Kardea Brown’s Lowcountry Seafood Salad

“I feel very strongly that good food—and I’m talking really good food—doesn’t have to have a super-fancy lineage,” writes the South Carolina chef Kardea Brown in her new cookbook, The Way Home: A Celebration of Sea Islands Food and Family with over 100 Recipes. “It doesn’t need to be expensive. I never get tired of showing people who tune in to watch that it doesn’t take much to make a lot.” This seafood salad combines fresh Lowcountry crab with tuna, pasta, and seasonings.

Ingredients

Lowcountry Seafood Salad (Yield: 6–8 servings)

¼ cup olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sweet relish
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 lb. elbow macaroni, cooked
8 oz. crab claw meat, canned or picked for shells
5 oz. solid white tuna in oil, drained
1 stalk celery, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
½ green bell pepper, diced
¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
Paprika, for sprinkling

Preparation

Preheat a grill pan or grill to medium-high heat.

Whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Add the shrimp to the bowl, toss to coat, and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place the shrimp in the hot pan and cook for about 5 minutes, flipping once halfway through, or until the shrimp are just cooked. Set aside.

In a large serving bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, relish, vinegar, and Dijon mustard. Add the cooked pasta, shrimp, crab, tuna, celery, onion, and bell pepper and toss to combine and coat with the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or up to overnight. Sprinkle with the parsley and paprika right before serving.