When Dungeness crab season and mango season happen to coincide, I love to make crab tower. I first shared this recipe back in 2018. A crab tower is a crab salad molded into a tower. My inspiration came from America’s Test Kitchen but I kept my recipe simple. It took less than 15 minutes. The crab was very fresh and both the mango salsa and avocado heightened its sweetness. I paired the crab tower with a glass of prosecco. This crab tower makes a refreshing salad that's perfect for anytime of the day.
Crab Tower (adapted from America’s Test Kitchen)
Crab meat Salad
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar or white wine
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoon mayonnaise
8 oz lump crabmeat
Mango Salsa
1 ½ cup mango, peeled and diced
½ cup tomato, diced
¼ cup cucumber, diced
¼ cup cucumber, diced
2 tbsps diced red onion
2 tbsps lime juice
2 tbsps roughly chopped cilantro leaves
Salt and pepper
Avocado Salsa
1 Hass avocados (ripe), cut into ¼-inch dice
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon lime juice
Salt and pepper
1. Whisk the olive oil, champagne vinegar or white wine, mustard, and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Add the crabmeat to the mayonnaise mixture and toss to coat.
2. Combine the mango, tomato, cucumber, red onion, lime juice and cilantro leaves and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Toss the avocado, coriander, and lime juice in a medium bowl and set aside. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. To assemble, place a 3-inch-wide round biscuit cutter in the center of an individual plate. Press ¼ cup of the avocado salsa into the bottom of the cutter using the back of a soup spoon. Move the cutter slightly up and press¼ cup of the crabmeat. Move the cutter upward and press ¼ cup of the mango salsa evenly on top of the crabmeat. Gently lift the cutter up and away from the plate to reveal the crab tower.
5. Garnish the crab tower with alfalfa sprouts.
5. Garnish the crab tower with alfalfa sprouts.
Donna
I made your recipe. It was awesome. I wanted to point out that you mention white wine in the recipe steps, but don't list it in the ingredients. I used 1 T of white wine and it came out well. 🙂
vytran
hi Donna. I'm glad you like the result. Thank you for pointing out the missing ingredient. I have used both champagne vinegar and white wine, and it worked well both times.