August 25, 2026
Crab with asparagus and new potato
An early summer plate, best when the asparagus is English and the crab is at its heaviest. Warm potatoes, cold crab, and enough dressing to bring the two together.
This recipe comes from Seafood & Eat It, the Newlyn crab company whose hand-picked Cornish crab we stock on the deli counter. Their original is here. We have written ours for a counter, so you can use picked meat from a whole crab or one of their pots.
Ingredients
- 100g picked crab meat, or 1 pot of Seafood & Eat It White Crab (ask the counter and we pick a cooked crab)
- 100g asparagus spears, trimmed
- 80g new potatoes, boiled
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 60g mixed salad leaves
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 shallot, chopped
- ½ tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
- ½ tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- ½ tablespoon chopped fresh chives and chervil
- 25ml rapeseed oil
- 25ml light olive oil
- Lemon juice, to taste
Method
- Blanch the asparagus for a few minutes until tender. Drain and season well. Slice the potatoes, then toss in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- To make the dressing, start by boiling the eggs for 3 minutes. Quickly break the runny yolk into a food processor, add the shallots and herbs, and blitz them all together. Don’t throw away the cooked egg whites. Slowly pour in the two oils to make an emulsion, season and add lemon juice to taste. Chop the cooked egg whites finely and stir into the dressing.
- Arrange the asparagus on a serving plate with the potatoes, salad and crab, and drizzle with some of the dressing, leaving the rest on the side.
- This dressing method is almost foolproof and the emulsion shouldn’t split if you boil the egg for a few minutes
Shop this recipe: brown crab, the deli counter and what is on the counter today. Ask us to pick and dress a cooked crab.