Allow me to digress dear readers; it was the late 1980’s and we were all newlyweds, excited to begin our lives in our new homes. Part of this excitement was the possibility of entertaining, and yes I do mean all grown up, playing house! I moved directly from my parents home into our marriage home so the thought of entertaining in our new house was exhilerating! We routinely rotated dinner parties so each of the new home-makers could enjoy the entertaining aspect of our new lives.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I assisted for a Christmas magazine shoot (for 2014) and there was a seafood dip recipe that I had to make. It contained copious amounts of expensive seafood (to be honest, I don’t know anyone who would be willing to spend that kind of money on a dip! $20 lobster, $45 canned lump crab and $10 shrimp, granted you only needed 3oz of each to make that dip) but it reminded me of a delicious warm crab that one of our friends made in the late 80’s! I remember asking her for a copy of the recipe which she clipped out of the Toronto Star (our local newspaper).
We were absolutely smitten the first time we tried the original warm crab dip. The dip has crab meat, cream cheese, onion, dill and horseradish, the combination is fantastic! So when I brought home some leftover crab meat I knew I wanted to make it for the 2013 entertaining season. Imagine my HORROR when I looked for the photocopied recipe and all I could find is this corner:
In total panic, I posted a plea on Facebook to all my friends to see if someone else had this wonderful recipe, but sadly I was out of luck. Thank you, by the way for your wonderful suggestions — you definitely had my mouth watering but I was on a mission for my particular recipe. So I put on my recipe developer hat and got to work trying to replicate this recipe from two decades ago and by George, I think I got it! I’ve used the decadent Jumbo Lump Crab meat because it’s what I had, but plain ordinary canned crabmeat works equally well, you just don’t get the giant lumps but the flavour is the same. I’m posting the recipe in the measurements I developed but you can half it easily. I like to freeze these types of baked dips in plastic lined smallish ramekins so that if I have unexpected company I can easily unwrap the plastic and pop it frozen into the specific ramekin and bake. If you bake the dip frozen, make sure to allow extra time to defrost while baking.
Warm Crab Dip
Makes about 1 1/2 cups dip
Ingredients:
- 3/4 c Extra Smooth Ricotta Cheese
- 1/2 cup Cream Cheese, room temperature
- 1 tsp dill (dried is fine)
- 2 tsp horseradish (the original recipe called for horseradish cream, but I never had horseradish cream on hand)
- 2 tbsp red onion or shallot, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 150 g crab meat (canned is perfectly fine here). It’s about 1/2 cup, or one can give or take.
- 1/4 c sliced almonds
Directions:
- Combine the ricotta, cream cheese, dill, horseradish, red onion and milk and mix well.
- Fold in the crab meat; if using lump make sure you leave some chunks but it’s not entirely necessary, I just prefer the way it looks.
- Season with salt.
- If you are making this for the future, line three half-cup ramekins with plastic wrap (like this).
- Divide the mixed dip into the three ramekins pressing into the ramekin so it will retain the shape. Try not to have too many folds so that the plastic comes off easily. Carefully twist the plastic wrap to seal. Place the ramekins in the freezer. Once the dip has frozen to the ramekin shape, remove the frozen dip and label it and return the shaped dip to the freezer until needed. Put your ramekins away.
- About 30-40 minutes before serving, pre-heat the oven to 375° F. Remove plastic wrap from the frozen dip and pop the shaped dip into the original ramekin you used to freeze it. Place on a cookie sheet (it may boil over depending on how full your ramekin was) and bake for 30-40 minutes or until dip is bubbling in the centre.
- Remove the baked dip and sprinkle with almonds. Return to the oven and broil for a couple of minutes until the almonds are toasted. Serve with crostini, crackers or even sliced cucumbers.
[…] our little cozy nook, they are sold. Just like this dip, one taste and you’re sold. I make a similar dip using canned crabmeat but I must tell you that this salmon dip is so much more […]
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I love the look back – and just look at what amazing hosts you have become!!!! You are now for sure an entertainer extraordinaire! This crab dip would be a big, big hit here. We are all shell fish fans and as I mentioned on your chutney post – we love, love to dip! And I’m still just so thrilled for your new job opportunity. Everything always seems to unfold just as it should. 🙂
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I’ve never had anything like this Eva, looks very tasty indeed. A bit more elegant than hummus anyway.
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Eva, this crab dip sounds perfect for Christmas (you know in France, and also in this part of Switzerland) people eat mainly seafood for Christmas, which is such a healthy custom! If I only could get some affordable good crabmeat… Every time I bought canned, it was awful and someone told me I had to buy a certain brand which was more than 20 Euros for a small can. I refused because it would finally be cheaper to buy a live crab… Anyway, I love crab and will keep this recipe in memory.
