Sriracha Crab Puffs Recipe

The week between Christmas and New Years is my time for living lazily. I don’t want to cook overly fussy foods. I’m interested in using up foods in my freezer – like a container of the Chinese beef and tofu skin soup that I made months ago. There are also little one-bite snacks like these, which I fancied to serve along with drinks.

This evening, San Francisco Chronicle food journalist Tara Duggan is stopping by for cocktails and snacks. Along with cheese and pate, I thought of these spicy crab bites. They’re my modern take on a 1950s-type of drink snacks – crab and mayonnaise seasoned in a piquant manner and baked atop a toast point. In my case, I used a tiny rice cracker from Trader Joe’s to make the puffs diminutive and true one-biters. Oh, they’re also gluten-free. (I like the crackers because they’re good. The gluten-free aspect is a bonus to those who are sensitive to wheat gluten.) I guess you could say these puffs are a modern Mad Men appetizer.

Mayonnaise and crab make excellent friends. After preparing the mixture, I kept it chilled for hours and then pulled it out about 15 minutes before using to remove some of the chill. Then, I made the puffs in my toaster oven. I tasted one before Tara arrived. They were lovely and celebratory without much sweat from me. My kind of lazy cooking and eating.  Here's how to make them.

This kind of crab sold in a tub has much better flavor than the canned stuff. Spend extra for the “premium” lump to avoid mush. This was from Trader Joe’s and 8 ounces was roughly $10. I didn’t use the entire tub for this recipe.

I use the sriracha aioli from The Banh Mi Handbook. You can use regular mayonnaise and a little sriracha and tiny bit of garlic but the flavor won’t be as elegant. Laughing Cow Cheese is the go-to cheese in Vietnam. I’ve been eating it since I was a kid and we keep lots of it in the house. In Vietnam, you see it at banh mi carts and grocery stores too. The cheese adds body to the crab mixture.

You could use other kinds of crackers but these little round ones are downright cute. If they’re not available, get the bigger ones. The flavor is basic – no frills, no soy sauce, because you want the crab to shine.

You can totally tweak the flavors of the crab mixture but make sure to not add fillers like bell pepper, which diminishes the crabby goodness. We’re going to our neighbor’s house for New Year’s Eve and I think I’m going to make a mess of these. They’re best warm but you could eat them cold.

RECIPE

Sriracha Crab Puffs

Yields: 20 to 24 tiny bites, to serve 4 to 6

Ingredients:

• ½ tablespoons sriracha aioli (see Banh Mi Handbook, page 26)
• 1 ½ teaspoon regular/plain mayonnaise or sour cream
• 2 or 3 pinches black pepper
• 1 wedge Laughing Cow cheese (Swiss light is what I used)
• 1 slender green onion, finely chopped
• 2 ½ ounces (75 g) cooked lump crab meat
• Lime or lemon juice, optional
• 20 to 24 small round rice crackers

Method:

1. In a small bowl, mash together the aioli, mayo (or sour cream), pepper, cheese and green onion. Use a fork and blend well.
2. Add the crab and combine. Taste and if needed, add extra mayo (or sour cream) and lime juice to temper the heat. Use right away or refrigerate for as long as a day or so. Return to room temp before using.
3. Preheat the toaster oven to bake at 350F (180 or 175C). Line the baking pan with parchment. Plop 1 teaspoon of crab atop a cracker, shaping a mound, if possible. It’s intensely flavored so no need to go overboard with the amount. Put on the prepared baking pan, fitting as much as you can without crowding.
4. Bake for 5 minutes to heat through, then toast or broil (keep the temperature as is) for about 30 seconds, or until slightly puffed and darkened. Cool for 2 to 3 minutes before eating. Make more as you bake the first batch if you couldn’t fit them all on the pan. 

Related post: Curry popcorn recipe (another easy snack!)