Dungeness Crab over Sucrine With Champagne Vinaigrette for 2

Submitted by COOKGIRl

"A fresh, light salad we enjoyed at a local restaurant for our anniversary recently and successfully duplicated the recipe at home! Dungeness-"..the crab James Beard spoke of when he described a 'meal the gods intended only for the pure in palate'." Info found online: "Rooted in the French word for "sugar," sucrine (sugar lettuce sounds better) is a smaller variety of romaine with soft, silky leaves, buttery texture, and, as the name suggests, a sweet-ish flavor.""

 

• Ready In: 15mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 4 4 cups butter lettuce or 4 cups romaine lettuce, washed well and spun dried
• half pink grapefruit, peeled, pith removed and cut into segments
• 2 -3 large red radishes, trimmed, cleaned and thinly sliced
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced (green and white parts)
• 1 cup fresh dungeness crabmeat
• 1 small avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
• cracked black pepper

• Vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons champagne (the restaurant used the former) or 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar (the restaurant used the former)
• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil or 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1⁄2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon fresh grapefruit juice (I added a "splash") (optional)
• 1 pinch salt
• cracked black pepper

directions

1. Vinaigrette: Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together and set aside. Tastes best if prepared at least 1 hour in advance to allow mixture to marinate.
2. Salad: In a salad bowl, toss the lettuce together gently with the grapefruit, radishes and scallions. Divide and arrange the mixture on two chilled salad plates.
3. Add the crab meat; garnish with the avocado slices.
4. Immediately drizzle each serving lightly with the vinaigrette (this helps stop the avocado slices from turning brown, too).
5. Serve with crusty French bread and a glass of wine.
6. Reminder: I had to estimate all ingredient amounts in this recipe. Thank you for your understanding.