Mexican Crab Salad with Chilli Mayo
– How to cheat

This is so named because our hero ingredient this week is guacamole, or more specifically Marks & Spencer’s chunky Guacamole. Mind you, everyone does a decent guacamole these days, so it’s fairly easy to get hold of. This is the cheat’s answer to eating something cool on a hot, sunny day, and if it happens to be an alfresco lunch, so much the better – there are lots of robust, gutsy flavours here which I think is the essential criterion for outdoor eating. If you’re feeling flush, Marks & Spencer also do cooked lobster which could be used instead of the crab, but if, like me, you’re partial to dressed Cromer crab, then Waitrose win the league on this front as theirs are always spanking fresh.

Serves 2 as a light lunch

Ingredients

1 large as possible ready-dressed Cromer crab
1 x 170g tub Marks & Spencer Guacamole
1 x 100g bag watercress, spinach and rocket salad
1½ tablespoons Hellman’s mayonnaise
1½ tablespoons Lea & Perrin’s Cook’s Helper Chilli and Garlic Sauce
2 tablespoons coriander leaves
1 fresh lime
cayenne pepper
salt and freshly milled black pepper

A mere assembly job, this one, which will begin with emptying the crab out of its shell into a bowl, then adding a seasoning of salt and freshly milled pepper followed by the juice and grated zest of half the lime and approximately 1 tablespoon of coriander leaves, chopped.

Next you need another bowl and in that combine the mayonnaise and chilli and garlic sauce by whisking them together along with all but a teaspoon of the juice of the other half of the lime. Do a bit of tasting here and add more chilli sauce if you like it hotter.

Now yet another bowl, to empty the salad into. Give it a good seasoning of salt and pepper, then toss the leaves around in the rest of the lime juice.

Next divide the salad between the serving plates and place half the guacamole in the centre of each pile of salad leaves. Divide the crab between the two servings, arranging it on top of the guacamole. After that drizzle the chilli mayo over each crab and salad and sprinkle the rest of the coriander leaves and a little cayenne on top.

And that’s all there is to it, apart from some good bread, good butter and some very cold white wine.

How To Cheat Hero Ingredient: