As a kid, I loved the crab claw cocktail at Don’s Seafood and Steakhouse in Beaumont, Texas. My take on this childhood favorite seems so right for a Gulf Coast party: It’s easy to make ahead, is light and refreshing, and highlights the glorious blue crab that inhabits the Gulf Coast. Finding fresh crab claws can be tough if you are not at the beach during crab season, but they’re available canned, and they taste almost as good as fresh. Make sure you are getting the meat with the little claw attached, so they can be plucked out of the marinade and eaten. Here in Texas they’re called crab meat fingers.

　　

Ingredients

serves 12 as an appetizer

　　1 medium yellow onion, halved crosswise and thinly sliced

　　1 red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced

　　1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced

　　6 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tablespoons)

　　1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 medium lemons)

　　1/4 cup red wine vinegar

　　1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, or 2 teaspoons fresh, chopped

　　1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

　　1 teaspoon kosher salt

　　1 teaspoon seafood seasoning (such as Paul Prudhomme’s Seafood Magic)

　　2 (16-ounce) cans pasteurized blue crabmeat fingers

　　Toasted or plain sourdough baguette slices, for serving (optional)

　　

Step 1

In a large bowl, combine the onion, bell peppers, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, oregano, oil, salt, and seafood seasoning. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Add the crab claws and gently stir them in. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to let the flavors meld. This is best if marinated overnight. Remove the cocktail from the refrigerator about 1 hour before serving. Just before serving, stir gently to mix all the ingredients. Serve with sliced baguettes, lightly toasted or not, as your mood strikes.

　　

do it early

Step 2

This recipe can be made up to 1 day in advance, covered, and refrigerated.

　　Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Copyright © 2009 Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Published by Ten Speed Press. All Rights Reserved.A pastry chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, native Texan Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, Rather Sweet has a fiercely loyal cadre of regulars who populate the café’s sunlit tables each day. In 2007, Rebecca opened her eponymous restaurant, serving dinner nightly, just a few blocks from the café.  Rebecca is the author of THE PASTRY QUEEN, and has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Chocolatier, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t in the bakery or on horseback, Rebecca enjoys the sweet life in Fredericksburg, where she tends to her beloved backyard garden and menagerie, and eagerly awaits visits from her college-age daughter, Frances.Alison Oresman has worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. She has written and edited for newspapers in Wyoming, Florida, and Washington State. As an entertainment editor for the Miami Herald, she oversaw the paper’s restaurant coverage and wrote a weekly column as a restaurant critic. After settling in Washington State, she also covered restaurants in the greater Seattle area as a critic with a weekly column. A dedicated home baker, Alison is often in the kitchen when she isn't writing. Alison lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Warren, and their children, Danny and Callie.