Warm spanner crabmeat with sea urchin butter sauce

Serves 6 Entree Size Portions

With the Tastes of the Gold Coast Festival not far behind us, we thought now would be the perfect time to share with you some of our own recipes, tips, tricks and stories, and what better way to start than by sharing the recipe.

210 grams spanner crab meat (cooked and picked meat only)
100 grams salmon roe
1/2 bunch chives (sliced into fine rings)

Potato Puree
4                                 large russet burbank or desiree potatoes (peeled)
150 ml                        pouring cream
50 grams                   butter (unsalted)
salt to taste

Sea Urchin Butter Sauce
18                               fresh sea urchin roes or tongues
120 grams                  butter (unsalted)
1                                 eschallot
1 Tblsp.                      olive oil
125 ml                        white wine
3 sprigs                      fresh thyme
salt to taste

To make the potato puree, peel and wash potatoes and cut into equal size large pieces. Place in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer uncovered until tender when pierced with a knife, about 40 minutes. Drain potatoes completely for 5 minutes. While the potatoes are drying, gently warm the cream and butter in a saucepan. Mash potatoes thoroughly using a potato masher or pass through a drum sieve. Add the cream and butter and whisk until just incorporated, add salt to taste. Reserve, covered, in a warm place.

To make the sauce, peel and cut the eschallot into 6 pieces. Place the olive oil, eschallot and thyme sprigs in a sauce pan on medium heat. Cook the eschallot until it is soft and light brown. Deglaze the pan with the white wine. Then reduce the wine until it is about 3 Tblsp. Add the sea urchin roe to the white wine and mash it with a whisk. Now add the butter slowly one small piece at a time. Whisk continuously on low heat until all the butter is incorporated. Season to taste with salt and then reserve warm until ready to serve the dish.

To serve the dish, warm the crabmeat over a double boiler with half of the sea urchin sauce in a metal bowl. When the crabmeat is warm, place a bit of the potato puree in the bottom of each of six small serving bowls. Spoon an equal portion of the warm crabmeat on each pile of potato. Then spoon the remainder of the sea urchin sauce on top of each crab and potato pile. Garnish the dish with one Tblsp. of the salmon roe on top of each serving and then finish with a sprinkle of the chopped chives. Serve immediately.