Ingredients:
1 lb crabmeat, real or imitation
1/2 lb asparagus, nice thin spears,divided
2 medium fresh scraped carrots, grated
2 medium fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
lettuce leaves ( iceberg or romaine works well)
100 g pecan halves, divided
kosher salt
cayenne pepper
parmesan cheese, finely grated (optional)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 -3 tablespoons cucumber-dill salad dressing ( the thick kind, consistency of mayonnaise)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 lemons, juice of
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Combine all dressing ingredients in food processor or blender; blend until smooth and the consistency of a mayonnaise based dip.
Cover and set aside in the refrigerator.
Pour the pecan halves on a tray and toast, 7 or 8 minutes; remove from oven and sprinkle with kosher salt and cayenne pepper to taste.
Set aside to cool, when cool, coarse chop 1/4 cup, leave the rest whole.
Break tough ends off asparagus; steam for 3 minutes, just until tender crisp, there should be lots of crunch left.
Plunge into ice water; slice all but 12 spears into 1/4 inch pieces.
Scrape the carrots and grate, seed and dice the tomatoes.
Rinse the crabmeat and thourghly dry on paper towel, squeezing out the moisture.
(If using imitation, chop into small pieces.) Combine crabmeat, chopped asparagus, grated carrots, diced tomatoes, chopped pecans, dried dill weed, salt and cayenne pepper; mix well.
Add 1/2 of the dressing to the crabmeat mixture.
Use only enough dressing to hold the mixture together.
The mixture should be fairly dry, not runny.
Reserve the rest of the dressing to use as a dip for the lettuce rolls.
Wash and separate lettuce leaves, dry as much as possible, best dried in a spinner.
Place 1 to 2 tablespoons of crabmeat mixture in lettuce cup and roll as tightly as possible appetizer size, use toothpicks if necessary, or leave open if you wish.
Repeat until all filling mixture is used.
Place on serving platter and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, if using.
(I like to grate the Parmesan with my zester grater because it makes nice fine fluffy strings.) Place a pecan half on top of each roll.
Garnish the platter with more pecan halves and the 12 reserved asparagus spears.
Serve chilled at least one hour.
The lettuce rolls can be made larger for luncheon use etc.
,or they can be served with crabmeat mixture in a bowl and the lettuce cups separate for each diner to fill themselves, serve extra asparagus and pecan halves on the side.
Servings: 12-24
Time preparation: 30 min.
Time total: 30 min.