Recipe: Tahini Crab and Sliced Radishes on Cayenne Toasts

TAHINI CRAB AND SLICED RADISHES ON CAYENNE TOASTS

"Back in the late seventies I worked at the Harvest Restaurant in Cambridge under Chef Laura Boehmer, who had Crab Rangoon on the menu. (How long ago was that? Now there is no more Burma, and Rangoon turns out to be the capital of a country called Myanmar.) Crab Rangoon was crab tossed with a tahini sauce, folded into a wonton wrapper, and deep-fried. We served it with an apricot dipping sauce, and it was delicious.

I wanted a version of Crab Rangoon for this book, but without the deep frying. So I took the sesame crab mixture and put it on pita crisps and threw in a few radishes for color and crunch. This is an elegant little hors d'oeuvre that is really easy to make, but please use real crabmeat. The imitation stuff is highly processed, and I don't recommend it."

FOR THE TOASTS:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons Asian (toasted) sesame oil*
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Two 6-inch pita breads with pockets
Kosher salt to taste
FOR THE CRAB:
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste)*
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, about 1 cup, picked over
4 large radishes, thinly sliced

TO MAKE THE TOASTS:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Whisk the vegetable oil, sesame oil, and cayenne in a small bowl. Split each pita into 2 rounds and brush the rough sides with equal amounts of the cayenne mixture. Cut each round into 6 triangles and arrange in one flat layer on a large baking sheet.

Bake until golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt while hot.

TO PREPARE THE CRAB:
Whisk the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil with salt and pepper in a small bowl. Gently fold in the crab. Add water if the mixture appears too dry.

TO SERVE:
Arrange a few radish slices on top of each pita triangle and top with a teaspoonful of the crab.

*Available at most supermarkets or see Mail Order Sources.

Makes 24 hors d'oeuvres
Excerpted from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home by Sara Moulton
Copyright 2002 by Sara Moulton. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.