Hot Crab Dip

As I write this, we have a crab pot in the water and we’re whiling away some time, which seems to be what fisher-people do.  It’s not an episode of Deadliest Catch, but still.  We like to amuse ourselves and think of it as Man v. Nature.  And in this case Nature has a slight advantage.  We use our inflatable kayaks to set our pot, commercially known as the Lil’ Crabber, which in case it’s not obvious is called that because it’s made for kids.  We were afraid our full-sized crab pot would cause the kayak to capsize.  Jon has had good luck crabbing in the past, but as with any type of fishing, there are simply no guarantees.  We are fortunate that we live in a place where we can paddle out about half a mile from the dock, throw the Lil’ Crabber in the water, and (sometimes) have fresh Dungeness Crab for dinner.  Fruits of the sea.  Exclamation point.

Personally, I find crab meat so utterly delectable that I am happy eating it with nothing more than a little melted butter or a dash of cocktail sauce.  For me, it’s definitely not one of those foods that requires a lot of dressing to make it appetizing.  But, with that said, at times even something so wonderful can benefit from a little change of pace, if for no other reason than to add a little variety to things.

My hot crab dip is very popular.  It’s classic in that it uses cream cheese as the base.  It’s best served warm, so I make it in small ramekins and warm/broil them as needed.  Which is usually after the previous one disappears.  Served with crackers or slices of bread, this makes a good, and decadent, appetizer.

Just a note, this hot crab dip recipe works equally well with canned crab as it does with fresh, for those sad times when the Lil’ Crabber comes up empty.

Happy Entertaining!

Click here to get recipe