Margarita's International Recipes

Cajun
Crabmeat Avery

This delicious crab dish by one of the first "celebrity chefs", Paul Prudhomme, could not be more Cajun. It combines its "holy trinity" of onion, green pepper and celery, with a lot of crab and punch of heat. My husband, for whom I made the recipe below, pronounced it delicious. I followed the instructions pretty much as given, though I halved the recipe (more or less). I also forgot to add the egg, which of course took away consistency from the dish, but hopefully did not affect the taste much. I also significantly reduced the amount of peppers the originally recipe called for. My husband has a good tolerance for heat (or at least he used to), but he still found this hot enough for his taste.

In all, I would make this dish again and serve it to company. I think it would work specially well as part of a holiday meal.


Crabmeat Avery

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 3 Tbsp. finely chopped yellow onion
  • 3 Tbsp. finely chopped green bell pepper
  • 3 Tbsp. finely chooped celery
  • 2 Tbsp. finely chopped green onions
  • 1/4 tsp. minced garlic
  • 3 Tbsp. mayonnaise
  • 2 tsp. brown mustard
  • 1tsp. finely chopped parsley
  • 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • dash hot sauce
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • dash black pepper
  • dash white pepper
  • 1 medium egg
  • 1/2 lb. crabmeat
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • sweet paprika

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine the butter, onion, green pepper, celery, green onions and garlic in a small cooking pot. Saute over high heat until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add 1 Tbsp. mayonnaise, the mustard, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, salt, hot sauce and pepper. Mix well. Whisk in the egg. Carefully add the crabmeat and combine, trying not to break the meat.

Place the mixture into four ramekins. Pour 1 Tbsp. of heavy cream over each one. Spread a thin layer of lemon on the surface and sprinkle with paprika.

Place ramekins in a baking sheet and cook until brown and bubbly, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.


Adapted from Paul Prudhomme's recipe in Louisiana Kitchen.

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