Crab rarebit

Serves: 6
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 0 hr 10 mins
Ingredients
  • <ul> <li>Serves six</li> <li>20g butter</li> <li>20g cream/plain flour</li> <li>120ml milk</li> <li>2 eggs, separated</li> <li>2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce</li> <li>1 tbsp Tabasco sauce</li> <li>1 tbsp English mustard</li> <li>60g Cheddar or Comte cheese, grated</li> <li>250g cooked crabmeat, drained</li> <li>Salt and black pepper</li> <li>Bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped</li> <li>Juice of 1 lemon (optional)</li> <li>6 pieces of sourdough or similar bread</li> <li/> </ul>

Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan and then add the flour and stir to form a roux, which will look like a small blob of thick porridge. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon to cook out the roux (allow about two minutes) over a gentle enough heat. Just keep stirring and cooking to get rid of the raw flour taste, which will persist if you don’t spend a little time over the heat with this. Then gradually add the milk – this will turn it into lumpy porridge, and keep stirring, although at this stage, you may want to change to a whisk. Once all the milk has been added, set this aside to cool slightly while you whisk the egg whites until stiff. Mix the egg yolks into the roux, along with the Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces, the mustard and grated cheese.

Then add the cooked crabmeat, season lightly and mix in the parsley. Feel free to add a little squeeze of lemon juice to sharpen up the flavours or more black pepper. Then fold in the egg whites. The mix is now ready. Toast the bread lightly then place on a wire rack and spread generously with the crab mix. Turn your grill up to medium and cook until slightly puffed up, golden brown, bubbling and piping hot. Serve straight away.

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a chef and food writer