Grilled Avocado with Crab Salad

One of our favorite dishes from our dinner on Dent Island was grilled avocado, crab salad and gazpacho, and actually, the favorite part of that dish might well have been the grilled avocado.  Our gorgeous weather continues and tonight seemed like a great night to try a version of that wonderful dish.

This will serve 8-10 as an appetizer or side.
3 medium sized avocados, not quite fully ripe
fresh lemon juice
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

2 cups lump dungeness crab meat
1/3 cup chopped tomatoes (I used sun gold from my garden)
1 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves
1 scallion, finely chopped, about 1 tbsp
1 tbsp olive oil 
zest of 1 lime, about 1 tsp
juice of half lime, about 1 tbsp
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Returning home from our trip, we found our first ripe tomatoes of the season from our garden.  There had been a few over the last week or so before we left, but we thought they were either being poached by neighbors or a furry beast during the night.  I'd wait until they were ready to pick, and then the next morning, they'd be gone.  But now we have plenty.  Ripe now are the sun golds which are like eating candy and in a couple of days or so, we'll have other larger varieties.  Tonight, we eat our first garden tomatoes.

Combine the cilantro, scallion, olive oil lime zest, juice and pinch of salt and freshly groudn pepper.  Then gently stir in the crab and tomato being care not to break up the crab too much or crush the tomato.  Adjust seasoning as needed.  This can be made a couple hours ahead and refrigerated until ready to use.

To grill the avocado:
Prepare a hot grill, making sure the grill grates are cleaned.
Cut each avocado in half and remove the pit.  Remove the avocado from its skin in one solid half using a large spoon.  Cut the avocado into thick wedges, about 3 wedges per half. Drizzle with lemon juice to help keep it from growing.  
When ready to grill, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and grind pepper to taste.  Grill for 30 seconds to 1 minute per side.  You want it on just enough to sear, but not too much to turn it to mush.

Serve fanning the avocado wedges out and spoon the crab salad over top.


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