Recipe: Ybor City / Carmine's Style Deviled Crab - 3 recipes

As a previous poster noted, Ybor City style deviled crab is VERY distinct from deviled crab cakes. While Carmine's hasn't given up their secret, here are some suitable recipes!

YBOR CITY STYLE DEVILED CRAB
Columbia Restaurant

CROQUETTE DOUGH:
3 loaves stale white bread, crusts removed
1 loaf stale Cuban bread, ground very fine and sifted
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt

CRAB MEAT FILLING:
5 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
3 onions, finely chopped
1/2 red or green bell pepper, finely chopped (Italian style)
4 cloves garlic, mashed or chopped fine
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 can (6 ounce size) tomato paste
1 pound fresh claw crab meat, shell and cartilage removed, shredded

CROQUETTES:
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup milk
salt, to taste
1 pinch black pepper
1 cup cracker crumbs, crushed
1/2 cup flour
vegetable oil, for deep frying

About 4 hours before serving, make dough: Break white bread into pieces; place in a large bowl, cover with water, soak 15 minutes. Drain water and squeeze soaked bread until almost dry; return to bowl.

Gradually add sifted Cuban bread until mixture reaches dough consistency. Add paprika and salt, mix thoroughly. Form dough into ball, refrigerate about 2 hours.

Fry very slowly in oil, onions, green pepper, red hot pepper, garlic for 15 minutes. Add Bay leaves, sugar, salt and tomato paste. Stir then cover and cook 15 minutes on low heat. Add crab meat and cook 10 minutes, uncover put on platter in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Take about 3 tablespoons of the bread dough and press in your hand, put a tablespoon of crab filling on dough, then seal like a croquette with 2 pointed ends. Dip into the following mixture : 2 Beaten eggs with 1/2 cup milk. salt and dash of black pepper. Mix 1 cup cracker meal and 1/2 cup flour. Roll croquettes first in cracker/flour mix, then in the eggs and again in cracker/flour mix. Put in refrigerator for 2 hours. Fry in deep fat until brown.
We have used 1/2 real crab and 1/2 imitation to save cost. Also once fried you can freeze and heat in the microwave or oven.

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CROQUETAS DE JAIBAS, ESTILO YBOR
(YBOR CITY'S DEVILED CRABS)

DOUGH:
2 day-old loaf white bread
1 teaspoon salt
1 lb fine breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon paprika
CRAB MIXTURE:
1⁄4 cup olive oil
1 large bermuda onion, finely chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1⁄2 teaspoon sugar
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 pinch nutmeg
1 lb white crab meat (canned, fresh or frozen)
1 ounce dry sherry

DOUGH:
The dough must be prepared and refrigerated, preferably overnight. Remove crust from bread; soak in water for 1/2 hour. Drain and squeeze thoroughly. Add paprika and salt. Add the bread crumbs and work to form a dough, place in refrigerator to chill thoroughly.

CRAB MEAT FILLING:
Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Saute the onion and green pepper until transparent. Add the garlic and saute all until soft.Combine salt, hot sauce, sugar, bay leaf, parsley, tomato sauce and the nutmeg. Add to saute and mix well. Cover and simmer for 1/2 hr (add water if needed during cooking time). Add the crab meat and sherry. Mix well and cook covered another 10 minute Cool and refrigerate.

PREPARATION OF THE CROQUETTES:
Remove dough and filling from refrigerator.Take 2 generous tablespoons Of dough in palm of your left hand. Indent with the back of a spoon in the center enough to fill with a tablespoons Of crab meat filling. Work dough around filling to form a croquette.

Prepare a mixture of 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons Of water, salt and pepper and beat. vigorously. In a bowl, combine 1 cup of seasoned bread crumbs with 1/2 cup of all purpose flour. Mix well. Dip croquettes first in the egg mixture, then roll in the crumb flour mixture to coat well. Place croquettes side by side in a shallow dish. Cover with Saran Wrap or foil and refrigerate at least 1 hour before frying in deep fat.(Make sure you have lots of your favorite red pepper sauce available to pour onto them, it makes them even more delicious.).

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SEABREEZE RESTAURANT'S DEVIL CRAB
From: Seabreeze By The Bay Cookbook

Instead of frying, these can also be baked, turning them over several times to brown evenly.

SAUCE:
1 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced green or red pepper
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
7 oz. tomato puree
7 oz. tomato paste
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
2 pounds of blue crab claw meat, fresh or frozen
STUFFING:
1 Italian baguette
1 loaf of Cuban bread
Italian seasoned bread crumbs, plus additional for dredging
1 1/2 tablespoons crushed red pepper
Water
Vegetable oil for frying

SAUCE:
Finely dice the onion, pepper, garlic and celery in a blender or food processor. Add the vegetables to a large saute pan with the oil and the water and cook over very low heat for 1 hour until soft. Add in the tomato puree, tomato paste and red pepper flakes and cook on low heat for an additional hour, stirring often. Add the oregano and cook for 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool.

Flake the crabmeat into a large bowl and make sure to pick it over for any small pieces of shell. Add sauce gradually until the mixture is moist and holds together. Refrigerate the mixture until ready to cook.

Tear the bread up and put it all into a big bowl. Add enough water to moisten the bread and then mash it all together until it has a loose, doughy consistency. Add in the red pepper and then add enough bread crumbs to form a dough with a biscuit consistency.

In a Dutch Oven heat 2-inches of oil to 330 degrees F.

In 3 separate bowls: place stuffing in the first bowl, crab mixture in the second and additional bread crumbs in the third. Scoop up a handful of dough and drop it into the bread crumbs and roll lightly and form it into a 4-inch circle. Place a heaping tablespoon of crab filling right in the center and then bring the edges up and around it. Close up the seams. Roll the deviled crab in bread crumbs again and place on a plate.

Fry the cakes in batches for 7 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with hot sauce.

Here's a description of the former owners of the Seabreeze making their Devil Crab:
"Restless in his retirement, Robert makes the crab sauce for Donna, who rolls, packages and sells the rolls. Robert begins with a sofrito of olive oil, onion, bell pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes, then adds tomato puree, tomato paste and oregano. The sauce comes out thick, designed to permeate the crab and help bind it. Some of the cooked onions and peppers are combined with bread crumbs to form the crust. Once the crab is "painted" with ample sauce, it's ready for rolling. When rolling, Donna first "washes" her hands in dry bread crumbs to "season" them. She then takes a mashed disc of dough and forms it around the crab meat. Unlike most Seabreeze rollers, she uses extra dough, pinching the excess off at the top end of the croquette. A few gentle rolls between her hands with some extra bread crumbs and the devil crab is ready for frying or freezing."