[upbeat music] - So today I am making devil crab, which has been one of my favorite crab recipes my whole life.

So the base of a devil crab starts with some sauteed vegetables, and I'm gonna cook those in butter.

And to that I'm gonna add three things.

The first is some finely diced sweet red bell pepper.

And the reason I diced it so small is so that it will cook and fit in perfectly with the texture of the crab that comes later.

And then we have some crunchy celery.

And then this is a little bit of finely chopped scallion, what some of us call green onions.

That's all that goes in now, except for a little pinch of salt, which is going to encourage these vegetables to release their juices and start turning tender.

So just let this hang out and then we'll be ready to add the rest of the stuff.

So now I'm gonna finish this filling and I'm gonna start with an ingredient that's part of the reason we call this devil crab.

This is good yellow mustard.

So in addition to that mustard, I just put in plenty of black pepper and some good cayenne for a bit of that devilish kick.

And now I have some mayo.

So this is bound a little bit like a crab salad, just so it'll hold its shape in those shells.

And then I have grated hard cooked egg.

Now some recipes call for raw egg, but traditional recipes for this dish, which has been around for a long time, call for these grated hard cooked eggs and that's exactly what I did.

So I wanna stir this in and then next for some flavor and a little bit of salt and lots of tradition, are crushed salty cracker crumbs.

They make a great instant bread crumb and it's very common in old fashioned recipes like this.

And it works and tastes great.

And then for another boost of flavor, we're gonna put in Worcestershire sauce.

And just that quickly, we have the base that is ready for the star ingredient, crab meat.

This is lump crab meat.

Now I purchased this chilled and ready to use, and it has been cooked because they actually steam the crabs to pick the meat.

And you'll notice that I am being careful with this crab meat.

Those lumps are beautiful things and we paid a premium to get them.

So you don't wanna stir so vigorously that you are breaking that up.

And already this is ready to go in our crab shells.

So now I'm gonna fill my crab shells.

Yes, we are using perfectly cleaned, gorgeous crab shells as our baking vessel.

Now you're going to be able to find these in a lot of the seafood markets that sell fresh crab.

And look what we're doing.

We're just taking our filling and mounding it up inside these shells.

Now if for some reason you can't find these shells, fear not, just use a shallow baking dish or a ramekin, it'll taste just as good.

Won't look as cute, but it will taste fantastic.

So that's it, we are just going to fill these shells and I am placing these on a parchment lined baking sheet to make it easy to move them in and out of the oven.

I love how this looks.

You know, you could just about eat this as crab salad, but when they turn golden brown in the oven.

I often make these instead of crab cakes because the flavor and the texture are similar, but there's less breading and you get that beautiful crab meat flavor, comes shining through.

I have here some more cracker crumbs.

We talked about the beauty of cracker crumbs.

So that is just melted butter.

Stir those crumbs until it's coated with that butter.

And then with a spoon, or what I do, my fingers, look what we're doing here.

We're putting that final little crowning touch on each one of our deviled crabs.

And voila, just like this, we have our stuffed crab shells ready to go in the oven.

Oh my, would you look at this.

Are they not delightful?

They're golden brown on top, they're gently warmed through, and I must take a bite.

Look, crabs even provide their own helper handle over to the plate.

I'm gonna take a tiny bit of fresh lemon, 'cause we know how good a little bit of citrus is with seafood.

And let me take a bite.

I can see the crab meat in there, that lump, those golden crumbs, those devilish spices.

Mm.

Guys, that is so good.

The crab is coming through, but it's interesting.

This recipe belongs in your collection of great crab dishes.

Devil crab, it's a keeper.

[cheerful music] [upbeat music]