This is one of the first recipes that I made for my husband when we started dating. At the time, I lived a few blocks away from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, so I walked down to the wharf and bought a whole crab from one of the vendors. They kindly cracked it for me so that I didn’t have to deal with that mess, and I brought my prized plastic container full of fresh crab meat back to my apartment. I don’t remember what else I served but the dinner was a big hit, and my hubby still talks about how impressed he was.
This is that kind of dish. It’s delicate and sophisticated. There’s a beautiful balance of sweet crab, meltingly tender leeks, creamy risotto and bright lemon. It’s a date night or dinner party kind of dish. Apparently it’s an “I’m going to marry this girl some day” kind of dish. It is impressive.
Since it’s one of my husband’s favorites, I made it for his birthday last week. The crab and leek risotto was our first course, followed by rosemary and garlic lamb chops and roasted asparagus. We finished the meal with carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert, one of his favorite sweets. It was a really fantastic spring meal, and as we were eating I couldn’t help thinking that it would make a perfect Easter dinner.
- 5 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 cup thinly sliced leeks (white and light green parts only)
- 1.5 cups of risotto rice, such as Arborio or Carnaroli
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 8 oz fresh crab meat
- Parmesan cheese and parmesan rinds (optional)
- Lemon zest from about ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Heat the stock and wine in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a simmer.
- Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of butter and the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the leeks, a sprinkle of salt and a few cracks of fresh pepper to the pan. Sauté until the leeks begin to get tender but before they start to brown. Add the rice and sauté the grains become translucent.
- Using a ladle, add one scoop of the stock mixture at a time to the rice. Stir thoroughly until the stock is absorbed. Repeat until the rice is cooked through but don’t let it get mushy. This will take about 20-30 minutes. If you have parmesan rinds, add them to the rice after about 10 minutes of cooking.
- Remove from the heat.
- Reserve a few larger pieces of crab meat to garnish the plates. Add the crab meat, half of the lemon zest, half of the parsley and the remaining tablespoon of butter to the pan. Stir gently to incorporate. Add parmesan, salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish the dishes with the remaining lemon zest and parsley and the reserved crab meat.
What a shame to show a photo of this “sophisticated” dish using fake crab meat.
Actually, this is how gorgeous the crab is in Japan! I assure you it was real. The crab meat you buy in grocery stores is packaged beautifully, has been painstakingly extracted from the shell, and is shockingly expensive, lol. I’ve never seen anything like it in the US. This particular crab was snow crab.