Spicy Crab Balls

Gluten Free Spicy Crab Balls

These Spicy Crab Balls are deliciously easy to throw together and they can be made in advance so you’re not pulling your hair out at the last minute when you should be enjoying your guests.  The recipe was written with lump crab meat because that’s what I’d usually use.  But this Christmas eve I’m having a lot of guests and can’t afford the quantity of crabmeat I’d need to make this for a large crowd.  Ergo in the video I’ve tested the recipe with a combination of 50% imitation crab and 50% canned crab.  Of course they weren’t as good as when I make them with lump crab meat.  There’s a reason that stuff is so expensive.  To make matters worse after I shot, edited, and uploaded the video I discovered that the brand of imitation crab meat that I used in the video contained wheat starch.  I swear I'd checked the label but lo and behold when I checked the website to verify that it didn't contain gluten, I saw wheat gluten listed in the ingredients.  Likewise, I'd advise using the canned crab and skipping the imitation stuff if you can't get afford to use lump crab meat which is of course the gold standard.    

Spicy Crab Balls

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 12-15 min

Ingredients for the Crab Balls:

• 1 lb lump crab meat (you can use canned crab)
• 1 cup gluten free fresh bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp  mustard
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins is gluten free)
• 1 tbsp sambal sauce
• 1 tsp  old bay seasoning 
• salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for the Dipping Sauce:

• ½ cup Mayo
• 1 tbsp sambal
• 1 tbsp sweet relish
• ½ tsp old bay

Video Tutorial: 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (or 205 °C) and line a baking sheet with parchment sprayed with nonstick spray.
2. For the sauce, stir together all of the ingredients, cover and chill.
3. For the crab balls, in a large bowl whisk together the egg, mayonnaise, heavy cream, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, sambal sauce, old bay, and some salt and pepper until well combined.
4. Stir in the fresh bread crumbs until moistened then gently stir in the crab until you have a homogeneous mixture that can easily be formed into balls.
5. Form small balls 1-1 ½ inch in diameter then dot the top of each with a small piece of butter to aid in the browning. 
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes then let them rest for 5 minutes or so.   Sprinkle on some cayenne pepper or more old bay or paprika to give them a little more color then serve them with the dipping sauce and lemon wedges.

Notes: 

• To make the gluten free bread crumbs, process a few slices of gluten free bread in a food processor with the chopping blade.