This recipe was inspired by our recent trip to France. As Nathan loves imitation crab legs, it’s an easy snack for us to seek out while traveling, and we found a plethora of both the real and fake stuff available at very decent prices in Bretagne. Also on this trip I purchased, (as a gift to myself,) a few cook books in French. One of them contained a wonderful recipe for a roasted red pepper cream to be served with Bouchées, a kind of two-bite pastry often stuffed with sweet or savory filling. I took this idea, making some adjustments to the roasted red pepper cream and simply combined it with shredded crab meat for fantastic fried crab bites!
Beignets de Crabe et Poivron Rouge – Roasted Red Pepper and Cream Crab Bites
Scrumptious two-bite delights, but you can, just as well, serve the roasted red pepper and crab cream as a hors d’oeuvre topper or stand alone as a dip. It’s delicious and very versatile!
Equipment
- Deep Fryer/Air Fryer/Wok
Ingredients
- 1 pound cooked or imitation crab; flaked
- 1 whole red pepper; seeded and finely chopped
- 2 bulbs shallot; finely minced
- 2 T olive oil
- 8 oz cream cheese or neufchatel
- 2 T heavy cream (fat-free half-and-half works just as well)
- 1 t honey
- ½ bunch green onions/scallions; chopped
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups panko
- 1 t ground coriander
- ½ T dried parsley
- ¼ additional ground black pepper
- ⅛ additional sea salt
- oil of choice for deep-frying
Instructions
- To a skillet add the oil, red peppers, and shallots. Saute for several minutes until aromatic and slightly translucent. Set Aside.
- Add the cream cheese , heavy cream, and honey to a medium bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Stir in the flaked crab, bell peppers, shallots, and green onions. Salt and pepper to taste.
- To prepare the breading toss together the flour and panko, with the coriander, parsley, pepper, and salt in a wide shallow bowl or large plate.
- Place 1/2 tablespoon of the crab mixture into the breading and gently roll and sprinkle to coat, with some controlled pressure. The mixture may be a little soft, so allowing it to sit, breaded, for several minutes, (perhaps while the batch before it fries,) will cause it to stiffen and be easier to handle going into the fry oil, as well as to turn as needed within the fry oil.
- Working in batches, as needed and as noted in step 5, fry each ball for 3-4 minutes in oil that has been preheated to 375°F, until crispy and golden on all sides.
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