My Michigan Wine Tasting Party, Part 1: Crab Salad in Endive

Every year we donate a couple of food-related events to our church’s annual fundraiser auction. It’s a good excuse to pull out the china and go all-out on a dinner party, which we had pretty much given up after having kids. This year I did something a little different and offered a multi-course Michigan wine tasting paired with small plates; now that I’m working at a wine tasting room it seemed like a pretty logical choice. It’s now possibly my favorite event EVER because I didn’t have to clean my house in addition to making the food, and I didn’t even ask about food intolerances.

It’s either very comforting or very depressing to realize that no matter how much you know about food and wine, a lot of people know a lot more; no matter how much you learn, there’s always more to learn; and if you somehow managed to learn it all, it would all change again when the next year’s vintages were released. It justifies my “enthusiastic amateur” status and means that I don’t feel stupid when I ask questions.

The first course in this particular event was a crab salad in endive. I used a recipe from the excellent (excellent!) book Perfect Pairings – and it was just fine – but I have a recipe I love even more so I’m sharing that one with you instead. It’s from the Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, which is about to move back into heavy rotation now that the weather is getting warmer. I usually think of crab salad as being sort of gloppy and uninteresting – the Jell-o salad of the seafood world – but this one is light and bright and lemony, and I like the tarragon more than the usual chives or parsley.

Photo from the L Mawby website

This one, too

There was some debate (via text messaging, while I stood in the wine department) as to which sparkling wine went best. When in doubt about which wine to buy the answer should be "Yes!" Which is why I ended up with 2 bottles from L. Mawby, a Michigan winery that makes only sparkling wines. Both the Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs were excellent, and I let the audience vote on which one they liked best (and they were both excellent so you could really try either one. Or both. We won’t judge.)

Lee Brothers Crab Dip

6 ounces picked crabmeat (it’s worth the bother to get the fresh stuff – if you get canned, please buy the absolute best quality you can)
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons finely diced red onion
1 ½ teaspoons minced fresh tarragon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon or more freshly ground black pepper

Endive, for serving (or crackers. Or a fork - see below)

Mix everything together and taste it to see if the salt and pepper are right. Realize you can’t actually decide this without a cracker. Pile the cracker with crab dip to test your theory. Eat the rest of the crab dip with a fork and go to the store for more crab. Repeat Step 1.