Blair's Layered Crab Salad

Just loved having Tom, Blair and their 3 children, Graham, Maren and Campbell over the July 4th holiday.  As part of the fun, Joel took Graham and Maren crabbing...they came back with a cooler full of wonderful eastern NC blue crabs.  We enjoyed them, first, in a crab pickin'.  All of us, even the kids, picked til the juice ran up our elbows as we devoured the succulent crab meat we pried from the bodies and claws of these treasures from the sea.  On the next day, Blair started picking crabs...I joined her and, at the end of our work, we had more than enough crab meat for crab cakes...our dinner for that night.  My recipe is pretty simple:

3 cups of crab meat
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup Dukes Mayonnaise
2 eggs
1 tbsp. Old Bay

Mix all ingredients together, form into large patties and fry in olive oil, searing both sides then frying for an additional 5 minutes.

Crabs were still left so Blair kept pickin' .  On July 4th she prepared an amazing crab salad, a knock-off of the "crab stacks" offered in lots of restaurants.

Here's her recipe:

Summer Crab Salad

Prepare honey-lime vinaigrette dressing the night before serving. 

Honey lime vinaigrette Dressing:

1/3 c Vegetable oil

1/4 c Apple cider vinegar or seasoned rice vinegar 

2T honey

1/4 c lime juice

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1/2 c fresh cilantro 

1 clove garlic, minced

Blend in blender. Chill overnight. Pour over salad just before serving. 

One cup each of 

-Sliced or diced English cucumbers (small ones)

- red cherry tomatoes, diced

- yellow cherry tomatoes, diced 

- salad greens, chopped to bite sizes

- diced ripe mango 

- diced ripe avocado (squeeze small amount of lime juice over avocado to retard browning)

2 cups crab meat

Using a clear glass bowl, layer ingredients in colorful layers alternating green items with red/yellow ones. Top three layers should be mango, avocado, and crab so that crab is on top of salad. 

Drizzle with honey lime vinaigrette dressing just before serving. 

Just delicious!!!