This great appetizer recipes comes courtesy of Chef Jeff Mall, featured in Down Home: Downtown Recipes From Two Wine Country Restaurants. This crab salad's presentation is enhanced by serving the dish in the avocado skin. It's a great way to start a dinner party with something light, fresh and incredibly easy to assemble.

INGREDIENTS Servings: 4

Red Chile Dressing

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli Sauce
• Grated zest and juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Crab Salad

• 2 ripe avocados, halved lengthwise and pitted
• 1 ripe mango, peeled and cut from the pit
• 8 ounces fresh lump Dungeness crabmeat, picked over for shell
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Red Chile Dressing

In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, chili sauce, lime zest and juice, Tabasco sauce, and chives. Stir to blend. Season with salt and pepper.

Crab Salad

Scoop the flesh from each avocado half, reserving the skin. Cut the avocado flesh and the mango flesh into ¼ inch dice. In a medium bowl, combine the crab, mango, and chives. Add all but about ¼ cup dressing and mix gently to coat.

Gently fold in the diced avocado. Place 1 avocado skin on each of 4 plates, spoon crab salad into each half (you may have extra salad), and drizzle with the remaining dressing.

Pair With: Pair with a Chardonnay, like the 90 Point Rodney Strong Vineyards Estate Chalk Hill Chardonnay.