• 140 g mixed brown and white cooked crab meat (for method)
• 110 g softened butter
• 1 medium clove garlic, crushed
• 1–2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
• few grinds of black pepper
• fresh lemon juice to taste
• tomato chutney

Coating

• 3–4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

To Serve

• cucumber salad

Garnish

• flat-leaf parsley, fennel or chervil
• fennel or chive flowers, if available

Mix all ingredients (except the parsley for coating) together in a bowl or, better still, whizz them in a food processor. Taste carefully and continue to season until you are happy with the flavour: it may need a little more lemon juice or crushed garlic. Form the pâté into a cylinder, roll up in greaseproof paper, wist the ends like a Christmas cracker and chill until almost firm.

Spread one-quarter sheet of greaseproof paper on the worktop, sprinkle the chopped parsley over the paper, unwrap the pâté and roll it in the parsley so that the surface is evenly coated. Wrap it up again and refrigerate until needed.

Make the cucumber salad.