber.
• Cover tightly and store in fridge – for at least 4 –5 hours or overnight before using
• This salad will keep well for 3 days in the fridge.

Tower of Crabmeat with Cucumber & Dill Salad      (Serves 4)

400g cooked crabmeat (available in large Supermarkets and your local fish monger – Nick’s Fish, Ashbourne)
1 scallion, finely chopped
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 green eating apple, diced finely
2 teaspoons sweet chilli sauce
1 teaspoon of good quality mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of chopped coriander (+ a coriander leaf for garnish)

• Place the crabmeat in a bowl, check through the meat to ensure there are no pieces of shell, then mix all ingredients for crabmeat tower together (except the lemon juice).
• Add half the lemon juice, taste and then add the rest if required (as the amount of juice from lemons can vary).   Can make 4 hours ahead, store in fridge.

To assemble the starter:
• Place slices of the cucumber overlapping in a 15cm circle around the plate.
• Place a ring mould (cooking ring, available to buy at the cookery school*)  in the middle of the circle and fill with the crab mixture, pushing down gently to fill to the top. Carefully remove the ring to leave tower standing.
• Decorate with a coriander leaf.

Option: substitute poached salmon for the crab (poach 200g salmon for 10 minutes, allow to cool, then stir through the same ingredients).

*You can adapt a tuna tin to make a ring mould – remove top and bottom of the tin and this will support your crab mound as you build it on the plate.

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