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This looks heavenly…I’m thinking of other things which can be dipped in this! Btw almonds are lovely for adding texture, A lovely post,thanks 🙂
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Forget the old recipe, Eva. This one sounds just about perfect! Those lumps of crab look so appetizing. Great tips, too, about freezing these in small, plastic wrap wrapped ramekins. Last Summer, I made more than a couple cobblers and “had” to start eating them in order to free the ramekins for other uses. Dash the luck! 🙂
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I don’t tend to use crab often but you know, this is a recipe that I think I could embrace. The horseradish sounds right up my alley along with the ricotta and toasted, crunchy almonds… I need more time to fit it all in Eva!! :). Of course, there’s always new years… ;-). I’m glad you were able to replicate the recipe to your liking; it really does sound wonderful. I can’t believe all the snow you’ve been getting in ON/Quebec — the pictures I’m seeing are beautiful! Who doesn’t love the fluffy, white stuff for Christmas? 🙂 Enjoy – xo.
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At ;least you found your old recipe (LOL, well, part of it)…a few of of mine are MIA (or filed incorrectly in my old recipe boxes!). I’m so glad you were able to recreate this marvelous dip…I’m certain it was outstanding with the lump crab…lucky you!!!
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Hi Liz, incorrectly filed recipes are very annoying because you just know you have them but can’t figure out where! Blogging has helped me organize my recipes in one place. I was very fortunate to have been able to keep the crab, discarding food is never favoured.
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I saw your requests on Facebook and was to read that you got something just like it. I would have been upset to just find a corner. I wonder where it went?
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Hi Lorraine, I did a purge a few years back and I’m wondering if it got stuck to something I discarded.
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Sounds like the work is going well. Good for you. I’ve never used ricotta in crab dip. Ever. What’s wrong with me!?! OK, I’m good. Thanks for the inspiration.
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Hi Greg, yes the freelance work is great I’m so glad and fortunate to be surrounded by such a supporting community. To be honest, I got the ricotta from the same shoot and decided to use it up, I don’t think the original recipe had ricotta only cream cheese! I’m very glad to have provided inspiration.
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Oh dear, so disappointing that you lost that recipe… I know the feeling… I had a two foot high pile of recipes that I had torn out of mags over the years with my lovely mum… when I left my husband, I was downsizing, so stupidly took my most favourites and threw out the rest. I regret it to this day. Like you, I moved from my parents’ house into my marital (or pre marriage defacto home and we used to play house and have grown up dinner parties too). Thank you for your great recipe and for evoking some memories xox
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Hi Lizzy, I’m sure that is exactly what happened to my recipe, it likely got chucked inadvertently with some other recipes. This is one of the reasons I started blogging so that I could have a repository of all my favourite recipes. I’m glad my post brought back some lovely memories.
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I remember being a newly-wed and all the excitement of having a dinner party! When I was growing up we had neighbours who every year would invite us over for a Christmas drink and there would always be a warm crab dip on the table! This recipe really is a blast from the past. Looks great, Eva and I’m glad you were able to replicate the recipe xx
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Thank you so much Charlie, it’s nice to look back on the fun we had playing house in the early years. How nice that you neighbours served a lovely and festive crab dip.
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As another lover of dips, crab, artichoke, spinach,, I look forward to this time of year when I get to indulge … at other people’s parties. 🙂 Congratulations on creating the dip. I think I have one of those small booklets put on by Philadelphia cream cheese somewhere. I’ll take a look and see it there’s something like it there.
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Thanks Maria, I checked their website and they did have a few seafood dips but not the one I was looking for. I think the original only had philly in it but I also brought home the ricotta so I thought I’d use it too!
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I love crab dip. Haven’t had it for ages though. Thanks for posting. 🙂
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Thanks so much and welcome to my blog.
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I’ve been following it for about a year now. I enjoy it. 🙂
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I agree with Karen, great freezing tip. Do you think you could get the original recipe from the Toronto Star archive? Just a thought.
If only 3 ounces of each seafood item was needed for the recipe, what do you do with the remainder?
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Thanks Norma, that is indeed a wonderful idea, I will look into it. The reason I was able to take the crab home was because only 3 oz’s were needed! I doubt I would make the recipe because of the cost!
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Love your tip and freezing the dip in small portions for later use. 🙂
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Thank you Karen, it helps for the little drop in’s we seem to enjoy this time of year!
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Don’t you just hate when you loose recipe like this. I think that was part of the reason I started a cooking blog so I would have a place to put all my recipes. Thanks for this delightful recipe. Great on these cold days. Take care, BAM
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Hi Bam, one of the reasons I blog too.
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I have never had warm crab dip… Now I am really tempted to make one for the holiday appetizer.
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