So as you would know from our previous post of Paulie and I’s date day by the seaside we bought a crab. I usually find the recipes but Paulie was inspired by a recipe he found which had chilli and fennel seeds included, a combination we love. So we loosly based our version on this recipe but added some extras once we kept tasting and adjusting. Paulie thinks next time we should also add cumin seeds which sounds like a great idea. The other vital ingredient which we added after taking the picture is Worcester sauce it adds a wonderful depth and warm after tone while the chilli gives you the needed kick. We made it the night before and as you can imagine had an early lunch the next day ;). Paulie served it with warm fresh sourdough and all you could here from the 2 of us was mmm, wow, oh my, we must have this again it was a stunner! I also found out you can freeze it as long as fresh crab was used as we only ate half we are going to test freeze the other half, so I will let you know how it goes, but trust me if you have access to fresh crab this is must.

Ingredients

•  1 dressed Crab
• 1 small dried chilli
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
•  zest of a lemon and its juice
• 2 good pinches nutmeg
• 100g of butter, softened to room temperature 
• Tbsp Worcester Sauce
• Lemon Thyme for the Butter Top
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

1. In a pestle and mortar grind the chilli and fennel seeds to produce a powder.  Add half the softened butter and lemon juice
2. In a large bowl combine your spiced butter lemon juice, worcester sauce and the nutmeg, then mix in your crabmeat making sure there is no shell. Mix thoroughly and season well.
3. Get your pot/s ready that you are going to use for your crab and fill it with the mixture. Flatten the crab and smooth the surface with a spoon.
5. Melt the remaining half butter, add the thyme leaves, and pour it on the crab. Put it in the fridge to set and leave it overnight for the flavours to develop.