I had several ingredients I was working with today: banana, pomelo, and arame-a dried seaweed. I also had the smoker fired up for our horseradish cranberry sauce, which called for a gentle smoking. While the smoker was going I started taking apart the pomelo. The segments of pomelo easily fell apart into individual cells, so I helped the cause and flaked the entire fruit. Since the smoker was already on I opted to put the citrus cells into the smoker for a light smoke. The bananas were set aside and left to marinade in a banana caramel we had on hand.
Meanwhile, I have wanted to make seaweed sauerkraut for a while and was able to execute that idea today. I simply poured sauerkraut juice over the dried arame and let it hydrate. Seaweed sauerkraut is really tasty and a fun garnish or the bases for a dish like seafood choucroute garni. Similarly, in recent days we have been working with chorizo-yogurt as both a sauce and a dressing.
When the pomelo cells came out of the smoker I noticed they resembled flaked crabmeat. And thus our dish was born. I used the chorizo-yogurt as a dressing for the smoked pomelo cells. A pinch of seaweed sauerkraut added flavors of the sea and cutting acidity. The marinated banana added a rich sweetness. We also incorporated our date-espresso-mustard for some sweet heat in the dish. Finally, celery leaves and seasoning added refreshing herbal notes to the finished product. No, it is not crab salad, but it could be.