West Indies Salad - More Summer “Cooking” (with Meg's comments)

From Mary’s kitchen

OK.  Fall is officially here but today's temperature was in the 90’s and humidity is still high.  What is wrong with this picture?  

Since cooking in summer’s heat still seems to apply despite the calendar, I had to try Meg’s Peruvian ceviche recipe.  Sole is not a common fish here, so I substituted tilapia.  The texture is somewhat similar and the flavor is mild. I used more garlic than Meg noted and bumped up the spice with a lot of red pepper flakes and black pepper. This turned out really well. 

As I was writing my last post, I began to think on ceviche variations and ceviche-like dishes.  One of our locally famous dishes in that vein is a piquant crab salad called West Indies Salad, traditionally a mix of lump crab meat, chopped onions, vinegar, oil and water.  Doesn’t that sound kind of cevicheish?  Not being a native of the Gulf Coast, I had no idea where this salad originated. A little Google work revealed that West Indies Salad is attributed to Bill Bayley, chef in a local Mobile restaurant in the 1950s.  Who knew?  Not West Indies at all.  Here is Bill’s original recipe, still a favorite in these parts.

1 lb lump crab meat

1 finely chopped onion

4 oz. olive oil

3 oz. vinegar

4 oz. ice water

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the onions into a bowl; add crab meat, salt, and pepper. Some versions of this recipe say that half the onions should go in the bottom of the bowl, then the rest layered on top of the crab.  Each camp seems to be strict about the directions, though the rationale for each is unclear.  Regardless of which layering technique you ascribe to, instructions are to then add oil, vinegar (apparently cider vinegar is favored), and ice water in that order.  Do not stir.  Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.  Toss just before serving.

Since lump crab meat comes already cooked, the preparation just takes a little time.  The only kitchen heat generated might be that from arguments as to who gets the last bite.  I’m working on a version of this West Indies salad, pumped up a bit for crunch.  Since the recipe is not quite ready for prime time, I’ll save that for next time.

Meg's Comments
Mary, I know you are still working on the recipe and here is my feedback - how many people will this recipe serve as an appetizer?  And about the onion - a) what kind of onion (green, red, white, yellow? and b) how much?  a cup of green onions would be mild while a cup of white or yellow onion could put a real damper on "date night".  Plus it sounds very soupy with almost 1 1/2 cups of liquid.

Last night I made crab cakes for a dinner party of 6.  At $12.00 a pound and needing two pounds of crab meat I substituted fake crab (there is a gluten free version available) which is considerably cheaper.  Unfortunately the crab cakes had a rubbery texture which was off-putting for me.  Possibly the rubbery texture was because the crabcakes were baked instead of being used in a salad type recipe?

Dear readers - Mary and I often (well, sometimes) "chat" by email about recipes and share suggestions.  I think we should be more upfront with our ideas and comments to each other so you can "see" our wheels turning!  This is how we move from a cookbook recipe to our own (hopefully either better or easier or to our taste) version.

In order to give us your feedback you need to go to our actual blog site <mandm2cooks.blogspot.com> to comment on a particular post.  Please forgive the hassle but this is a free blog site for us and there is no advertising which is to your advantage! We will try to figure out how to change this but in the meantime I suggest that Mary and I include a URL link to our blog site with each post to make things easier for you.  We love getting feedback -  both good and constructive!

Also, we have not been diligent on adding to our suggested readings (blogs, books, etc.) Hopefully we can soon start adding some more of our favorite cookbooks as well as blogs that we follow.  Just remember that we are doing this for fun - Marry still works (poor dear) and Meg (sighing contentedly) is busy being retired.

Cheers to all!