These are tasty little treats perfect for dinner parties, parties or to simply horde to yourself. Of course, your friends will love you if you share. 😉
Several years ago Bay Lady & I catered my Dad’s 82nd Birthday party for 26 some-odd people.
We hardly ever cater events except, of course, for Dad and a couple of very dear friends. We spent several days preparing for the party. We packed up my kitchen knives and various kitchen tools I would need along with the various items we had pre-prepared and other food stuffs that we packed into a large cooler. We also packed up 20 or so bottles of wine from the cellar knowing for certain we would need some libations when the prep work was over. We then made the 90 minute trip to Corsicana where he lives and the real work began. Thankfully, we had the foresight to go down the night before. Whew!!! These things are a whole lot of work. We worked on prep when we got there, the next morning and finally started cooking the satays and seared tuna around 5:30 p.m. Once the basic prep was done and the cake made Baby Lady painstakingly took care of the tediously beautiful canapés while I cooked the protein. The guests then arrived and Dad played host to his friends. The party was a smashing success and (we were told) was the talk of the town for several weeks thereafter. We served a variety of homemade canapés, Seared Ancho Crusted Tuna with Fig Lime Glaze, Jalapeños & Cilantro, Chicken and Pork Satay, and these tasty little treats. Dad loves deviled crab and mushrooms so these were his special treat and they were very, very tasty, full of flavor with a little heat on the end – just the way I like them.
We hadn’t thought much about these stuffed mushrooms since then until recently Baby Lady asked if I would make them. I said, sure. Why not? So, off to the store I went to buy the crabmeat and fresh cremini mushrooms. When I got back this is what I did.
Ingredients
- 1 lb lump crabmeat
- 3 cups seafood stock, reduced to 1-1/2 cup
- 1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup onions, diced
- 1/2 cup bell peppers (preferably red), diced
- 1-1/2 tsp garlic, minced
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 Tbsp hot sauce (I use my pickled pepper hot sauce but Tabasco works well, too)
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 3/4 cup fine, dry bread crumbs
Instruction
First thing first, add the seafood stock to a sauce pot over medium heat and reduce to 1-1/2 cups.
While the stock is reducing, mix the thyme, black pepper
and sea salt in a ramekin, Set aside until needed.
Now, add 1/2 stick of butter to a small dutch oven.
followed by the olive oil.
Heat the oil and melt the butter over medium-high heat. Then add the onion
Bell pepper.
celery,
and garlic.
Cook over medium-high heat for roughly 4 – 5 minutes. Now add the ramekin of seasonings
and hot sauce.
Let this cook for 3 minutes stirring often. Next, add the reduced stock
Cook for 5 minutes without stirring. Now, add the crabmeat and cook an additional 5 minutes stirring often.
Stir in the breadcrumbs and cook another minute stirring constantly so as not to scorch.
Remove from heat, add the remaining butter, cut into cubes, stirring until melted and incorporated into the mix.
Set aside until ready to stuff. You can make this a day in advance.
Next, stem the mushrooms leaving only the cap, and brush with oil.
Using a small scoop, fill the mushroom caps with the crab filling.
Place on a lightly oiled sheet pan and bake at 450 F for 15 minutes until lightly golden brown.
Serve & enjoy! 🙂
REMCooks 
You just made me reeeeal hungry 🙂
Thanks. 🙂 We’re glad you liked it.
Your dad doesn’t look 82 at all in that photo 🙂
The crab stuffed mushrooms look great!
Thanks, Stefan. Dad does look good in this photo but it was his birthday and he cleans up pretty good. 😀 He will be 87 this March and still gets around very well. He looks like he may make 100 and darn well may outlive me. 😀
I make stuffed vegetables at least once a week and oft they are mushrooms. Have not quite done them your way but liking both ingredients and the method [baking not frying] shall surely try soonest . . . getting crab in the country may prove a problem: at a pinch frozen might have to ‘do’ 🙂 !
Thanks, Eha. We don’t get fresh crabs in Dallas. They are too perishable. We buy the frozen crab and it works well for this dish. It is very tasty, not too hard to make and a great dish. We actually had it for a light dinner the night I prepared it and a few lunches thereafter. 🙂 It will make roughly 24 nicely stuffed mushrooms.
Your olive oil container…OMG…Don’t invite me in to your kitchen if you want to keep THAT!…Ahhhhh I want one.
Hi, Miranti. We love the Fusti. We bought it from the Olive Press in 2011. It holds 3 litres but we probably should have purchased the 5 litre fusti. It is the much better buy. It looks nice and allows you to buy bulk organic olive oil at a considerably lower price. We also use roughly 5 litres of olive oil/yr.
OK…took a long time to get over your olive oil container. Now I want to know where do you get your lump crab meat? I have access only the 8oz. container at Wholefoods (cost $18/8oz.) or the whole snow crab frozen in about 4 lb. box! (and that cost only $30) There is nothing in between!
I buy 1 pt/1 lb. jumbo lump frozen crabmeat from HEB Central Market for $27 and regular lump frozen crabmeat for $21/lb. You can also get the claw meat for $19/lb. I used to buy King Crab legs but at the current $39/lb it’s a tad more than I want to spend. The other option is is to buy live dungeness crab and boil them yourself. It takes a little more time but it is fresher, tastes better and will probably cost only $20/lb after it’s cooked and shelled. Any way you look at it, crab is a serious investment.
Nice! I have to find a place where I can get the lump crabmeat like that. I have a place where I can buy king crab legs for $22/lb. in shell though. I usually get crab meat by buying the whole crab but I’m not so good at killing it 😦 and it such a big event. So, I just buy the already shelled and frozen one for a change. My friend in Seattle went out craving and freeze her own crab meat from the left over. How wonderful? (I don’t know how to do that either.
Great recipe! I know these will make my tummy very, very happy!
Thanks, Cecile. We love this dish. 🙂
This recipe combines two of my favorite things – crab and mushrooms. Your dad looks like a wonderful fellow!
Thanks, Anna, for the very nice compliments.
Those look and sound very tasty indeed. I’m sure your dear Dad really appreciated the effort it took to cater such an event. I’ve catered parties before and it’s no picnic!
Thanks, Eva. The party was a blast and he had a great time. Of course, Baby Lady & I were exhausted at the end of the day.
You know I am envious. I just cannot find crab meat like that over here. Great big tubs of lump meat – we can get little tins and mushed up brown meat. But not great buckets like that!
We love crabmeat. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t find the pints of crabmeat. 😮 My preference is for Alaskan King Crab but it is horribly expensive nowadays. I didn’t mind paying $23/lb for the legs but now they are $39/lb which is a awfully steep.
YUMM! Another recipe for the Dungeness crab we catch each fall! Thank you. 🙂 I have a question. What do you put your camera settings on to get the action shots of the food tumping in? I have the worst luck with that.
Thanks, Kathryn. I wish I could have this with fresh dungeness crab. It would be over the top.
As for the camera, I have a Sony A580 DSLR with a 50mm f2.8 macro lens and a macro ring flash with diffuser. Baby Lady simply sets it on automatic and let’s it do whatever it needs. Typically the settings on the action photos are ISO 400, f4 with a shutter speed of 1/80.
Richard, these look like they will make an appearance at my super bowl party.
Thanks, Sheryl. Everyone will love these and they really are pretty simple to make.
I adore cajun recepies! Ostriche
Thanks. 😀 You definitely need to give these a try.