Easy eats! Ali Larter invited Us Weekly Video into her Los Angeles home to make one of her favorite simple starters: lump crab in lettuce cups.
“It’s a beautiful appetizer when you have good friends coming over,” the 40-year-old actress and Kitchen Revelry author tells Us.
The mom of Theodore, 5, and Vivienne, 16 months (with actor husband Hayes MacArthur), can whip up this dish quickly. “I’m so busy. I’m a mom of two kids,” she explains, “and something like this has so few ingredients that all meld together to make a really special something.”
Larter regularly entertains friends in her airy, open concept kitchen. She says, “Cooking to me is a collaborative experience — cooking with different people, hearing about what they like to eat, learning something new all the time.”
Check out her cooking skills in our Inside My Kitchen video series above, and try out the recipe below.
Lump Crab in Lettuce Cups
Serves 10
½ cup mayonnaise
4 ½ tsp Sambal Oelek chili paste
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (from about 1 ½ lemons)
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb fresh lump crabmeat, picked over
1 head butter lettuce
2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, chili paste, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Gently fold in the crabmeat.
2. On a serving platter, arrange the butter lettuce leaves. Spoon the crab mixture onto the center of each leaf. Sprinkle with the onions and chives.