This is actually way beyond my life list item. Thanks to some creative gift-giving genius for Hanukkah this year Husband gifted the opportunity to not only cook with a great chef (and someone I’ve come to know over the past few years) at a favorite restaurant, but also create a dish to be featured on their menu.

I also got this:

Pretty cool, huh?

The first step, which I got to do last week, was meet with Owner/Chef Bruce and brainstorm the dish with some favorite ingredients. This became harder than originally imagined because when the opportunity was presented to me it was, well, winter. I had a dish and favorite ingredients all picked out. But then I hurt my back, the whole house got sick after sick after sick and, lo, there was The Asthma. Somewhere along the way I blinked and now it is Spring – and I had to change my game plan.

But last week the inspiration hit me. CRAB. I have some really great spring and summer growing-up memories around crab boils – and when I think of this season I taste crab in my mouth. So, there it was. The center of the dish.

Different from a Cajun crab boil, this would be a little more refined, but still fun. I decided to try a stacked salad that was pretty to look at and could work as a lunch entrée or a starter salad for dinner. Bruce helped add a great kick to it with the addition of a hit of chili paste/oil. Here is the final dish:

Crab Collonnade
From the bottom layer up… All tossed in a mustard vinaigrette.

Jumbo lump crabmeat
Julienned arugula & diced roasted asparagus
Diced tomatoes
Diced avocado

Mustard vinaigrette drizzled around the plate with large drops of chili paste/oil on four sides.

I wish I could bring you all to dinner to taste it – it’d be a helluva party.