Crab

Take the b out of crab, and replace it with a p....that was one of the words that flew out of my mouth last night!

I was SO going to be an awesome food blogger today and give you a picture by picture recount of the new recipe I tried last night. No, not the PF Chang's Orange Chicken bag dinner, but the baked crab rangoon that we had along with it. I was so excited, because Joe and I both LOVE crab rangoon. I whipped out my camera and was doing so good taking the step by step pictures...well, kind of. It came time to put the crab stuffed wontons back into the oven, I put my mit on and what-do-ya know, the muffin pan slips and about 6-7 of the crab rangoon fly out into the oven and about 2 of their fillings land smack on the bottom of the oven, sizzling away. I made Emery put her ear muffs on at that point...the girl LOVES to be under my feet in the kitchen. Anyway, I managed to salvage 90% of them. I would change a few of the things I did, but they were still yummy.

I could provide you with a picture, but I'd be hijacking it from someone else's blog, so you'll just have to deal with a no-picture post...

Here's the recipe:

• 1 - 8 oz block of cream cheese, room temperature (I used fat free)
• 1- 6 oz can of crab meat (FYI...by the tuna)
  
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1 dash hot sauce
• 1 package of Wonton wrappers (FYI...in the produce section)
• 1/4 cup Apricot preserves
• 2 to 3 tbs of Sweet Chile Sauce (FYI...in the Asian food section)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Put the cream cheese, crab meat, chopped green onion, garlic powder, onion powder, and hot sauce in a bowl, and stir until mixed well.
   
3. Spray your muffin tin with cooking spray. Place Wonton wrappers in each spot of the muffin tin, pressing lightly to get a nice inset. Don't press too hard, or you will tear the wrapper.
   
4. Spray the muffin tin again (yes, with the wrappers in them, this helps them get brown)
5. Place the Wonton wrappers in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until they start to get golden brown.
6. Remove from oven, and place a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture into each of the wrappers. (I used a mini scoop for these, and it worked great)
7. Place back into the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until the mixture gets nice and bubbly.
8. While the Wontons are in the oven, you can make the dipping sauce: Mix the Apricot preserves, with the sweet chile sauce...
9. If you like the dipping sauce, the recipe I had says you can spoon it over each one of the wontons. I wasn't sure if Joe was going to like it, so I kept it on the side.
10. Serve!

The one thing I would change, is to not let the wontons get too done during their first round in the oven. I let them get too brown, and then when the cream cheese was in there, they got a little too done because I was waiting for the cream cheese to bubble. Know what I mean? Anyways, these were yummy, and not fried! Obviously, they're no PF Chang's Crab Rangoon, but they're a good substitute for the budget, and the belly!

Enjoy.