Culinary discovery tour yields coastal cocktail

We're back! After taking a two month hiatus, Karen and I are back from our "Top Ramen Tour" of coastal Northern California.

During our two week trip we sourced many new and exciting places to find great artisan products, some of which we will share with you in today's recipe. However most importantly we've decided that we are going to jointly share our recipes with you as a team. This is all part of a dream to incorporate our recipes into a future cookbook " a work in progress.

Today's recipe we thought would be a wonderful addition to an Easter brunch or dinner. The roots of this recipe were created on our California trip to the Moss Landing-Big Sur area. As we did throughout our vacation, we went shopping without preconceived notions of what food products we were going to purchase. Stopping at roadside stands and local harbors, this is what we came up with for one of our evening meals.

We are sure that you will enjoy this dish as much as we did even though we enjoyed this recipe in the grandeur of Big Sur in the private dining room of a Volkswagen Westphalia (candlelight of course) with a great bottle of wine. We recommend a sauvignon blanc, dry and crisp in style even though with this dish we had a 2007 Greenwood Ridge estate bottled Pinot Noir available only at one of our winery stops along the way. It was an outstanding compliment to the dish as well. Talk to your favorite wine experts for their recommendation. As always we encourage visiting our local wine mongers Aloha Wine and Liquors, Bens Liquors, Bella Fiore and Divine Wine.

As spring approaches Karen and I are counting the days for the inspiration of our local farmer's market. We wish you and your family a great Easter. It is definitely another holiday time to enjoy the warmth and laughter of family and friends.

- Charlie Abowd is the owner and chef at Adele's. He and his wife, Karen, have lived in Carson City since 1980. Charlie is a fourth-generation restaurateur.

Serves 4-8 people depending on personal preference for size of portion

Ingredient List:

1 pound fresh Dungeness Crab

5 radishes approximately 11⁄2 inch diameter, thoroughly washed, quartered and thinly sliced

1⁄4 cup of cucumber, skinned, seeded, quartered and then thinly sliced (We suggest Persian cucumbers, which can be found at Trader Joe's, or English cucumbers)

2 tablespoons chopped sweet onions (We recommend Peri Bros. from Yerington, or a Hawaiian sweet onion)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or to taste

Chiffonade (term for thinly sliced to 1⁄16 inch) of fresh lemon balm or mint (lemon balm is available at Raleys)

1 avocado firm but ripe (this is very important) cut into 1⁄4 inch cubes

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (organic)

1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice or to taste

1⁄2 teaspoon raspberry vinegar

2 tablespoon thinly sliced scallions (green onions, 1⁄4 inch slice)

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

*Optional: hearts of butter lettuce leaves

Preparation:

Using a 12 inch mixing bowl, add the crab, the radishes, the cucumber, sweet onions, cilantro, fresh lemon balm or mint, and carefully toss together so as not to disturb the integrity of the crab meat. After a light toss add the avocado. Do not mix again until liquid mixture is added, this way the avocado holds its firmness.

In a separate bowl combine olive oil, lemon juice, raspberry vinegar and scallions. Add sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Thoroughly whisk these ingredients together. Check for taste (ie: salt and pepper). Whisk again and then immediately add over the top of the Big Sur Crab Cocktail. Lightly, gently, carefully, toss all ingredients together one last time. Let set 5-10 minutes.

We think putting this cocktail in a small bowl lined with whole hearts of butter lettuce leaves is a nice touch. This recipe will easily serve 4 as an entree or 8 as an appetizer.