Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Feast: Food to Celebrate Life, by Nigella Lawson.

　　While I love a shrimp cocktail, this I think has a slight, elegant edge. The hot, green mustardy horseradish, the wasabi paste, is not so hard to find these days but you could always substitute a small dollop of Colman's English mustard in its place I suppose. Similarly, you could shred some little Boston lettuce should you have difficulty locating the Chinese leaves.

　　

Ingredients

Makes 2 servings

　　1/4 cup mayonnaise

　　1/4 teaspoon soy sauce

　　1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

　　few drops sesame oil

　　1/2 teaspoon wasabi paste

　　1/4 inch fresh ginger

　　1 lime, halved

　　1 1/2 cups white crab meat

　　enough Chinese leaf cabbage to line 2 small plates when shredded

　　1 scallion

　　approximately 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns

　　

Step 1

In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil and wasabi. Peel and mince or grate the ginger into the bowl and add the zest of 1/2 the lime. Squeeze 1/2 teaspoon of lime juice into the bowl and mix everything together.

　　

Step 2

Toss the crab in the sauce, and then finely shred the Chinese leaf cabbage.

　　

Step 3

Arrange a bed of shredded cabbage on two plates. Divide the crab between them, piling it into the center of each one. Finely chop the scallion and scatter over each plate and then bash some pink peppercorns either in a pestle and mortar — rich in lewd symbolism — or put them in a freezer bag, close it and hit with a rolling pin (more of a comedy moment) and sprinkle these, too, over the crab cocktails.

　　

Step 4

Cut the remaining lime half into wedges and put on the side of the plates for extra spritzing.

　　Reprinted with permission from Feast: Food to Celebrate Life, by Nigella Lawson. © 2004 Hyperion