Delicious Hot Crab Rangoon Dip and Helpful Hints.

Delicious Hot Crab Rangoon Dip.

A friend and a very good cook, Mickey Thienes recently shared a "Helpful Hint" and chef's secret with me and I tried it out today in this recipe.  It worked wonderfully well and furthermore enhanced the flavor of this dish!

The idea is to freeze whole fresh lemons.  I washed and dried mine and stashed a very large one in a freezer bag a week or so ago.  Then when a recipe calls for lemon, be it juice or zest or whatever, you just use a box grater and grate the whole lemon onto a dish and slide it off into the recipe. 

This recipe calls for the juice of 1/2 of a lemon, instead I grated into the dip about 1/3 of a large frozen whole lemon.  The taste was wonderful.  Evidently this is a chef's trick and done rather routinely in fine restaurants.  I like it a lot!  So, I am sharing it with you.

This recipe is adapted from one I saw on Ally's Sweet and Savory Eats.  It is much spicier than any Crab Rangoon I have ever eaten but we liked it a lot.  In fact we liked it more than any hot crab dip we have ever eaten.  I hope you enjoy it this upcoming Holiday season.

Ingredients for hot Crab Rangoon dip:

8 oz, softened cream cheese
1 C. mayonnaise
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 cans of crab meat drained and cleaned (Look over and remove any shinny pieces of cartilage you may see.)
1/2-1 t. ground red pepper (I used 1/2 t.)
1 t. salt
1 t. ground black pepper
1/3 of a large grated frozen lemon (or juice of 1/2 lemon)
4-6 green onions, sliced including green stems (You might want to save some back for garnish.)
6 T. Panko breadcrumbs for topping

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine all of the ingredients except the Panko crumbs in a medium sized mixing bowl and stir well to combine.  Pour into a shallow baking dish and top with the crumbs.  Bake for 25 minutes until bubbling hot.  If desired sprinkle with additional green onion tops and serve warm with tortilla chips, pita chips, toasted baguettes, or fried wonton wrappers.

Cover and refrigerate any remaining dip and reheat to serve.  Yield 3-4 Cups Crab Dip.