Ingredients
Method
Blanch the samphire in boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain.
Pick carefully through the crab meat to check for any shell and thinly chop the radishes.
Combine the crab, samphire and radishes in a bowl and dress generously with olive oil. Taste before adding any salt, the samphire usually does the work.
The story
Foraging your lunch was a common thing back in your grandparents day, but now a lot of us wouldn’t know where to start. Have you ever had a lunch this fresh? When you come home from the coast carrying your ingredients that still smell of the sea, with a kind of satisfaction that stays with you long after your meal is finished.
We spent the morning on the Welsh shoreline, pulling samphire at the tide's edge, the kind that grows wild and salt-bright for a few weeks every summer before it disappears again. We also picked up some crab from the same stretch of coast and by the time we got home, the whole kitchen smelled of the sea.
The salad almost makes itself when the ingredients are this fresh. This is the kind of meal that costs you almost nothing if you know where to look, and you're willing to get your feet a little wet.
Serves 2
Cook’s notes
Practical notes from the Organised team for cooking this at home, alongside the recipe above.
If you cannot find samphire
Samphire has a short season, the few salt-bright weeks of summer the story above describes, so outside those weeks your fishmonger may not have any. Fine asparagus tips, French beans or tenderstem broccoli all take its place well: blanch them for 1 to 2 minutes rather than 30 seconds, then season a little more generously, because none of the swaps bring samphire's natural saltiness with them.
Buying and preparing the crab
Fresh white crab meat from a fishmonger is the easiest route, and a tub of pasteurised picked crab works on a weeknight. Whichever you buy, pick through it as the method says, since even dressed crab can hide a sliver of shell. For a richer salad, stir a spoonful of the brown meat into the olive oil before you dress the bowl.
Getting the seasoning right
Samphire seasons the salad by itself, which is why the method says to taste before adding any salt. If yours tastes harsh straight after blanching, rinse it briefly under cold water, drain it well and taste again. A squeeze of lemon at the table lifts the crab without drowning it.
Make it ahead
This is a salad to assemble at the last minute. The samphire can be blanched and the radishes sliced a few hours ahead and kept chilled, but keep the crab cold and dress everything only when you are ready to eat, so the radishes stay crisp and the oil stays glossy.
Where to buy the ingredients
Farms and producers on Organised that sell what this recipe needs.
Crab
Nobody lists crab itself yet, but these sell fish, shellfish or seafood.
- 1
Millers Farm ShopMeat · Axminster, Devon4.6 (1205 reviews)Lyme Bay fish - 2
Seven SonsMeat · Roanoke, Indiana4.9 (4550 reviews)Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pmWild caught seafood - 3
Fordmore Farm ShopMeat · Cullompton, Devon4.4 (430 reviews)Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm; Sunday, 10am to 4pmFresh fish and shellfish - 4
Moulton FarmFarm shop · Meredith, New Hampshire4.8 (1249 reviews)Open daily, 8am to 6pmFresh seafood
Roanoke · Butcher, farm shop4.9 · 4,550 reviewsMonday to Saturday, 10am to 6pmWild caught seafood
Cullompton · Butcher, farm shop4.4 · 430 reviewsMonday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm; Sunday, 10am to 4pmFresh fish and shellfish
Radish
Felton · Butcher, farm shop4.4 · 8 reviewsWednesday to Friday, 10am to 4pmRadishes
Olive oil
Not listed yet: samphire. Know a farm that sells it? Tell us, or browse every producer by county.
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