Lunch cooked by a friend: Crab rarebit with tomato salad & roasted fennel
I most often write about about food I’ve cooked, meals eaten out and great suppliers. But I’m lucky enough to have friends who are fantastic cooks and in this post I want to share a perfect lunch I had recently while staying with friends.
Emma is the most self-effacing person I know and when she says that she’s ‘only’ or ‘just’ done such and such you can guarantee it will be something extremely good and which many cooks would be crowing about. A recent summer lunch of crab rarebit with tomato salad and roasted fennel was a good example – deceptively simple but which actually required a deep knowledge of cooking and the insistence on top quality ingredients.
First to the table was a salad of beautiful Hampshire organic tomatoes in a startling array of shapes and colours, glistening with a dressing containing garden herbs.
Next she put out a dish of roasted fennel
While these two tempting dishes sat on the kitchen table, the anticipation was great amongst those of us sat around it due to the wonderful aromas emanating from the grill.
Before each person was then set a plate with a rich crab rarebit: grilled white and brown crab meat with cream, herbs and cheese on toasted sourdough with extra white crab meat on top.
Altogether, perfection to the eye and on the palate.