This dish came about while I was driving to the market one of these weekends. The idea of pairing salty umami packed cured egg yolk with sweet crab meat just popped into my head with a strong visual image of how the dish would look like, and I knew I had to make it. This is a light and refreshing dish with all the flavours and components added to accentuate and compliment the sweetness of the crab meat.
This dish will required some planning ahead to make the cured egg yolk (at least 4 days prior). But it's pretty easy, doesn't require much work and these umami packed egg yolks can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and used in many other dishes.
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 1 hour
Serves: 2
Ingredients
Cured Eggyolk
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup salt
Verjus Caviar
- 3/4 cup verjus
- 1/2 tsp agar agar
- 1 glass of vegetable oil
Spanner Crab
- 200g spanner crab meat
- 2 tsp ponzu dressing
- 2 tsp sour cream
- 1 tsp good quality mayonnaise
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp fresh horseradish (or wasabi)
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp finely chopped chives
- 1 tsp finger lime pearls
- salt
Garnish
- micro shiso leaves
Method
At Least 4 Days Prior
1. Mix the sugar and salt in a bowl. Sprinkle half in a small airtight container, make 2 small dents on the surface of the mixture and carefully place 2 egg yolks onto the mixture. Cover the egg yolks with the remaining mixture and keep in the fridge for 4-7 days.
On the Day
1. Put a glass of vegetable oil in the freezer for 30 minutes to make the verjus caviar in step 3 below.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 95 degree. Take the egg yolks out of the mixture, brush off the salt and sugar mixture and rinse under cold water to get rid of the remaining mixture. Dry with kitchen paper towel, place it on a baking paper and bake it in oven for about 35 minutes until it's dry to touch. Take it out and set aside. The left over egg yolks can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
3. Make the verjus caviar by heating the verjus with the agar agar powder in a small saucepan, mix well and take it off the heat when it boils. Take the oil out of the freezer, and use a pipette (or syringe or even a tea spoon should work) to drop one drop of verjus mixture into the cold oil at a time. This helps the 'caviar' pearls to form and shape as they fall through the cold oil to the bottom of the glass. Once ready, pass oil with the caviar pearls through a sieve to catch the caviar. Place the caviar in a bowl with cold water and rinse a few times until there is no oil stain left. Set aside.
4. Dress the spanner crab by adding all the ingredients in a small bowl, mix well and season to taste before adding the crab meat and gently mix well to ensure that it's well dressed.
5. Assemble by placing a metal ring in the middle of the plate, place the crab meat, followed by verjus caviar, and shaved cured egg yolk using a microplane. Garnish with micro shiso leaves.
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