Crab Dip Gratin
"This is a very rich crab dip which goes over well at cocktail parties. I like to serve it with a nice mild cracker, such as a Bremner Wafer, but it also goes well with small garlic toast rounds, or toast points if you want to go old school.
I use either Noilly Prat or Dolin vermouth for the vermouth in this recipe. If you don't want to use vermouth you could just use a dry white wine instead.
Do not use the "whipped" or "soft" type of cream cheese which comes in tubs. You need the real cream cheese which comes in a brick for this recipe. Also, please use best quality parmesan here, not the stuff in the green shaker can.
This recipe can be doubled or even tripled."
- Ready In:
- 50mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Yields:
-
1 quart
ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1⁄2 cup shallot, finely minced
- 1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 garlic clove, pureed
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup dry vermouth
- 1 lb cream cheese
- 1 cup grated gruyere cheese
- 1⁄2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 lb claw crabmeat
- 1⁄4 cup half-and-half
- 1⁄4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 2 tablespoons chives, minced
directions
- Preheat the oven to 350º.
- Feel through the crab meat to make sure there aren't any remaining bits of shell still attached.
- Melt the butter in a 2 quart, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the shallots, cayenne and pepper and sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant - only about 30 seconds.
- Pour the dry vermouth and the lemon juice into the pan, and raise the heat to medium-high, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze it. Cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.
- Lower the heat to medium-low. Cut the cream cheese into large chunks (about 2 tablespoons each), and stir them into the pan, stirring well to make sure the cheese melts and is well combined with the other ingredients.
- Once all the cream cheese is melted, add the Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses. Stir well until they are melted and combined with the rest of the ingredients.
- Stir in the crab meat, half and half, and Tabasco, mixing to combine the ingredients well.
- Taste the dip - the cheeses add a fair amount of salt, so I don't usually add any more. But if you like you could add some salt at this point.
- Bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Garnish with chives and serve with crackers or toast rounds.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>I'm originally from Atlanta, GA, but I now live in Brooklyn, NY with my husband, cat, and dog. I'm a film and video editor, but cooking is my main hobby - if you can call something you do multiple times a day a hobby. <br />I enjoy all types of food, from molecular gastronomy to 70's suburban Mom type stuff. While I like to make recipes from cookbooks by true chefs, I don't turn my nose up at Campbell's Cream of Mushroom - I'm not a food snob. <br /> I love foods from all nations/cultures, and I am fortunate enough to live in NYC so I can go to restaurants which serve food from pretty much anywhere on the globe. Because of this most of my recipes tend to be in the Western European/American food tradition - I find it easier to pay the experts for more complicated delicacies such as Dosai, Pho & Injera. I really enjoy having so many great food resources available to me here in NYC. One of my favorite stores is Kalustyan's http://www.kalustyans.com/ <br />they have every spice, bean, & grain in the world. If there's something you can't find, look on their website. I bet they'll have it and they can ship it to you! <br />Many of my recipes are Southern, because that's the food I grew up on. I hope the recipes I have posted here will be useful to folks out in the 'zaar universe! <br /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/Adopted1smp.jpg border=0 alt=Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/smPACp.jpg border=0 alt=Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/PACfall08partic.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/IWasAdoptedfall08.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e110/flower753/Food/my3chefsnov2008.jpg alt= /></p>
