Crab and Pine Nut Puff Pastry

Dungeness Crabs are the best choice when buying crabs. Click here for more information.

• 1 Cup cooked Dungeness Crab meat picked from shell
• 4 button mushrooms (fine diced)
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley (chopped)
• 3 Tbsp pine nuts
• ½ yellow onion
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 rib celery (fine diced)
• 2 Tbsp cream cheese
• 1 sheet puff pastry (Pepperidge Farms Frozen)
• 1 egg (beaten)

Remove 1 sheet puff pastry and place at room temperature to thaw for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat sauté pan with 1 Tbsp butter on medium heat until butter has melted. Sauté onion, Mushrooms and pine nuts for 10 min or until nuts start to brown. Remove from heat and add 1 Tbsp butter, parsley and cream cheese and stir until melted and combined. Add crab meat and fold together gently. Set crab mix aside to cool.

Unfold thawed puff pastry sheet and cut into four squares (4” x 4”). Place 2 Tbsp crab mix in the center of each square. Brush edges with a small amount of water. Fold corner of puff pastry square to opposite corner forming a triangle and firmly press sides together. Place puff pastry pockets on buttered cookie sheet and brush tops with beaten egg. Bake for 13 min, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve. Be careful, pockets will be very hot.

Pockets can be served as appetizer with a simple parsley garnish, or as entrée with a side of vegetables.

Serves four.

You can buy cooked crab still in the shell or cook your own: simply fill a large stock pot (one bigger than the crabs) with water and ½ lemon and 1 Tbsp kosher salt per gallon of water. Bring to a boil and put crabs in. Cook about 18 min, remove from water and put in bowl with ice to stop the cooking. When it has cooled remove the legs and claws and crack open to remove meat. Remove bottom shell of body and spoon out the innards. The remaining meat in the body has the most flavor. Be sure to pick through the meat to remove any shell fragments.