Recipe Crab and Avocado Roulade with Watermelon

Morning Glory

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I've been busy thinking up savoury recipes using melon. Melon is good combination with seafood and shellfish in particular. The fragrant melon compliments the sweet salty taste of the shellfish and in this recipe the kick of chilli gives another taste dimension. Avocado and crab is a well known combination and I thought the buttery avocado would contrast with the melon. It sounds difficult to make but really it isn't. This is a skinny dish, intended as a starter. It was scoffed by my partner after I'd photographed it today!

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Photographed today in natural light

Ingredients
for each roulade:
30g white crabmeat
1 small red birds eye chilli deseeded and finely chopped
Lemon zest
1/2 a ripe avocado
1tsp of yoghurt or mayonnaise
Watermelon
Rocket leaves (arugula) and fennel to garnish
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Sweet chilli sauce (I used home-made but by all means use a ready made sauce!)

Method:
  • Cut five or seven stars of watermelon using a pastry cutter (odd numbers look better on plates).
  • Mix the crabmeat, lemon zest, chopped chilli, with just enough yoghurt or mayo to bind. Season with salt, to taste.
  • Slice the avocado thinly (I used a mandolin) and lay the pieces, slightly overlapping an a large square of cling film.
  • Form crabmeat into a cylinder and place at one end of the layered avocado. Use the clingfilm to roll it away from you and form a roulade. Keep rolling the roulade way from you whilst gripping the ends of the clingfilm so that they twist and the roulade becomes firm and encased in the clingfilm.
  • Cut a piece of watermelon to exactly the size of the roulade.
  • Assemble rocket and fennel leaves on the plate and drizzle with a little oil.
  • Unwrap the roulade and place it on the watermelon and then gently press some fennel fronds onto the surface and drizzle lemon juice over.
  • Decorate the plate with the watermelon stars and sweet chilli sauce.
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That looks divine! What a colourful dish, well photographed. Would coriander go with this?
Thank you. I'd think coriander would work. It goes well with crab, after all. You could layer some whole coriander leaves on to the avocado. That would look pretty! It is a bit fiddly layering up the avocado slices and rolling. Bit other than that, the dish is easy. No cooking involved. You can make the roulades ahead of time and leave them in their airtight cling film wrapping. That way the avocado doesn't go brown.
 
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Late last week I tried a spiced pickled watermelon in marks and Spencer's that would have gone well with this dish,keeping with the theme!
 
Is

it ok if i try with coriander or parsley or Just the curyy leaves as here Rocket leaves are not easily available. Need to digg in Hypermarts if its there.:)..Will the taste matters in this case if I use these Alterations?
You could use coriander leaves instead of the fennel (wrapped around the roulade). To be honest, the rocket was used because that is what I had - any salad leaves would be fine!
 
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