Crab Avocado Rice Bowl

Dungeness Crab & Avocado Rice Bowl

Crab and avocado have been a happy couple long before the invention of the California sushi roll. And in addition to melted butter, mayonnaise has long been a classic sauce to pair with crab… Here, warm seasoned rice is topped with steamed Dungeness crab leg meat, sliced avocado, diced cucumber, and creamy umami-rich Kewpie mayonnaise. The dish is seasoned with a flavorful furikake and drizzled with a syrupy tamari glaze. The combination of flavors, textures, and colors is wonderfully balanced and extremely tasty. Pretty too.

Crab & Avocado Rice Bowl Recipe

Seasoned Rice

• 1 c. calrose rice
• 1 c. dashi
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. sake
• 2 t. low-sodium tamari

Rinse rice. Combine all the ingredients in a pot or donabe. Bring to a boil, cover, then simmer on very low heat until all the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.

Note: make dashi from scratch, or use 1/4 t. Hondashi granules dissolved in one cup of water.

Sweet Syrupy Tamari Sauce

• 1/4 c. low-sodium tamari
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 1 t. ginger, grated

Place ingredients in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes. Let cool to barely warm, almost room-temperature.

Rice Bowl Ingredients 

• seasoned rice
• dungeness crab
• avocado, sliced
• english cucumber, diced
• furikake (we like seto fumi furikake with this dish)
• slivers of nori
• kewpie mayonnaise
• sweet syrupy tamari sauce

Dungeness Crab

Dungeness crab is a West Coast favorite for its sweet, delicate flavor. Because Dungeness crab is extremely perishable when raw, the crabs have been pre-cooked prior to shipment.

Since frozen Dungeness crab is already cooked, steam until just hot, let cool enough to handle, crack open and remove leg meat from the shells. Reserve the shoulder meat for another use (like dipping in drawn butter 😃 enjoy).

For extra complexity, put a couple lemon slices, a splash of white wine, and a few herbs (like parsley and chives) in the bottom of a pot. Place steamer basket inside and fill with water to the bottom of the basket. Bring water to a boil.

Rinse off the frost under cold running water, then place crab in the basket. Cover with a good fitting lid. Steam the crab for approximately 6 to 8 minutes when cooking from frozen.  The clusters should be steaming when they come out of the pot. If cooking thawed crab, cook for approximately 4 to 5 minutes.

 To Compose

Arrange crab and avocado, then cucumber on top of warm rice. Season the dish with several shakes of furikake. Arrange small dollops of Kewpie mayonnaise on top. Sprinkle with nori. Serve sweet syrupy tamari sauce on the side, to be drizzled on top of the dish. Cold sake makes a nice beverage accompaniment.

Inspiration

This Crab Avocado Rice Bowl was inspired by Chef Takuya Umeda’s “California Wappa Rice Bowls” in Food & Wine where he uses ingredients found in California sushi rolls including crab, avocado, and cucumber. Wappa refers to the Japanese cedar steamer basket in which he steams his dish.

Crab FYI

Dungeness crabs get their name from the port of Dungeness, Washington. They are found along the West Coast of North America, typically from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to Point Conception, near Santa Barbara, California.