Crab with Basil Pesto Crispy Pockets

As my usual self, when I first got the can of 1-lb crab meat from the market, I had no plan of what kind of dish I would be making with the crab meat. It’s been sitting quietly in my fridge for weeks, and the hubby kept reminding as he thought I forgot about it. Obviously, he didn’t know me that well. I never forget about food --- I just waited for the right moment, that’s all! ;-P

And today is the day! The hubby brought home a big bag of basil from Smart & Final with a plan of making basil pesto. He likes it so much and has been buying it from Fresh & Easy all the time. Now he decides to make his own! The pesto is very easy to make which a few ingredients and a food processor – basil, garlic, salt and pepper, pine nuts, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese. But the hubby’s pesto has a handful of baby spinach added into it which provide the rich gorgeous green to the pesto, and with a little additional of fresh squeeze lemon juice to avoid the bitter tart of spinach. The hubby’s pesto came out very nice and very very tasty!

As we’re dipping in with pita chips we bought from store, I am thinking that I could add this pesto into the crab meat, fill in the wonton wrappers, and fry them for appetizers, voila! Let’s do it!

 

 

 

These crispy crab pockets are the easy version of crab Rangoon, if you will, but lighter without cream cheese. For the dipping sauce, you can whip up any of your favorite dipping sauce but I thought that Thai sweet chili sauce would be perfect for this. Since the crab and the pesto mixture is very tasty and more of the salty side, the Thai sweet chili sauce could help balance it down a little – and it sure does!

What you need:   make 16-18 pieces

6 oz. crab meat
3 tbsp. basil pesto – homemade or store bought
2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
18 wonton wrappers

1-2 cups vegetable oil for frying
Thai sweet chili sauce for dipping

*** 10-20 leaves crispy fried Basil leaf – optional - see notes below

How to:

- In the medium bowl, gently mix together crab meat, basil pesto, and Parmesan cheese for the filling
- Fill each wonton wrapper with 1 heaping tablespoon of the crab filling in the center and dap little water around the edges of the wonton wrapper, fold up all the four corners of the wrappers to meet in the middle and press them together. Continue with the rest and put the crab pockets in the fridge for 5 minutes before frying
- Set the oil in the frying pan over low heat and wait until the oil is hot
- Fry 3 or 4 or 5 of crab pockets each time (depends on your frying pan size) until they turn slightly golden – be really careful on this step because the wonton wrapper can burn easily if the oil got too hot.  Continue frying the pockets until finish.
- Serve warm with Thai sweet chili sauce or sauce of your choice

***If you want to add crispy fried basil, you can fry basil leaves first before frying the crab pockets.  It only takes seconds to fry basil leaves. but be careful though when frying fresh basil leaves because the oil will splash like crazy!!!

Enjoy!

 

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