Dungeness Crab Louie with Roasted Asparagus

It’s time to give the Dungeness Louie another chance. Photo by Nick Rahaim.

Move over Cobb Salad, for those looking for a salad fit for a meal a Dungeness Crab Louie is where it’s at. While “Louie” salads have fallen out of favor, going the way of Martini lunches and smoking indoors, there’s good reason why they’ve stayed in the repertoire of home cooks for generations. Dungeness Crab Louies were created at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco in the early 1900s and quickly spread up and down the coast.

The salad is made of cracked Dungeness crab served on top of a bed of greens with a sliced boiled egg, asparagus, ripe tomatoes, and Louie dressing (a mixture of mayonnaise and chili sauce). When done well it’s as good as any salad you’ve tasted. 

When poorly executed with bland iceberg lettuce, overcooked asparagus, unripe tomatoes, rubbery eggs and an uninspired take on the classic Louie dressing, diners might prefer to skim the crab off the top and leave the rest for compost.

But, Dungeness Crab Louies are good when care is taken in the preparation, and quality ingredients are used. Here’s a modern take on the classic salad by the Monterey Bay Fishery Trust’s multimedia storyteller Nick Rahaim. In addition to his duties on deck for more than a decade as a commercial fisherman, Nick also worked as a boat cook on many boats in the North Pacific and has also tested his mettle with a stint as a cook at a French restaurant in Carmel. 

A note on serving sizes. The recipe for the Louie dressing will make around four servings while the salad recipe is for one serving. Just double the salad recipe for each person served. Also, one Dungeness crab will yield around two servings of meat and one bunch of asparagus will yield around 4 servings.

Ingredients for Salad (for one serving)

2 heaping handfuls of arugula (or your choice of leafy greens)
1 boiled egg (your choice of soft, jammy, or hard)
2 ounces of roasted asparagus (around a medium-sized handful)
1/2 ripe medium tomato (or a small handful of cherry tomatoes)
1/2 cup of Dungeness crab meat (around half the meat from a single cleaned crab)
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Juice of half a lemon

Ingredients for Louie dressing (makes 1 ½ cups, around 4 servings)

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons chopped Calabrian pepper paste (or similar chunky chili paste/sauce, but stay within your heat tolerance)
3 tablespoons sweet relish
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Small handful of chopped parsley
Splash of brandy (optional)

Step 1

Prepare the dressing. Thoroughly mix mayonnaise, chopped pepper paste, sweet relish, and tomato paste. In a separate bowl whisk heavy cream until frothy, but don’t beat so much that it thickens into whipped cream. For extra flavor add a splash of brandy to the cream before whipping. Slowly whisk the cream into the mayonnaise mixture thoroughly blending. Add chopped parsley and salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Set aside.

Step 2

Heat oven to 415° Fahrenheit. Take one bunch of asparagus chop into 3-4-inch pieces and discard the ends. Place chopped asparagus into a medium-sized bowl, add a liberal amount of salt and pepper, the juice of half a lemon, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Toss until asparagus until coated. Layout evenly on a baking sheet and place in the oven for around 15 minutes.

Step 3

Bring water to a rolling boil, making sure the water is deep enough to completely submerge an egg. Gently place the egg into the boiling water with a slotted spoon being careful not to crack it. For runny yokes cook for just over five minutes. For jammy yokes boil for 6 and a half minutes, for hard yokes boil for 10-12 minutes. In each case remove from water with a slotted spoon and place in an ice bath for 2 to 3 minutes and peel when cool. (Pro tip: peeling eggs under running water helps prevent the membrane from sticking to egg white.)

Step 4

Bring it all together. Add arugula or other leafy greens to a mixing bowl and spoon in just enough dressing to thinly coat the leaves. Place on a serving plate. Add a spoonful of the dressing to a ramekin and set beside greens. Spread tomatoes, crab and roasted asparagus on top of the greens. Slice boiled egg in half and set beside crab. Enjoy!