The Chinese don’t really eat raw chrysanthemum leaves, but when I tried them uncooked I noticed they bring a unique fragrance to food. The nashi pear and red vinegar dressing really bring the sweetness out of the crab meat. I believe WA snow crab is the best eating crab in the world – super sweet, with a great texture of the strands of muscle fibres.

Ingredients

Vinaigrette
30ml sugar syrup (1:1 ratio)
65ml shiro dashi
65ml white soy sauce
100ml red vinegar
125ml ginger infused oil

Salad
400g picked WA snow crab meat
80g picked chrysanthemum leaves (tong ho)
1 nashi pear, sliced into think matchsticks (4mm thick), leave skin on
50g young ginger, peeled and sliced into very fine julienne

Garnish
Trout roe

Method

Vinaigrette
Whisk all ingredients until well combined. Set aside.

Salad
Soak julienned ginger in water for 20 minutes. Then drain.
Place crab, ginger, nashi pear and chrysanthemum leaves in a bowl.
Mix thoroughly then add 200ml of dressing. Mix again taking care not to bruise leaves.

To serve
Divide onto four plates and garnish with trout roe.