Disclaimer: This is not my recipe. This is the way the Seabreeze did it for many years and this is the way I did it using the recipe from their cookbook. I'm tweaking some amounts, but it's essentially the same. The original recipe calls for FOUR POUNDS of crab claw meat, which makes more than most people would want, I'd think, so I'm going to cut that in half (as I did when I made them), but you could probably even cut it in half again if you wanted. That being said, if you're going to go through all the trouble, you might as well make plenty, right?
Ingredients:
1 c. finely diced onion
1/2 c. finely diced green or red pepper
1/2 to 2 tbsp minced garlic (the original calls for 1/2 tbsp, but I think a bit more would be good)
1/2 c. finely diced celery
1/8 c. olive oil (I always vote for extra virgin)
1/4 c. water (I always vote for extra virgin...or tap, I guess)
Approx. 7oz. tomato puree (I just went with pure tomato sauce for this; no additional ingredients)
Approx. 7oz. tomato paste
1 to 2 tbsp crushed red pepper, according to heat tolerance
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
2 pounds of blue crab claw meat, fresh or frozen or, if you have it available, go with refrigerated and canned, which works great
OK, we'll stop there on the ingredients and come back for the dough.
1. Coarsely mix the onion, pepper, garlic and celery in a blender or food processor to make it small, but don't turn it into a paste. If you have good knife skills, you could probably pull this off with fine chopping, but it's convenient to use the blender or a food processor, so it's really up to you.
2. Add the vegetables to a large saute pan with the oil and the water and cook over very low heat for 1 to 2 hours. Now, as I said in the writeup for this recipe, you could probably put your heat to medium and cut that time down considerably, but...well, this is how they originally did it.
3. Add in the tomato puree or sauce, tomato paste and red pepper flake and cook on low heat for an additional hour, stirring often. Add the oregano and cook for 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool. The sauce will be pretty thick by this point.
4. Flake the crab meat into a large bowl and make sure to pick it over for any small pieces of shell. Gradually add in the sauce and mix until the meat is moist and holds together nicely. Refrigerate the mixture until you're ready to fry.
1 loaf of white bread (I used a baguette-style Italian loaf)
1 loaf of Cuban bread (won't be as long as a baguette, but should be broader)
Bread crumbs
2 to 3 tbsp crushed red pepper
So that's it for the breading. I know it's a little vague, but you kind of just have to get in there and see how it goes. As I mentioned in the writeup, I would probably take the crust off the bread when doing this as it doesn't seem to incorporate as well as the interior bread (but it worked fine with it, so it's up to you).
5. Tear the bread up and put it all into a big bowl. Add enough water to moisten the bread (it took more than I figured it would, but you just have to go until you feel you're at the right spot) and then mash it all together until it has a loose, doughy consistency.
6. Add in the red pepper and then add in enough bread crumbs to get to a biscuit-dough-like consistency. Again, I know this is vague, but I don't think you can mess this up too badly. Just get it to where it holds itself together decently and it isn't a gloppy mess. If it gets too dry while you're building the deviled crabs, just add in a little more water and mix it well.
Safflower or Vegetable oil for frying
7. OK, now you're ready to put all of this together. At this point, you'll probably want to put your oil on the fire. You'll want a deep-fry thermometer to be sure you're right at 330 degrees. Use a neutral oil like safflower or just vegetable oil. I had around 2-inches of oil in my cast iron dutch oven, which worked just fine. Keep an eye on the temperature, but be sure to just give it time to get to 330 degrees and then make adjustments as needed to maintain that.
8. Construction: you'll want 3 vessels here; 1 for the dough, 1 for the crab mixture and then a plate for bread crumbs. Actually, one more plate will be required as you'll need somewhere to keep the finished deviled crabs while you make the others.
9. Grab a handful of dough and drop it into the crumbs for a quick roll just to minimize stickiness. You also might want to get a little bread crumb on your hands if you can in order to help, but, no matter what, this is a mildly sticky affair, so just embrace that reality and get to it.
10. Mash the dough in the palm of your hand into somewhat of a round shape around 4-inches in diameter and about 3/8-inch thick. Place a heaping tablespoon of crab filling right in the center and then bring the edges up and around it. Pinch it off at the top and remove excess dough from the top if you have any. Just do your best to get all of the filling surrounded and close up the seams. Roll the deviled crab in bread crumbs again and then move it to the plate. What you're looking for is something about the size of a baseball, but oval-shaped.
11. Cue up "The Final Countdown" by Europe because you're almost done! Fry these in batches at 330 degrees for around 7 minutes total. I typically got 3 to 4 of them in at a time and turned them over at 3-1/2 minutes for even browning. Once they have been in for 7 minutes and are nice and golden brown, remove them to drain. I use an inverted cooling rack over some newspaper, which works perfectly (credit to Alton Brown for that technique). If you put them on paper towels, they'll just sit in the oil that drains off and you'll lose the crunchy exterior you just spent all that time creating.
12. You might let them sit for 5 minutes or so, but serve immediately with hot sauce (I prefer Frank's Red Hot for these). If you want to do a bunch in advance, they should keep just fine in a low oven while you fry the rest. They reheated pretty decently after 10 to 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, as well.
Makes 16-20 Deviled Crabs
