How to cook with crab: From devilled crab on sourdough to crispy fritters

Crab meat is delicate and sweet, and protected by its exterior hard shell. Great British Chefs show how to crack into the good stuff and what to do with it after

Devilled crab on sourdough toast by Josh Eggleton

Serves 4
Cooking time: 35 minutes

Devilled crab

250g of white crab meat, picked through for broken shell
10g of unsalted butter
10g of plain flour
125ml of cider
120g of cheddar, grated
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco to taste
fresh coriander to taste, chopped, plus extra for garnishing
lemon juice to taste
salt
black pepper

To serve

4 slices of sourdough bread, toasted

Mix crab meat with cider with cheese and slather it on toast

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Mix in the flour with a spatula and cook very gently for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in half of the cider. Return the pan to the heat and whisk again until the mixture thickens. Whilst still over the heat, pour in the remaining cider and continue to whisk. Once the sauce is smooth, whisk in the mustard and the Worcestershire sauce. After about 10 minutes of gentle cooking, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the grated cheese a little at a time​.

Once the cheese is fully incorporated, transfer the sauce to a bowl and leave to cool. Place the crab meat on a clean kitchen cloth and pull up the sides of the cloth to form a sack. Twist the sack over a sink to squeeze any excess water out of the crab meat​.

Gently mix the drained crab meat into the cheese sauce. Season with salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, coriander and lemon juice – make sure you keep trying the mix to make sure it is to your liking. Spread the crab rarebit as thickly as desired over the freshly toasted sourdough and place under a grill until golden. Serve by itself, sprinkled with freshly chopped coriander, or with a selection of pickled vegetables such as sliced gherkins, onions and pickled carrots.

Flavour the brown crab meat with a Tobasco for a little heat

Crab and smoked salmon salad with avocado, fennel and apple by Steve Smith

Serves 4
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Crab salad

100g of white crab meat
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and finely diced
20g of fennel, finely diced
1 tbsp of chives, chopped
1 dash of lemon juice
salt

Brown crab meat

50g of brown crab meat
5 drops of Tabasco
black pepper
1 dash of lemon juice, fresh

Avocado purée

2 Hass avocadoes, ripe
​100g of homemade mayonnaise
​100g of créme fraiche
​30ml of lime juice, fresh
10g of wasabi paste

Smoked salmon

100g of smoked salmon slices, long

To serve

¼ fennel
1 lemon

Sort through the white crab meat, checking for any shell and cartilage, then combine the meat with diced apple, chives and fennel in a bowl and season to taste with lemon juice and salt. Cover and store in the fridge until required​. For the brown crab mixture, ensure there is no shell in the meat before combining with the Tabasco, pepper and lemon juice in a food processor. Blend until smooth, season to taste and store in a squeeze bottle in the fridge until needed.

To prepare the avocado purée, ensure the avocados are perfectly ripe, then place all of the flesh into a food processor with the mayonnaise, créme fraîche, lime juice and wasabi. Blend until smooth, then transfer to a squeezy bottle or small piping bag. Keep in the fridge until required.

Remove the crab salad and avocado purée from the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving. Using a mandoline, shave the fennel into very thin strips and dress in a small dash of lemon juice. Divide the smoked salmon onto 4 plates in a circular pattern and arrange the white crab salad on top. Garnish with pipings of the avocado purée and brown crab mixture, along with the shaved fennel and coriander cress. Serve immediately.

These Thai sweetcorn fritters are given a touch of spice with corriander

Crispy crab, sweetcorn and coriander fritters with sweet chilli sauce by Shaun Rankin

Serves 5
Cooking time: 30 minutes

2l vegetable oil
​500g of cooked crab
​100g of sweetcorn kernels
25g of coriander, chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
50g of cornflour
50g of rice flour
50g of gram flour
130ml of water
sea salt
6 tbsp of sweet chilli sauce
cracked black pepper

Fill a deep fat fryer with vegetable oil and heat to 170°C/Gas mark 3. Put the crabmeat, sweet corn, chopped coriander and chilli in a bowl and mix together, keeping it quite chunky. Season with salt and cracked black pepper​.

In a separate bowl, mix all three flours together. Add the water slowly to the flour, mixing continuously until you create a smooth batter. Add the batter to the crab and mix in well. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the crab mixture onto a small square of greaseproof paper. Repeat using all the mixture.

Lower the papers with the crab mixture on into the oil in batches. Cook for 1 minute 30 seconds. Remove from the oil, and very carefully peel off the paper. Return the fritters to the fryer for a further 1 minute 30 seconds or until crisp and golden brown. Season the fritters with sea salt and serve with sweet chilli dipping sauce

Video and recipes by Great British Chefs. Visit their site for more creative crab recipes