As much as I love a good stew, soup, pie etc, there is something about summer food – vibrant colours, fresh flavours, prettiness on a plate. Food is relaxed in an elegant way, something that cannot be easily achieved with stew and dumplings (although, YUM). As soon as the days start getting warmer, my appetite for carbs starts diminishing and I crave something a bit lighter for my belly. These crab rolls are perfect, like sushi rolls but without the rice. The two knobbly cukes turned up in the veg box – I pared thin strips with a vegetable peeler and used them as the wrappings for some crunchy rolls.
I don’t think this really needs a recipe does it? Pare thin strips (lengthways) from a cucumber with a vegetable peeler, fill with white crab meat, mango strips, chilli strips and a coriander leaf. Roll them up. Voila! Dip in your sauce of choice.
29 Comments
Wonderfully creative and striking to look at. You’ve given me food for thought with those cucumber ribbons.
I’m fascinated by this wet garlic Helen. I don’t believe I’ve seen it before! Now, I’m curious. Great sauce for the crab and mango rolls. All your dishes are just so superb and creative! How did our exams go?
That’s spectacular! Using cucumber for wrappers is a great idea.
it is nice that the seasons offer such different experiences – I am enjoying stews and roasted vegies at the moment! I was interested in your garlic – I had a purple one recently that was the worst garlic I have ever had – it wouldn’t peel or crush and had a disappointingly mild flavour. Yours sound much nicer
Creative, yet simple, harmonious and elegant. Everything great food should be. A good place to eat this would be my mum’s living room, where the Frank Meadow Sutcliffe pictures on the walls remind you of the breaking waves and bracing winds of Whitby.
Peter – Food for thought is as good as food in the mouth!
Peter G – If you find any wet garlic, you must buy it, I loved it. The exams are unfortunately still not over! I have finished one and the other is tomorrow…eek!
Kitt -Thanks.
Johanna – You sound like you got a bad bulb there, mine was totally the opposite.
Trig – High praise indeed from a professional chef! It’s also lovely to hear that your mum is a Whitby fan too. bracing winds indeed!
This is such a creative idea! It’s very visually appealing, and I’d bet it tastes perfect. I love mangoes, and this is a great new (to me) way of including them!
Those mangoes look amazing … send me a box 😉 Thanks for posting the shot!
Oh, gorgeous! I love crab under pretty much any circumstances so these sound like my idea of heaven, beautifully presented 🙂 ANd I’ve never seen wet garlic before – intriguing.
that dish is so beautiful. the mangoes i get in california probably will taste nothing like those beauties.
What a creative dish! Yum!
These look amazing, Helen! Super summery!
What gorgeous little bites – so light and summery! Nice work on the photos and presentation 🙂
What summery looking crab rolls,.. and not only that, that garlic sounds fascinating and looks amazing. I love it when you find ingredients you can get excited about.
I did something similar with cukes recently but they didn’t turn out as beautiful as yours. I could pick one of those off the screen!!
OMG these photos are just out of this world. You are SO talented.
Those look delicious! Such pretty presentation!
Those rolls look so good!!
Thank you everyone for your lovely comments. Apologies for my lack of response over the past couple of weeks, I have had exams but they are now over and I am free to get back to my number one passion – food!
Those cucumber rolls look beautiful, summer on a plate.
Gorgeous stuff, all!
Fabulous looking – my mouth is watering. They are on my list of “must-makes” for next week, thanks!
Gorgeous helen! I love the idea of sushi without rice. And these just look incredibly good. Your photos really capture the essence of the photo per usual, as well.
These look great, at first I thought the wrappers were marinated slices of courgette. I love summer too, I have turned into a salad queen.
I made these over the weekend as promised and they were utterly delicious. I mixed king crab and northsea crab to get a mixture of sweet and savoury crab flavours. It worked so well. Followed it up with duck sang choi bau, so plenty of messy finger food fun!
Nicky – I am so glad you enjoyed them! I love it when people make my recipes and even more when they give me nice feedback. Finger food is the best!
I love cucumber rolls. I also have a version on my blog. The mango sounds like a fabulous addition.
omg, this is such a good idea. i’m with you on the lighter, more vibrant summer foods. thanks for the recipe!
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