Krabby Patty with Avocado Sauce

Ketchup, mustard, and Thousand Island get most of the action when it comes to adding sauce to a burger, but why stop there? Lets try making avocado sauce for your burgers.

These burgers have a true crab flavor that isn't masked by fillers or strong seasoning. Serve on a bun with avocado sauce and with a lemon-juice dressed salad of greens, or sliced peaches. This recipe works best with convenient pasteurized crab meat, usually found in the refrigerated containers near the fish. If you prefer crab meat, cut into small, uniform pieces.

INGREDIENTS:
(For Avocado Sauce)
1 large ripe avocado, pitted and peel removed1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ cup chopped fresh coriander
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

(For crab burgers)
¼ cup minced onion
¼ cup minced green bell pepper
¼ cup thinly sliced scallion greens
½ cup plus 1 tbsp fine dry bread crumbs
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ pound lump crab meat, picked over
2 tbsps unsalted butter
2 tbsps lightly beaten egg
3 tbsps mayonnaise
cayenne to taste
vegetable oil for frying
two 5-inch lengths soft-crumb French bread, split and toasted lightly
2 iceberg lettuce leaves, sliced thin

DIRECTIONS:
(Avocado Sauce)
1. Blend the avocado, garlic, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper into a blender.

2. Scrape the sauce out of the blender with a spatula. Put it into a medium sized bowl.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent the avocado from turning brown too quickly.

(For Burger)
1. In a small heavy skillet cook onion and bell pepper in butter over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened. In a bowl stir together onion mixture, crab meat, scallion greens, mayonnaise, egg, 1 tbsp bread crumbs, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, and salt to taste.

2. Put remaining ½ cup bread crumbs in a small bowl and put a piece of plastic wrap on a work surface. Form one fourth crab mixture into a 3 inch patty and coat with bread crumbs, transferring to plastic wrap. Make 3 more patties in same manner with remaining crab mixture and bread crumbs.

3. In a 10 inch heavy deep skillet heat ¼ inch oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and fry patties until golden and cooked through, about 2 ½ minutes on each side, transferring to paper towels to drain.

4. Spread bread with reserved avocado sauce and sandwich crab burgers and lettuce between bread.