chilli crab butter

I call it butter; you may call it pâté but it is better suited to thick crunchy toast rather than a thin, see-through slice of burnt brioche.

I don’t know what the deal is with brioche. I have nothing against it: buttered and jammed, served to me for breakfast aside croissants and pain au chocolat. But not with foi gras, pate, potted salmon or pork rillettes, and DEFINITELY not with a burger inside.

I have nothing against a marriage of sweet and savoury either – see my figs with blue cheese, pork with blueberries, salty peach crumble;  I’m a veritable matchmaker in that union. But the brioche becoming a go-to bread roll is a bit too much. And it doesn’t even toast well.

Back to crab: the flavours here are so good and simple it really doesn’t matter whether you use just white crab meat or mix the brown in: I generally prefer the white but I abhor waste so I’ll frugally scoop the brown meat out of the shell and add it in. Chillies, lemon juice and Thai basil – and make sure you use Thai basil not the Italian specimen; the flavour is distinctly different. If you can’t get hold of it, use coriander rather than sub the sweet basil.

By all means add more butter if you like. Have you ever heard anyone comment on too MUCH butter in a dish? Me neither.