Ingredients

Crab

• Meat from 6 small-medium blue swimmer crabs
• 1-2 generous pinches paprika or cayenne pepper
• 2 avocado’s
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tbsp finely chopped chives
• 1 tbsp finely chopped chives
• Maldon salt or quality sea salt flake
• 4 tomatoes, seeds removed and finely diced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Juice from 2 lemons
• 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise

To serve

• paprika
• 1 plum tomato, finely diced
• 1/2 tbsp finely chopped chives
• 6 sprigs of dill

Method

1. To Prepare the Crab: Place the crab meat in a bowl with the mayonnaise, sour cream, chives, dill, juice from a half a lemon, paprika and season with salt and pepper. Adjust to taste.
2. Avocado: Remove the flesh from the avocado and chop into a small dice. Place in a bowl and coat with a little lemon juice.
3. To Assemble: Lightly grease 6 ramekins or a similar mould with olive oil. Place a layer of diced tomato on the base of ramekin, follow this with a generous layer of crab, then the avocado, another layer of tomato, crab, and avocado (press down on each layer lightly to compress them. Finish with overlapping slices of cucumber. Cover with cling film and place the refrigerator until ready to serve (up to 3 hours).
4. To Serve: Run a knife around the edge of each ramekin and invert them onto a plate to remove them from the mould. Sprinkle a little paprika on the tower and around the plate. Scatter the diced tomato and chives around the plate. Garnish the tower with a sprig of dill and serve.

• To remove the meat from a cooked crab, remove the claws and legs from the body, and crack upon the claws and large legs with a cracker or the back of a knife. Remove the meat from the claws and legs with a shellfish pick, fork or small knife. Remove the abdominal flap by giving it a little twist and place a knife or use your thumb (for small crabs) where the flap was and prise upon the shell. Slice the body in half width wise, scoop out the brown meat and remove the gills (also known as dead mans fingers). Rinse under cold water and remove the white meat from the cavities with a small knife or fork.