crab towers with gazpacho and avocado salsas

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I once made twenty of these in one night. I also made twenty tiny caramelized onion gruyere tarts, six baguettes, three types of sorbet, and smoked popcorn with bacon. (Not totally true: The baguettes and sorbet were made in advance, just served that night. Thank god.) My friend made Thai chicken slaw, twenty tiny shepherd’s pies, braised venison over mashed potatoes, and chocolate pudding cake. Each dish had its own wine paired with it. It was an epic party. (And the next day was an epic hangover.)

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It was, as you can probably imagine, a lot of work. Building twenty tiny stacks of three different mixtures actually went pretty fast; no, the truly tedious part is creating teeny tiny squares of vegetables. But making your food into confetti is so pretty, sometimes it’s worth it.

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And it isn’t all about looks. It’s about combining my favorite foods into one elegant salad – avocadoes and crab and gazpacho, neatly layered and colorful. And if you aren’t making twenty of them, as well as twenty each of several other small dishes, the mincing isn’t too bad.  You might not have an epic party in that case, but you’ll still have a dish worthy of one.

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Printer Friendly Recipe
Crab Towers with Avocado and Gazpacho Salsas (adapted from Cook’s Illustrated’s Restaurant Favorites at Home)

Even when I’m making these for just a few people at home, I use Dixie cups with the bottoms cut off for the molds. You can make the gazpacho salsa a day in advance.

Makes 8

Gazpacho salsa:
1 cup grape tomatoes, minced
½ yellow pepper, minced
1 Persian or ½ regular cucumber, minced
1 small shallot, minced
¼ teaspoon salt
pinch black pepper
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil

Crab salad:
1 pound crabmeat, shredded
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon mayonnaise

Avocado salsa:
2 large avocados, peeled, pitted, minced
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. In a medium bowl, combine the tomatoes, pepper, cucumbers, shallot, salt, pepper, sherry vinegar, and olive oil. In a separate medium bowl, combine the crab, vinegar, and mayonnaise. In a small bowl, combine the avocado, salt, and lemon juice, mashing very lightly so the mixture holds together.

2. Divide the avocado mixture between eight 2-inch molds. Divide the crab salad between the molds on top of the avocados, pressing lightly again. Top with the gazpacho salsa. Serve immediately.

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Comments

  1. Oooh, loving the Dixie cup idea! And these look so good, perfect for the holiday 🙂 Apart from all of the molding and cutting, this looks pretty fool-proof, too. Thanks so much for sharing!

  2. These are so beautiful! I love the Dixie cup idea, I would have never thought of that. Can you reuse the cups if you make multiple or is it best to use one per “tower”?

  3. Heather – There’s no reason you can’t re-use the cups for multiple towers. It’s just makes serving time a bit faster to use multiple cups, because you can build the towers in an assembly line.

  4. I love the way these looks. I love all the ingredients. I am not sure I am bold enough to trust it would all stand up tall and proud, when I served them.

  5. been making them for years and they are a family favorite. never thought of the dixicup idea. been doing one at a time with a veggi can with the top and bottom removed. Slow process but orderly, who ever was standing next to me when I finished got it…