neo-classic crab bake

Aside from Crab Imperial †) and Maryland Crab Cakes, there appear to be very few unique, classic crab recipes. But there are seemingly thousands of other crab preparations available to the gourmand that appear to be without lineage. If you Google the internet for a good crab casserole candidate, you will find an extremely wide assortment, a number of which feature crab, cheese, and eggs.

So, I decided to adapt these ingredients into a new recipe (new to me, anyway) oriented to the lower G. I. guidelines. It is good enough for company (if they like crab), and ideal for next-day lunches.

  • 1 lb crab meat (real or imitation)
  • 1 stalk celery, diced
  • ¼ red bell pepper, diced
  • ¼ green bell pepper, diced
  • 2 tsp <butter>
  • ½ cup milk
  • 8 oz cream cheese
  • 4 oz kasseri cheese
  • 1/3 cup medium dry sherry
  • ¼ tsp white pepper
  • <salt>
  • ½ can cream of shrimp soup
  • 1 tsp clam base or fish bouillon cube
  • 4 eggs, beaten

Melt the oleo in a pan, add celery and peppers, and sauté until limp. Put aside for later.

In a double boiler, add milk, cream cheese, kasseri cheese, sherry, <salt>, pepper, clam base, and soup. Raise temperature, stirring until the cheeses are melted and incorporated into the mixture. Remove from the heat. Add some of the cheese mixture into the eggs, stirring constantly, then whisk the eggs back into the cheese mixture and whisk to combine ingredients. Add the crab and reserved celery and peppers and mix well.

Put the mixture in a covered casserole dish and bake in 400°F oven for about 30 minutes, or until firm.

Serve with pasta and asparagus.