Tag: crab

Categories
Recipes

Foodie Friday: Crab and cucumber canapés

foodie friday logo

Following on from last week’s summer cocktail recipes, comes the perfect accompaniment for your silly-season drinks party: this super-simple canapé. It’s refreshingly carb and dairy-free, making it about as healthy a snack as you are likely to enjoy this season. But the best part of all? It’s incredibly fast and easy to prepare, and as luxurious as you can hope for, especially when you use beautiful, freshly picked crabmeat from your local fishmonger. Just be sure to pick over the crab and remove any stray pieces of shell. The crunchy cool cucumber slices provide a nice contrast to the rich crabmeat, so these bites feel light, fresh and elegant.

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STYLING TIP Serve these pretty little morsels on the season’s coolest surface – marble. Not only is it beautiful, festive and luxurious, it will also help to keep the canapés naturally cool for longer. And what could be more perfect for an Aussie Christmas party than ultra-fresh seafood set against green cucumber and dusted with red paprika? So festive!

Ingredients

  • 500 g picked cooked crabmeat
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 celery stalk, finely diced
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • Juice from half a lemon
  • Sea salt, to taste
  • 1 large cucumber
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • Dill or fennel flowers for garnish (optional)

Method

In a bowl, stir together the crabmeat, mayonnaise, celery, chives, shallot, lemon juice and salt.

Slice the cucumber thinly on the diagonal. Place a dollop of the crab mixture on top of each cucumber slice, sprinkle with the paprika and garnish with flowers. Arrange on a platter and serve immediately. Serves 4 to 6.

—Head to Williams-Sonoma for lots more inspiration, or book a cooking class in their Sydney Cooking School – it makes the perfect Christmas gift for your favourite foodie.

Categories
Homewares

Mr Pinchy and Co are back with more fabulous gold accessories

Larry

After a bit of a break to reassess and finesse their business model, I’m delighted that Mr Pinchy and Co and their gorgeous brass objets are back!

Mr Pinchy family (Angle) LR
Mr Pinchy the crab, from $49

Husband and wife team Michael and Lou Beer have changed craftsmen and improved quality and are back with “a broader yet more refined offering” and a new website.

The brand, stocked exclusive by Coco Republic and Becker Minty and also available online, prides itself on its masculinity and old world collector charm. “We feel there is a real void in the market for it,” adds Michael. “Our pieces are made to last, making them great life objects to be revered in the family and handed along over time. It’s often not the price tag that makes an inanimate object loved, but it’s the character, rawness and presence it brings to a space.”

Larry
Larry the lobster, from $99

With Christmas approaching, the men in our lives can certainly be some of the hardest to buy for, but the Pinchy crab claw bottle opener would surely go down well? As a female though, I have to say I’d be delighted to be gifted any of these pieces. I can’t get enough of gold accessories right now!

Crab claw bottle opener
Crab claw bottle opener, $89

Other items, including the fabulous new Larry the lobster, are available in polished or brushed gold (moving forward, they will begin to offer antique bronze, antique green and black across some pieces).

Working with his wife is proving successful for Michael: “Lou is my level head. I always want to do the large statement pieces such as crocodile skulls (coming soon), but she reminds me that the price pointed pieces are what people are more likely to buy as gifts or if they are new to our brand and have not seen our pieces or their quality previously.”

Beetles from $59
Beetles from $59

Read how Mr Pinchy got started and the techniques used to make their products in Indonesia in our 2012 interview.

Shop online.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Decorative crabs, skulls, milk crates, grenades…new brand Mr Pinchy & Co has it all

A new brand inspired by a brass crab in a back street shop on holidays is producing some of the coolest and most on trend decorative pieces I’ve seen in a long time.

Mr Pinchy & Co (named after that crab) makes ornaments inspired by the everyday and, frankly, random, in a variety of finishes. First came the crab, but later a milk crate, hand grenade, skull, whale jawbone, lightbulb and more.

“Whilst on our travels we came across a small and very simple sea crab in a brass homewares store down one of those many unknown back streets you seem to be drawn to when abroad,” says Michael Beer, who founded the brand with wife Louisa. “Falling in love with its simplicity, rawness and character we hashed out an idea for a brand that would embody these traits but with a more raw design emphasis and after locating a group of artisans we were happy with, Mr Pinchy & Co was born last year.”

Already stocked in Coco Republic, they’re now looking to build relationships with smaller boutique stores and interior designers and stylists.

“We always saw Coco Republic as our top echelon retail partner and it was extremely gratifying to be recognised by such an icon in the Australian design industry and be stocked by them. We think it’s very important to have a presence in the boutique stores too. We see potential strong stockist partners as the guys that are offering a lifestyle experience to their clientele; unique homewares, fashion, jewellery and even food.”

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