A half pound of crab meat left from making crab cakes in a recent class gave me a reason to add a Crab and Artichoke Dip to my Christmas Eve Buffet. I scoured a few sites to get the gist of a recipe, then set out, as I usually do to make it my own. This isn’t one of those things that I gravitate toward, and although I have been known to make an artichoke dip from time to time, I never had used crab for anything other than crab cakes. After all, loving crab cakes the way I do, and with crab having the price tag it does, why bother?
Why bother? Well, if the crab dip authorities at my Christmas Eve dinner were any indication, Crab and Artichoke Dip is reason to bother. So here is my rendition of the recipe. With the cold weather setting in, and the long -winter, comfort food yearnings mounting, you’ll find plenty of reason to pull a batch of this together.
Christmas Eve Crab and Artichoke Dip
1 # cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 small shallot, minced
1 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 # cleaned and crumbled crab meat
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp dried dill weed
1/2 tsp dried parsley
Butter a 2 quart casserole. Combine all ingredients in the casserole, squishing them together with your hands until the cream cheese is broken up into small dollops and the remaining ingredients are thoroughly distributed. Use a spatula or your hands to smooth out the mixture and clean the edge of the casserole of any little shards of the dip.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cover the casserole with a lid or piece of foil and bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Remove the cover and bake until lightly browned, maybe 10 more minutes. We served the dip with traditional Triscuits, but French baguette slices or celery sticks would be great too.
Enjoy!
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